In need of an opinion ASAP, my iBook is acting weird!

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Ok, so I bought a used iBook (probably my first mistake,) and it's been acting quite strangely (as if what I've encountered could be the norm!) It was smooth sailing for the first 2 days I had my computer, but it is now day three, and my iBook decided it'd be cute to play dead. I was browsing the web and listening to some songs in iTunes when all of a sudden my screen starts flickering on and off! I was really scared so I just turned off the laptop (probably my second mistake.) I really got scared when I went to turn it back on and NOTHING happened... ok, the fans and the HD came on, I got sound, and the "caps lock" button lit up... but that's all. So I turned it off, and on again... same thing. So, I did it a few more times until the start-up screen finally came on...but then froze and turned black. At this point I tried to see if it would sleep, and it didn't. In fact, when I shut the lid, the screen stayed lit and the apple logo stayed lit as well. Ok, so now I'm pretty ticked off, so I leave it alone for awhile, figuring it just over-heated, and I come back to it in about 5 minutes (ok, so I was paranoid..) Well, same thing happened... But then I tried again and everything booted up like normal... I figured I had better repair permissions, so I did that and turned it off and on again to see if it would be better. Guess what! NOTHING happened, just like before... So I'm pretty POed at this point so I slam the laptop down (mistake 3) and watched TV to cool down. Later that day I managed to get it to come on again, so when it did, I reinstalled Mac OS X completely. Wiped out everything and put a fresh install on. It seems to be okay now, but man, what the heck happened? Initially, I thought it was the logic board failing... I'm not sure what it was, but it seems to be fixed. Does anyone have ANY idea what happened? It was pretty scary!
 
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Could just have been the PMU acting up.. maybe try resetting that, just to be safe...
What iBook model is it?
Check the instant fixes thread at the top of this forum to see how to reset the PMU on G4 iBooks...
 
T

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Is it a new iBook? If so Apple will probably replace it for you if you phone them up and let them know the situation.
 
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it's a used g3 ibook 800mhz/640mb ram OS X 10.2. It seems to be doing it again... this isn't too good.
 
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JBarbier said:
it's a used g3 ibook 800mhz/640mb ram OS X 10.2. It seems to be doing it again... this isn't too good.

Look on Apples web site and see if your S/N falls into the logic board replacement repair extension program. You have 3 years from the date the computer was first bought. This program covers just the issue you're experiencing now. Here's the link.

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

If your ibook falls in the parameters of the repair program, give them a call and make sure you specify that it's exibiting failures outlined in the repair program. The Dorks tried to tell me I had to pay $50 just to talk to them. The dude was a real PITA. I hung up on him, called back and got another person, and it sailed right through like warm butter. Sometimes you just have to find the right person to talk to.

ed724
 
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I don't think I'm entitled to a repair since I bought it used, with no receipt. The guy I bought it from doesn't have one either. Could the logic board have failed because of internal shakage during transit? If so, I might be entitled to a refund via USPS insurance.
 
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JBarbier said:
I don't think I'm entitled to a repair since I bought it used, with no receipt. The guy I bought it from doesn't have one either. Could the logic board have failed because of internal shakage during transit? If so, I might be entitled to a refund via USPS insurance.

You don't need a receipt. They never ask for one. They look up the S/N and see when it was registered or sold by the retailer. It's worth a try in any case. No way to tell if shipping caused the problem unless it's disassembled. Was it packaged properly?
Any damage to the container when you got it? I think you're going to have a real hard time making a claim with USPS. The problem you're experiencing is associated with a bad wiring harness and or MB connector.

ed724
 
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I don't suppose you can return it to the seller?
If you ebayed it, you might as this was almost certainly already an issue before you got it.
 
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Aptmunich said:
I don't suppose you can return it to the seller?
If you ebayed it, you might as this was almost certainly already an issue before you got it.
Well, I don't think this was the case because I bought it from a friend's friend (my friend used the computer before as well, and he was the one that always helped his friend when she had problems) and he wouldn't have let me buy it if he knew something was wrong. Believe me, he would have known something was wrong because he would have been the first person the girl went to when/if she had a problem... I talked to a guy at macfriends.com here in Lafayette, LA and he said that he'll try to hook me up, so we'll see.
 
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Ok cool...

If it was a logic board problem though, I doubt this would have occurred during transport...
Hope it works out!
 

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