View Full Version : My iBook must hate me...

Jan 2, 2006, 02:04 AM
Ok guyz, I've got a problem...

My iBook G4 suddenly decided it didn't want to cooperate anymore. I first started noticing problems with it's ability to hold a charge...just didn't seem like the battery lasted anywhere near as long as it used to. And then suddenly, tonight I was using it at my desk while the AC adapter was plugged in and I heard this "click" sound and the screen goes dark...it's still kind of lit up, not pitch black, but you can't see anything from any angle. Thinking at first that it had gone to sleep, I tried the trackpad and the keys...nothing. So I shut it down and restarted...booted back up just fine. So I thought, "Just a quirk". Barely a minute after that, the screen goes dark again. I tried rebooting several times to no avail. So I tried resetting the PRAM, then the PMU, booting with and without the battery,etc... Will boot sometimes, but most of the time (9 out of 10), the fan just starts blazing when I hit the power button and I don't hear any of the customary boot-up "sounds"...no chime...nothing. I managed to boot it up long enough to connect it to my PowerMac to get some of my stuff off of it but shortly after, it went out again. I'm just at a loss...it worked pretty much perfectly until today...never had a problem with it before. I've tried what I can, but seeing as I can hardly do anything with it before the screen goes out, I can't really try much. I've been tinkering around with it for the last 3 hours (it's 2 in the morning) Any ideas? :confused:

Jan 2, 2006, 02:11 AM
Ok guyz, I've got a problem...

My iBook G4 :

What rev of ibook? 800 900 1.07 1.2 1.33 1.42? 12 or 14"?

Other than that it sounds like a logic board or perhaps dc in board failure? Can you set it to target mode? Under warranty still? Do you have an applecare disc? Can you repair permissions under target mode or repair disc or do a hardware test while hooked up to your other computer?

Jan 2, 2006, 02:16 AM
12" iBook G4 800

Unfortunately I can't try the target disk mode as I don't have a firewire cable at hand and on top of that, I'm lucky if I can start the iBook and get something other than the fan going at high speed

mad jew
Jan 2, 2006, 04:56 AM
Give fsck (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214) a try if you haven't already. It's sounding like a logic board problem but hopefully I'm wrong. Take out third party RAM where applicable, just to rule that out too (although I really doubt this is a RAM problem). :)

Jan 2, 2006, 05:03 AM
It's undoubtedly a hardware issue. It seems to be the logic board, but there might also be some backlight issues involved with the screen. Nevertheless, you're looking at a potentially expensive repair if you've not got AppleCare. If you need the data off of the machine, you can always rip the hard drive out (painful though that can be for an iBook). You're going to have to take it to an Apple Authorized Service Provider to have it repaired.

Jan 2, 2006, 05:29 AM
Your iBook might qualify for the iBook logic board repair extension programme (http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/faq/) - check the serial number.

Jan 2, 2006, 08:05 AM
Being that his iBook is a G4 model, rather than a G3, it definitely does not qualify.