iBook G4 Hardware Failure

[Dog Cow]

I've got a late 2004 iBook G4, 14" with 1.33 GHz clock and 60 GB disk. It appears to have been manufactured in early 2005. I upgraded its RAM with a 1 GB module over a month ago.

About 3 weeks ago, it had a video failure, the kind where the fan runs and the screen goes solid red, blue, green, gray, etc. This happened about 2 or 3 times in a few days, and I was able to "fix" it by pressing on the case.

Then, it happened again, and I was not able to correct the problem. Powering on the iBook resulted in a screen totally black, with no chime or further activity. I decided to open up the iBook and take a look. I read most all of the online guides that said to press down on a certain small chip on the bottom of the motherboard. I did this, and the only effect it had was to get the iBook into the fans-running-color-shift-screen state.

I have not done any soldering work on the iBook.

For reference, my iBook appears to have the problem mentioned on this page, and though I have tried the solutions, nothing has worked so far.

I'm looking for suggestions on what to try next. :?:

 

[techknight]

video IC needs a reflow ;-)

 

[Dog Cow]

Took a closer look last evening. Pin was loose. Finally got it to boot ok. Still unstable, though. Will be learning soldering this week!

 

[Dog Cow]

Some more details for the curious:

I should have known that I was on to something when pressing that IC (known as the Vreg, located under the DC-in power cable) would change the state of the machine from "on-but-seemingly-dead" to "on-with-fan-blowing-and-screen-flashing."

I hadn't thought to look closer, with strong lights and a magnifying glass to examine the pins. Sure enough, I did that last evening, and I probed the pins with a small screwdriver. Very closely, I could see that pin 28 was partially (totally?) disconnected, and would move about. This is apparently the power pin to the IC, and when the iBook was on, making a short between this pin and its neighbor produced a spark (did this twice, not fatal to iBook).

I did some more "tamping down" the best that I could, and I did manage to get the iBook to chime, and boot to the login screen as I have it configured. It is still unstable. That pin is still loose, and sometimes it will come undone when the iBook is on, meaning that the screen will go to black.

I actually had this black screen symptom twice, about 5-6 weeks ago, and I thought it was odd. The iBook would always sleep when I didn't use it, and I thought it odd that it had "died in its sleep." Well, I think now that the pin was working its way loose, and it wasn't until 4 weeks ago that things got really serious.

Anywho, I'm off to ye olde local Radioshack to buy my first-ever soldering kit. Hopefully I'll have better luck than with the white G3 iBook.

 

[Dog Cow]

I got back from the Radio Shack with a new solder iron ($ 8) and combination spunge/iron holder, also ($ 8) .

I've never done a solder before, but I stripped down the iBook, let the iron heat up, and prodded the loose pins on the problem IC. I'm not sure how good the reflow was, but I'm typing this reply on the iBook right now, running 1 hour, 30 minutes without a restart. For a 6-years-old machine, this is still a really competent laptop.

Thanks for the help, everyone!

 

[Bunsen]

Hey congrats - not only your first ever solder, but surface mount rework at that!

 

[Dog Cow]

Well, it lasted some days, but is back to the original state. :'(

Looks like a reflow didn't do the trick. I've got to get some solder and apply some solder to the joint. I'll get to that later this week.

I'll have this iBook working, one way or another! ;D

 

[Mk.558]

My iBook G3 900MHz 32VRAM gets a similar case of powering off sometimes when it is bumped a bit, usually with the battery only power. Then again a couple of days ago I must have dropped some of my steel and aluminum plate on it, becuase now the screen is cracked.

I like the simple, plain design, but it feels very fragile. I might get rid of it -- it actually does not have the video chip issue at the moment. Of course the video chip issue carried on into the G4 iBooks but Apple doing what Apple does, denies it.

 

[Dog Cow]

Good news: managed to buy some solder at RadioShack

Bad news: managed to solder two pins together

I'm going to have the repair job done by a professional tomorrow. It will require a solder-sucker, precision tools, and more experience than I have.

 

[Dog Cow]

Good news: I got a "Graybeard" at the physics department to help desolder the mess that I made two nights ago. He fixed it. The iBook now chimes and starts...

Bad news: sometime in the past 3 days, the hard disk failed. It's not spinning like it should be. Therefore, I get the folder icon on screen. Fortunately, this will be comparatively easy to fix.

(Man, it's like one thing after another!)

 

[Dog Cow]

Wow, it's been a long time. I finally got around to disassembling the iBook again, yesterday. I took the hard drive out of the holder, powered on the iBook, then knocked the disk mechanism against the desk. Just one knock. The iBook booted up as usual.

Running 23:58:45 without a restart.

 

[trag]

Generally, when one resolders a joint like the pin on your iBook's IC, one should first remove the old solder, then clean the joint, possibly add a bit of rosin based flux and then resolder the joint. Oh, and then clean any flux residue.

Having your graybeard desolder the two shorted pins probably got you pretty close to the full procedure.

I find that removing solder is much easier with ample liquid flux and desoldering braid, than with a vacuum based desoldering tool. However, I also find that the desoldering braid sold at Radio Shack is almost unusable. I like the Chemtronics brand available from Digi-Key.

 

[Dog Cow]

I find that removing solder is much easier with ample liquid flux and desoldering braid, than with a vacuum based desoldering tool.

That's what we used. Mostly the copper braid, though, since our vacuum de-solderer had too large a tip.