My iBook G4 has died . . .

Question

Hi, I think I know the answer to this, or fear I do, but here is my query. I've had my iBook about four and a half years and it's always worked great. Just recently the optical drive packed in. Then when I tried to boot up it would freeze. Now I just get the blue screen of death. I had a local computer guy look at it and he was quoting me £700 to fix it (new superdrive, new logic board) and told me to throw it away and get a new one. I'd rather not do that because it's got loads of stuff on the hard drive and I really like using it. Has he quoted me the right amount? Or is there anything else I can do?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

If your screen is flickering, it could be the inverter board or cable instead of the logic board. Try an external display and see if the problem persists. If it does, run the Apple Hardware Test and see if you get an error code which would indicate a failing video chip on the logic board. If this is the case, it would require a replacement chip as well as a reball to fix.
However, if the external display is fine, then the video chip is likely OK. But there could still be a problem with the internal display in the form of a problem with the inverter cable or board.
Chips are held to the logic board by a ball grid array, which can fail over time. Reballing means sending the board to a specialist to have the ball grid array replaced. I sent my logic board to Superior Reball last fall for a reball, and got it back and it has worked perfectly ever since.
http://www.superiorreball.com/
The best thing to do is to research "logic board shim" on this forum, as there is a great deal written about making a home made shim which will exert pressure on the chip in question and cause it to make better contact and work again. If the shim makes the problem go away, then the logic board will be a good candidate for a reball. Making and installing the shim is a good way to test that the chip itself is working, but that it is not well connected to the logic board.
However, if your display problems are actually caused by the inverter cable or board, fixing the logic board with a reball won't necessarily fix the display problems.
It's also possible that when you replaced the hard drive, you didn't seat one of the connectors fully. That would be something to check before doing anything else.
Good luck!