Also, BlackBooks are special enough that it's worth the extra expense to get them working at their best.
Very well, this shall be my Mac labour of love.
As part of the process of elimination and fault finding, I set up my
semi dead 2006 MacBook with the LCD from the BlackBook and a fully working inverter. The LCD displayed an illuminated screen for a few seconds and then went dark. This occurred every time the laptop was powered up with the BlackBook's LCD. Does this confirm that it's absolutely shot?
To reverse the test, I connected the semi dead MacBook's worn out, but still functional LCD to the BlackBook (with a working inverter) and this was the result:
Both LCDs from the tester WhiteBook and the BlackBook belong to exactly the same Samsung model so we can rule out compatibility issues.
Would I be correct in speculating that there's also an issue with the BlackBook's LCD cable or the logic board because the tester LCD and the inverter definitely work but power is not being sent to the CCFL lamp?
I'm thinking that it might be easier to simply transplant the logic board from my semi dead WhiteBook which is from the same generation (and whose decrepit casing is almost destroyed anyway) into the BlackBook's casing than go through trying to pinpoint the cause.
I struck through the above paragraph after realising that the BlackBook is actually very likely a late 2007 issue and not a first generation machine which means transferring the parts over from the 2006 WhiteBook would've been unsuccessful. Speaking of transplant proposals...
Which calls for a 5,2 logic board transplant IMHO
You lot are terrible, putting ideas into my head for yet more work on further projects. How can I say no?
A transplant using one of
these?
There's a good guide
here on how to accomplish this and
@Project Alice successfully used it
to carry out a transplant.
According to the instructions, the BlackBook needs to be at least a late 2007 "Santa Rosa" model to ensure that the 5,2 logic board will fit correctly into the casing. Judging by the dates of the manufacturing information plastered on the SuperDrive and the internal lid, it appears to be exactly that but here's a photo of the logic board so that others can confirm this before I consider purchasing the board and proceeding with this adventure.
I acquired a couple of A1181s in 2019, with one exhibiting this problem (no backlight).
What I learnt was there was a tiny short in the LCD backlight cable near the hinge area whose insulation had been pinched away, leaving exposed wire to short out. Apparently this is not uncommon with the A1181s, as it gets mention in iFixit guides (like here on
Step 44).
In my case, this is what happened — either through extensive use or a previous disassembly. I found the exposed wire, covered it with kapton tape, took especial care to make sure it wouldn’t get pinched again by the hinge area, and my backlight was restored.
[EDIT: After reading through some of the discussion on the Embracing Early Intel thread, I’m guessing you‘re well beyond that troubleshooting a pinched insulation issue, my bad!]
Some of those posts relate to this WhiteBook - which almost certainly has a pinched cable but I have yet to disassemble it and check:
When I've finished tackling the BlackBook, I'll move onto this one.
