Hey everyone,
So I’m currently working on a macintosh portable M5120 (Non backlight) repair.
When I first started the machine was completely dead… I started of course with replacing all capacitors, after doing that the mac seemed to come alive, it chimed, however the screen had all kind of lines and no sign of any clear video.
So next up, as I have another portable, I decided to swap the screen. With the screen from the other portable, it came alive. Asking for the disk. Clear as day picture, no weird behavior or contrast (this is important for later)
Next up I opened up the screen assembly, Taking a first look, nothing immediately seemed wrong, I took out the LCD and pointed my attention to the two capacitors on the back, both measuring out of spec, and thus I also replaced those.
When wanting to put it back together to start testing, I noticed that the display cable looked brittle, upon closer inspection it clearly had three or four cable rows that were broken… So I went and try to repair it by stripping back the cables, soldering them back together to at least give me a temporary cable to test with.
I connected to display back to the portable motherboard to test it, and at first it didn’t seem to give any video, there were no more lines but the entire screen was active, like a high contrast full black image. However when I looked at the display at an angle with a bright light, I saw that there was actually an image, I could see the flashing question mark!
But that’s kinda where I’m stuck right now, I think my cable repair might not have been a complete success, but at least there is some kind of image. The high contrast doesn’t seem like a motherboard issue as the other display was perfectly fine, yet I don’t fully know if the issue is with the cable (more likely to me) or with the LCD/LCD board…
Anyhow I probably need a replacement cable, I seem to only be able to find replacements for the backlit model…
I was wondering if anyone might know where to find a replacement cable, or possibly how to make one myself (suitable flat cables with right pitch and flexibility/stranded wire). If you have any other suggestions, let me know!
Thanks in advance!
So I’m currently working on a macintosh portable M5120 (Non backlight) repair.
When I first started the machine was completely dead… I started of course with replacing all capacitors, after doing that the mac seemed to come alive, it chimed, however the screen had all kind of lines and no sign of any clear video.
So next up, as I have another portable, I decided to swap the screen. With the screen from the other portable, it came alive. Asking for the disk. Clear as day picture, no weird behavior or contrast (this is important for later)
Next up I opened up the screen assembly, Taking a first look, nothing immediately seemed wrong, I took out the LCD and pointed my attention to the two capacitors on the back, both measuring out of spec, and thus I also replaced those.
When wanting to put it back together to start testing, I noticed that the display cable looked brittle, upon closer inspection it clearly had three or four cable rows that were broken… So I went and try to repair it by stripping back the cables, soldering them back together to at least give me a temporary cable to test with.
I connected to display back to the portable motherboard to test it, and at first it didn’t seem to give any video, there were no more lines but the entire screen was active, like a high contrast full black image. However when I looked at the display at an angle with a bright light, I saw that there was actually an image, I could see the flashing question mark!
But that’s kinda where I’m stuck right now, I think my cable repair might not have been a complete success, but at least there is some kind of image. The high contrast doesn’t seem like a motherboard issue as the other display was perfectly fine, yet I don’t fully know if the issue is with the cable (more likely to me) or with the LCD/LCD board…
Anyhow I probably need a replacement cable, I seem to only be able to find replacements for the backlit model…
I was wondering if anyone might know where to find a replacement cable, or possibly how to make one myself (suitable flat cables with right pitch and flexibility/stranded wire). If you have any other suggestions, let me know!
Thanks in advance!
