Beat up iBook 12"

[Cosmo]

Got today from a colleque an beat-up iBook 12" 1.2Ghz who was about to thow it away!

The machine is bit scratcy but just fine display, has no powersupply, has no harddisk, the screen-lid hinge is missing, the left-cursor key is missing.

I used 10.4 installation CD to take a look of the hardware specs. It has 512Mb RAM, cd-rw-drive, bluetooth. It has no airport, oddly everymac.com states it should have it as standard. I had same model many years ago and it had airport for sure. It might be removed when the harddisc was removed.. I haven't yet opened the machine so i don't know yet what else might be missing :lol: Oh, the trackpad don't seem to work, might be loose/missing cable after the "opening up".

If the internal parts are there, i just need to take a look and find ATA harddisc, the cursor key cap, airport card and maybe the trackpad cable.

It's so convinient size for a laptop!

Edit: Seems to be iBook G4 (Early 2004)-model wich seems to be missing from everymac.com

Edit2: There is an airport card inside! I took a quick peek inside as the matter was bothering me. No time to further open this machine tonight however.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

I still use a 12" iBook/1.33. That and the 12" PowerBook G4 are delightful and still reasonably practical, but I find the iBook more durable because of the polycarbonate case (I can just buff out scratches and so on).

 

[Cosmo]

Might not be opened up at all as the Airport card was inside. Who knows, maybe the HD just have died.

Gotta look for cheap ATA-harddisc now and clean the whole machine while it's open.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Ugh. Replacing the hard disk in the iBooks is tough. I actually destroyed one trying to get the topcase off, so be very careful.

 

[Cosmo]

Find an 80GB ATA-drive, need to check if it works using USB-docking station. Might get some parts from a friend if there's broken parts inside (let's hope not). Luckily the ifixit.com repair-manual is quite good, just need to reserve quite a bit of time for the project...

 

[mcdermd]

I don't know if anyone else does this but often I'll print out the ifixit instructions then tape the screws to their circles on the page as I go. That way nothing gets lost and I don't lose track of which screw goes where.

 

[Cosmo]

mcdermd, that's an excellent idea! I was wondering how to keep track on the screws on iBook as there are... many! I'll sure print the instructions at work tomorrow.

 

[quinterro]

I normally draw a quick diagram of the screw locations of a laptop and tape them on as I go. Helps a lot.

 

[Cosmo]

I got yesterday from a friend an motherboard-bead iBook G4 12" 800mhz model for spare parts, so i used it as a practice model. Most of the screws from the bottom were missing already so it was bit faster to open up. If really needed, can use some spare parts later, display, plastic parts, power connector board (if it works). HD, memory, airport were all removed.

The opening up is not that bad, just slow that's all.

 

[Dog Cow]

I use an egg carton and number the egg slots with a pen. Then, I have a 3.5" card that has an index mapping of:

[carton slot] - [screw size]

The screw sizes are all the colored circles listed and shown on the iFixIt pages. All same-sized screws go into the same egg slot.

This is my system that I like quite well.