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ftaok

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jan 23, 2002
6,485
1,571
East Coast
OK, I need some advice from a master solderer.

I finally received my hard drive back from Toshiba (warranty replacement) and decided to put it back in my iBook (G3 500mhz) last night. As I was putting everything back into the case and buttoning it up, I snapped the trackpad connector off of the logic board. Agggh!

The piece that I broke off was the plastic clip that holds the orange trackpad ribbon. The pins are still in the plastic clip and parts of the pins are still on the logic board.

I'm not that skilled with soldering, so I'm wondering if there are any other options, other than getting a USB mouse.

I can remove the pins from the plastic clip to solder it back to the board, but in looking at the pins, they seem to be connected to the board in two places, with a slight gap in between. I'm guessing if I'm sloppy with the soldering and the gap gets closed, I'm screwed. Also, the gap between the pins is really tight, so I'm guessing that I can't be sloppy with that gap either.

Do they make some sort of contact glue for this? Or will I have to buy a new logic board if I want to salvage this trackpad? Actually, that's not an option as it'll cost me $130 for a used logic board, although it could be a chance to upgrade to a 600mhz (or faster) board.

Please help.

ft
 

jillthompson

macrumors newbie
Nov 24, 2006
1
0
Broke iBook Trackpad Ribbon Clamp Connector, too

iBook (dual USB): I, too, just broke-off my trackpad ribbon clamp connector from the logic board, while replacing my hard drive. Does anyone have any answers to the original message? If I were to take my iBook to an Apple repair shop, would they be able to resolder the connector, or must I replace the logic board?
 
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