Finally Fixed My Powerbook!!!

Hey guys, just wanted to give a glimpse of what i did today.

Story:

Basically about 2 years ago i left my powerbook unprotected in my backpack...and well someone must have kicked it or something since the lcd screen cracked right down the middle

since then it's still been my primary computer, however it is a laptop no more, and has been shackled to my desk. Since that frightful day it has been collecting dust, and at home it is connected to a crappy 19 inch HP monitor.

well i decided to fix my computer really when i was thinking about upgrading to a new mac. I decided purchase a new macbook pro when montevina was originally scheduled to release...however, unfortunately it got pushed back. Since college starts on august 20th, i figured i'd be without a computer for a whole month (if montevina does come late september), so then i gave myself two options...buy a brand spanking new soney vaio, or update my old rusty computer. Well guys, i just couldn't leave apple and so i embarked upon fixing my powerbook.

when i first broke it, i was given an estimate of $1500+ dollars for full replacement by apple. that was almost the original price of the computer...flash forward to last week, when i started this quest of mine, i saw apple's price to fix it dropped, but it was still well over a grand. i also checked 3rd parties on the internet, which were offering a price of 600 dollars...but that was still too much for me though. despite the fact that the most i've ever done with a computer is change the ram, i decided to buy an lcd screen and do it myself.

i found a good deal on ebay, about 180 dollars for a brand new lcd, and i thought...hell, it's worth a shot even if i mess everything up. so i ordered that, and recieved it on friday. then i went and bought some torque screws, i needed a 6t and 8t... the smallest i could find were a 7 and 8, but it turns out those happened to work just fine. so with the aid of a friend of mine that was equally skeptical about the procedure, this afternoon me and my friend took apart my powerbook, with him reading off the instructions, and me, screwdriver in hand, listening and following every step off the guide on ifixit.

after messing up over and over again, and finally placing all the screws in their right places, with the right connection hooked in...i turned on my computer to find it beep and and then go silent...the screen didn't even flicker and gave no sign of life

to be honest i almost cried since after working 10 hours, i was just working on faith that it WOULD work. about to give up, i decided to check all the connections again...nothing. at this point i was about to physically break my computer, however i noticed that i forgot to put the little lid for the ram area back on, and after pressing that in and turning on my computer for what i thought would be another futile attempt...all of a sudden i hear the windows c chord, and see the screen start up. this might sound pathetic, but i can't remember being happier in a LONG time. after checking everything, i was sure that some things might be broken, but one-by-one everything i checked worked flawlessly...

so thats it, sorry for such a long post, but i just wanted to describe my emotional tale. if anyone needs any help, i want you to know that im here for you. anyway, after reading all that i know you guys at least deserve pics, so i uploaded some! (sorry for the shoddy quality, i just took them on my phone)

workplace...



broken screen =(



FIXED!!!!! (still missing shift key haha)



a little customization =p



I personally love green 's




Thats it!

Update:

it seems as though my computer doesn't go to sleep now when i close it. i know there's a magnet that signals the computer screen to turn off and trigger that little light next to the hatch, is it possible though that i might just have a box unchecked? or could i re-install tiger to see if that fixes it? i don't really mind it though, because i can just go to system and put the computer to sleep, but i'd like to have this functionality back.

crazzyeddie said:

The magnet probably got messed up and/or the new screen has different magnetic properties that are messing it up. It could be a software, issue, but its very unlikely. I say cut your losses and just use the keyboard shortcut (Cmd-Opt-Eject) to put your computer to sleep.

Out of curiosity, does it wake up when you open the lid?

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here's the problem, when i put it to sleep and try to close it, it comes out of sleep mode. so apparently the whole opening/closing of the computer still has an effect in some weird ways. but when i just close it, the screen just stays lit. so really manually putting it to sleep doesn't work for me either.

Stocktrader said:

Great fix, I've got hope.

I just posted tonight in the Macbook forum.
Basically wife dropped hers, screen has lines.
If you don't mind me asking, who you ordered the replacement LCD from. I'd rather do it then pay $600+

Thanks and congrats again.

http://nystocktrader.com/mb-2.JPG

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i got it off e-bay, the seller was from laptopaid.com though. here's the link.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280249579901

well guys, its offical- i am an idiot

it turns out the lcd screen i received didn't have that little magnet i was talking about, and so i installed it without it. i went right now and found my broken lcd and found the magnet still attached to it. well i took off the magnet, and im able to make the computer go to sleep by placing the magnet right on the bottom middle of the keyboard. im pretty angry, because i don't want to take all the screws off, remove the logic board, scrape off the thermal paste, and remove the screen just to access the back of the lcd screen again... anyone got a suggestion? i attached some pics of the magnet and where it goes. (its cool to see how the magnet is attracted to the region.

MowingDevil said:

Congrats!

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Thanks lol, this is an old thread... I don't know how it came back haha.