Calling all Powerbook G4 12 experts

[mectojic]

I am embarrassed to admit that I may have destroyed one of my own Powerbook G4s (I have 3 at the moment).

The one in question worked just fine, except that it had a non-working DVD drive. Because of this, I decided to completely remove the drive, in order to reduce the weight of the Powerbook – I really like this 12" model feeling as light as possible. While I was at it, I removed the modem – feeling that having the telephone connection is not necessary anymore.

Since doing these modifications however, the laptop when turned on has its fan spin quite fast. It boots to the desktop and runs normally, but with the fan running; but once I run any CPU-intensive program, the fan spins even faster and then the laptop forces itself to sleep.

I downloaded the G4 Fan Control and set the fan levels to a higher temperature, hoping that the machine just wasn’t reading the temps correctly. This helped with the problem, but the fans still had to run a lot more, and again, CPU-intensive programs still lead to a computer sleep. (As an important note, the laptop doesn't feel like it's getting really hot, at least from the outside).

Can anyone suggest what I can do?

P.S. I may have also left out some screws when putting the PB back together… such a nightmare taking this thing apart. Not sure if that is part of the problem.

 

[philgxxd]

Maybe the common problem that the CPU heatsink came loose. Search for it in our section of the forum.

 

[AphoticD]

As @philgxxd suggests, it sounds like the standoff posts which the heatsink screw down into have come loose, which will cause the CPU to overheat due to uneven (or complete lack of) pressure between the CPU and the heatsink. It is an annoyingly common issue with the PB 12" logic boards.

The most recent units I have which have presented this issue have been resolved with a blob of solder on the rear of the board to lock the standoffs back into position.

Also, you'll want to use a decent thermal paste (Arctic MX4 or better) and renew the thermal pads while you're at it. I used a 1mm thickness pad on the large memory controller IC and a 2mm pad on the GPU.

The 12" is quite a challenge... Funny story; I replaced a failed logic board in a 1GHz PB12" a couple of weekends back. I spent a few hours fulling stripping it down, cleaning everything, installing the replacement logic board, renewing thermal paste, pads and re-assembled. I then plugged in the power cable and nothing.. no sign of life.

I then had a sneaking suspicion that I forgot to connect the DC-in connector to the underside of the logic board. I inserted a battery and sure enough it powered on and booted up as expected on battery power. To resolve I had to strip the entire unit back down, remove the logic board again and fully re-assemble. I know I won't forget that one again

 

[micahgartman]

In my days as a Genius I disassembled more than 100 12-inch PowerBooks. Click the link in my signature and grab a copy of the Service Source guide and take it apart again. As @AphoticD notes, the spring-loaded screws are loose and/or new paste and new pads are in order. If you need any pads, PM me—I seem to have LOTS of them.

 

[Steve030]

FYI I removed the modem from a 12'' before without any problems. Besides what the guys are saying above, which all my be correct, I wonder if removing the cd-rom caused this behaviour. I seem to remember sensors being in the cd-rom area and perhaps that's causing the problem.

 

[micahgartman]

FYI I removed the modem from a 12'' before without any problems. Besides what the guys are saying above, which all my be correct, I wonder if removing the cd-rom caused this behaviour. I seem to remember sensors being in the cd-rom area and perhaps that's causing the problem.

The optical drive could be causing the fans to ramp up. One way to MacGuyver around that would be to remove the optical drive cable from the drive and plug it back in to the logic board. That way the sensors think there's a drive there, but it isn't. Sneaky, n'est-ce pas?

 

[B S Magnet]

In my days as a Genius I disassembled more than 100 12-inch PowerBooks. Click the link in my signature and grab a copy of the Service Source guide and take it apart again. As @AphoticD notes, the spring-loaded screws are loose and/or new paste and new pads are in order. If you need any pads, PM me—I seem to have LOTS of them.

Sidebar: I’ve marvelled in the past (and into the present) at your exhaustive repository for PowerBook resources, thank you immensely.

Did you ever, by chance, make one back in the day for iBooks? I know of no resource for them on par with your PowerBook repository, and I’ll be lying if I say I haven’t gone around scouring the four corners to locate, say, low-level info/board stuff for the M6411 series.

 

[micahgartman]

Sidebar: I’ve marvelled in the past (and into the present) at your exhaustive repository for PowerBook resources, thank you immensely.

Did you ever, by chance, make one back in the day for iBooks? I know of no resource for them on par with your PowerBook repository, and I’ll be lying if I say I haven’t gone around scouring the four corners to locate, say, low-level info/board stuff for the M6411 series.

I started one for iBooks years ago but never got around to finishing it. I'll dig it out of the archives and try to get a v0.2 online.

In the mean time, feel free to PM me any requests. I more than likely have what you're looking for

 

[CooperBox]

I'm late to this thread, but if it helps anyone, I too had one of the CPU/heatsink stand-off posts fracture during refurb of my 12" PBook and fixed it easily with a dab of Araldite on the rear of the board. May be helpful for those who don't trust their soldering skills. Fwiw, I recommend standard Araldite and not the rapid version.
I have 2 of these PBooks that I've completely refurbished, and a 3rd 12" 1.5GHz with maxed-out memory which I also plan to completely refurbish. It's the removal of the 4 keys to access the keyboard retaining screws that I most dislike, and refittment of the 4 keys. Perhaps a task for the next wet weekend.......

 

[ervus]

There are a lot of threads related to this. I wonder if there's an easy way to collect them somehow and pin them or something...

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[originaldotexe]

interestingly, i had a similar experience after removing the modem from an old dell mobile workstation laptop many years ago. i removed the modem and then afterwards the computer had major power issues where it basically didn't want to turn on consistantly anymore. it would power on and then make kind of a popping sound and power off a lot of times.