PowerBook 160 - Display works on one system; not the other

[alexhoopes]

Hey everyone!

I have a PowerBook 160 that is not giving me any display suddenly.

I have already recapped this screen and it was working fine for a few months so I pulled out one of my other 160’s and sure enough it works perfectly fine on it…

Any ideas what I need to start looking into on the system that gets no display?

The complete top was removed and tested so it doesn’t seem to be any of the boards that are directly part of the display.

Thanks for any insight!

System 1 (broken):
View attachment IMG_6304.jpeg


System 2 (working):
View attachment IMG_6303.jpeg

 

[alexhoopes]

Update: swapping the daughterboard from working laptop into broken brings the screen to life.

Broken system’s daughterboard moved into working system, no display.

Issue seems to be the daughtercard. What should I check on it/what do I need to start probing to figure out what broke?

 

[demik]

If the daughtercard is this one

Then there is high chances that the ribbon cable is broken

 

[luRaichu]

Then there is high chances that the ribbon cable is broken

How to repair a Powerbook 140-180 interconnect cable

This guide shows the process for a PowerBook 160/165/180, but it should be similar for a 140/145/170. The main difference is that the earlier PowerBooks have a narrower 50(?)-pin connector rather than 72-pin on the later ones. I carried out this repair on two of my interconnect boards after...

68kmla.org

You can use an 80-conductor Ultra ATA cable