Ibook G4 - Major Hardware Problems!

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I'm going to try and keep it plain and simple with the most details I could possibly include. Thank you for your time in advance to whoever's going to read this.

Sitting here I have an iBook G4, 12-inch, 1.33 ghz processor, 40gb hd, 512 ram + airport.

I bought this laptop used, to find that when I try to reformat the pc, my discs just get spit out. Now I'm no expert with macs (not at all, never had opened one up, and even bother with them) but I had figured my optical drive had failed or just needed some major cleaning. I skipped the cleaning idea, and went out and bought a used optical drive off a site. The guy's logic board had failed, so he was selling a few individual parts that he felt he could re-sell. (I'm going to go a little bit further into the course of actions, by adding that the optical drive I had in my laptop has the model number CW-8124-C, I later found out that the one I was installing was a CW-8123-C)

Anyways let's go back to before. So I have this ifixit guide (http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/iBook-G4-12-Inch/Optical-Drive/83/15/) that one to be exact. I start off disambleming the ibook, no problems, being as it's the first time I did this I did scratch it a little bit here and there while removing the lower case, but it's ok. I finally get to my optical drive, where I realize the model number differences that I mentioned earlier. What I also noticed was that MY optical drive was the 2005 model, and not the 2004. Whatever, in need of a miracle, I said screw it, they should be compatible. The other problem I then ran into was with the ribbons.

My optical drive had a white ribbon, that connected to the logic board, and needed a clamp or whatever to lock it in place. It also had this funny looking chip-like thing just "glued" on the corner of it like you guys will see in the pictures that I will add after I'm done typing all this. This chip like thing connected to the logic board right on the bottom of where the keyboard connects. A little red and black cable. Alright back to my ribbon problem, the ribbon from the one I bought was orange, and at this point the ifixit guide just confused me, and the rest seemed pretty logical to me seeing as I've had experiences with PCs. (I know mac is a TOTAL other thing, yes, I realised lol). Anyhow, I analysed both of the optical drives I now had, and realised that both ribbons connected to the optical drive obviously. So on the "new" drive I had bought, I unplugged the orange ribbon, and put in the white one that I had unplugged from the old one (old as in the one that was "broken" from the start, even though I found out that it was a more modern version). I switch up the ribbons, but I notice I still have that little chip like thing just chilling on my old optical drive, I figure it serves a purpose and unglue it from the drive and put it on the one I was then installing. I plug in that red and black cabled connector, put in the white ribbon, clamp it up, start doing the steps backwards. I miss a few screws here and there as I notice I have a few extra left (I've heard this isn't really a big problem). I make sure their are no screws inside on the logic board, because I wouldn't need that happening.

I boot up the laptop. Wait for it guys..

The first boot I see if the laptop turns on, it does. Good. First difference I notice though is the little startup sound doesn't play. Perplexed, once I get to the login screen, I press the ovlume buttons, and I hear the noise they make when pressed. so I conclude that I didn't mess up with replugging the sound plug, since those buttons still make their noise. Something else is up.

All of a sudden though, the laptop goes into sleep mode, I take it out, nd the backlight is off (to what I just understood not to long ago from browsing the forum). I can barely see the login screen from an angle, and fiddling with the screen position. But before I get a good glimpse, it falls back into sleep mode. What's going on I say. I shut down by holding down the start button (I know it's not good for the laptop, but I had no choice). I put in an install disc and hold down c. I don't even hear the optical drive but I still know it's doing something. The disc stays in there longer than before when it would spit it out, and evidently it spits it out, but with a catch. The laptop shuts down. This happens a few times. And now the laptop just boots up, the screen is good, the loading part btw is a lot slower than before I messed with the laptop. Like it used to be a lot faster now the loading bar takes more time. Then I get to the login screen, and then it falls into sleep mode, backlight problems, etc, etc. I tried doing the firewire thing with another ibook of one of my buds, and the laptop reads the INSTALL DISC, but doesn't load it. (Oh yeah and I found out about this firewire stuff after I tampered with the laptop).

I presently have the laptop opened up, and will keep it like that until I get a response from my post.

Thank you guys for your time, I really appreciate it. I need to fix this baby, sell her, to pay off some big cell phone bills.

Here are a few pictures, for some extra details you guys might need.

[IMAGE TOO BIG AND BAD QUALITY TOMORROW WILL HAVE]

Alright so in my second attempt to opening this is up, which is the position I'm in right now. I shook the laptop lightly to make sure no screws where there and this came out? :S That was somewhere and I have no idea from where it came out of.

[IMAGE TOO BIG AND BAD QUALITY TOMORROW WILL HAVE]

This is that chip thingy I was talking to you guys about. I'll post pics from my actual digital camera and in the morning tomorrow.

[IMAGE TOO BIG AND BAD QUALITY TOMORROW WILL HAVE]

And thats the little red and black cable that it connects with to the logic board. I'll get once more a better pic tomorrow.

Oh yeah btw that chip thingy is ON the optical drive. In the corner as you guys can see.


Thanks again for reading man.
 
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Can't figure out a way to edit, but anyways. I need to pay my bills, I got lazy and forgot about this thread, but now I really need help.

Here are the pics :

5ybo9k8.jpg


This here is that little computer chip-like thing I was talking about found on the old optical drive. (This pic is of the one on the "new" one, that I still havn't taken out yet because I'm awaiting on a reply of what to do)

4u2t8cp.jpg


This is a pic of the little chip thingy, and where it connects to on the logic board with its cable.

4t8dl4l.jpg


This is a pic of that thing that came out of my ibook, when I gave it a little shaking while checking for nay extra screws.

--------------------------------------------------

My current situation:

The laptop is sitting next to me, open, and waiting for me to do something to it. This is the second time I opened it, and havn't bothered doing anything yet. My questions. Why was the pc acting up like that with the brightness and the likes, and going into sleep mode, is that optical drive compatible at all? Should I take it out, put in the old one, and then sell it as a working ibook with a broken optical drive (id reformat with that firewire way)

Anyways I'm in DESPERATE need of help. Thank you.
 
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I skimmed over your post (sorry, perhaps some cliff notes at the end? :)

Your logic board is probably causing you the sleep and weird startup issues. Try running the ASD or AHT to see if they detect anything wrong.

In the last picture, that piece goes over your hard drive and the 1 hole on the metal piece will get screwed in when you replace the top shield.

As for the drive compatibility... I'm not sure. Try it and see, worst that will happen is that it won't work. Transfer the chip over too. I believe it's a temp or RPM sensor.

Good Luck
 
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What's the ASD/AHT? And at the moment there is no optical drive that is working for me to put the install discs in or even use firewire via another ibook to go into the install discs.
 
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AHT would be the Apple Hardware Test which comes with the install discs. But as you don't have them, then you obviously can't run it. Other than taking it to an Apple store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider, you might be stuck.

Anyone else have any info?
 
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12" G3 ibook, 15" 1.67ghz powerbook, 15" 800mhz DVI powerbook
In over your head probably, but keep trying.

The small chip is the reed switch. It's job is to put your computer to sleep. This may or may not have anything to do with your symptoms, but you were correct in thinking that you needed to transfer this over. There is a chance that the switch was damaged in the process or somehow giving the computer a bad signal. You can test this by moving any magnet close to this chip. When you do so it will put your computer to sleep. It sounds though like your problem is that the computer is going to sleep a lot so maybe something for the narcolepsy is more important.

The background may be helpful down the line, but the basic symptoms are:

1) with Original Optical drive, CD not booting

2) backlight working intermittently after new optical drive installed, after boot

3) boot taking more time with new optical drive

4)


With the boot time going way up, I'm pretty sure you are having a hardware conflict with the new drive. Someone can correct me if i'm off base, but when the load time increases after a change of hardware, it probably means the computer is working to locate the hardware, figure out what it is and load drivers for it and probably failing every time.

Since a lot of Mac hardware is proprietary, it's not set up for swapping with near-exact stuff (at least in my experience). I'd put the original Optical Drive back in and see if the other problems go away. If you don't have a know good exact replacement and you are having problems, I'd remove it from the equation for right now.

If you do have access to another Mac, try looking at this page (http://lowendmac.com/misc/06/0710.html) which is talking about installing OS X through firewire instead of DVD.

Which begs the question: are you installing from DVD when the optical drive is only capable of reading CDs? Newer versions of OS X are on DVDs not CDs. That would spit things out quickly. Just checking.

Your description is fairly confusing, but it sounds like everything was working fine on the computer before you started, right? But that you wanted to reformat (and reinstall OS X presumably) the drive to get it ready to sell. So at baseline there were no problems right?

Could it read other CDs?

Did the rest of the system function properly?

You mentioned that "the laptop" reads the install disk but doesn't load it, which laptop were you talking about (sick one, or your friends) and when does it read it (while running OS or in hardware check on boot or at command prompt?).

I'd put the original optical drive back in, fire it back up and see if you can get back to where you started, which would mean no damage done. Then I would research these optical drives and see if they are an exact match. If they are, you might have 2 bad drives on your hands and you could still sell it with a broken drive for a good price.

But some specifics on what happens when in a more itemized or outlined style would help a lot. I hope this works out for you. I don't know if you should have banked on being able to fix such a complex device as a way to pay off bills, but I'm glad you went ahead and ripped into it anyway, because nothing but experience and education can come from it.
 
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Something clicked to me this morning, I took out some little very strong magnet from my ibook, and have been playing with it since lol. I realised it's probably th emagnet that triggers the reed switch.. Anyhow, can anyone tell me where it's supposed to go? And why my reed switch was on my optical drive, contrary to where most people have it. :S If so, where should my magnet be in that case or better yet where should the reed switch even be, as well as the magnet in the normal apple assemblies. Thanks.
 

dtravis7


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MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
Yours is for sure a 1.33Ghz 12" iBook? Every place I look says the reed switch is supposed to be inside the display casing on that model. I had my 1.33Ghz iBook apart a week ago to instal a 120GB Hard Drive and there was no reed switch in sight or anywhere near the CD/DVD ROM. My magnet goes in a screw hole right by the top of the keyboard, so the reed switch has to be inside the display.

Here is a page showing there the magnet is.

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/iBook-G4-12-Inch/Optical-Drive/83/15/Page-11/Upper-Case
 
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Oh that little magnet is for the reed switch? I have that magnet too.. but when I opened my ibook, the reed switch was on the optical drive, and it connected right on the logic board not to far from where it was sticking :S So I don't know.. it looked like it belongs there. Look at my pics it shows the reed switch on the drive and where it connects too. :S
 
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the magnet doesn't belong in the body of the computer, it goes in the body of the screen in a spot that will be directly above the reed switch when the computer is closed. There should have been a small housing piece that helped hold it in place on the right side of the screen frame. Take the back off the screen and look for a few screw holes or a place where the magnet fits in on the right hand side of the screen (if open and facing you).
 

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