12-11-2005, 08:57 PM

I've got an ibook g3 900 that has been working just great for almost two years now. This morning my wife tells me its broken. Sure enough, when I try to start it up, I get a startup chime and nothing else. I made sure the brightness was turned up and tried pinging it to see if it was responding on the network. No luck. Here's what I tried so far and the results:

-ibook does the startup chime, but then there is no sign of activity
-PRAM reset didn't help
-PMU reset got the system to boot but there were horizontal flickering lines, which turned to a garbled screen
-Quick Apple Hardware test and Extended Hardware test showed now problems.
-Rebooted again, and this time the system booted up OK, but the trackpad and USB mice did not work at all
-rebooted again. Was never able to get anything more than a startup chime, even after multiple PMU and PRAM resets

PMU reset sometimes results in a low tone that sounds like an error tone. When this happens, the LED sleep light rapidly flashes and then nothing happens.

This sounds like a case of a logic board gone bad from what I've read at

http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/faq/

Is the repair program still going on? If not, I should be OK because I've got a 3 year warranty with Microcenter. I think I'll go there - they are an AASP and should cover it either way.

Also, what does that error tone and rapidly flashing LED mean? I checked the apple KB and google, but couldn't find anything.

12-13-2005, 04:11 AM

I checked the service manual for our machine and it doesn't mention anything about the flickering light but the error tone may be in corelation with the ram try takeing the ram out and see what happens.
this is what apple suggest
1. verify that the display cables are seated properly
2. replace display
3. replace logicboard

It definatly sounds to me like you logic board is on the outs since the track pad started to not work after everthing you have done.

12-13-2005, 04:15 AM

sorry forgot to add this part. The REA program will only cover ibooks with serial numbers in the range UV117XXXXXX to UV342XXXXXX: and for a 3 years after the purchase date.

12-13-2005, 12:12 PM

Originally Posted by handnblndr

sorry forgot to add this part. The REA program will only cover ibooks with serial numbers in the range UV117XXXXXX to UV342XXXXXX: and for a 3 years after the purchase date.

I checked out Apple's page about the logic board replacement program. My ibook is in the range covered, and I bought it in Feb 2004, so I've got over a year left. I also got an extended warranty on it from Microcenter (where I bought it) instead of Apple Care since its supposed to cover accidental damage. That warranty is also good for three years from date of purchase. I'm not even going to mess with the RAM or display cables since this is covered and its likely not something I can fix without a logic board.

I took my laptop in for repair last night. It will be repaired, soon I hope, and it will be totally covered by Apple or Microcenter. The only bad news is depending on how busy they are, I could be without my ibook for anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks! Good thing I've got another Mac at home.