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Cleaning inside a powerbook, especially the fans.

V

vsp

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 23, 2004
131
3
Chico, Ca
Three years of pretty good behavior from my Al Powerbook. Just recently, however, the screen has fritzed out on me while I'm killing something in Warcraft. It's returned to it's normal behavior, but only after about 18 hours and quite a bit of futzing with/over it.

Likely the logic board needs to be replaced, but there's also a chance that the fans have accumulated years of dust and aren't running fast enough, causing the computer to overheat.

What's the best way of dealing with dust and build-up inside a laptop? Can I blow air underneath the keyboard? Applecare has recently expired...given that might it be worth it to take it apart and clean/oil the fans?

Appreciate any tips you all have.
 
Hello. I'm still learning about computers, and have been having similar problems.

My screen lately has been getting blue wavy pixels in some spots (mostly darker colors) and a couple thin blue lines that go right through active windows. It's hard to watch videos and play games. Some text gets blurry also. It comes and goes, so I know it's not the screen. I can't find any solution, other than it's the logic board, or just dust! Anyways, it's getting real annoying, and I'm getting desperate.

I thought someone would know. so please, any suggestions are helpful on what it might be. And yes, any tips would be great on how to clean! I'm on a powerbook G4.

P.S. Warcraft is great.
 
- for PowerBooks: if its the logic board unfortunately due to the cost of a replacement, its pretty much a forced upgrade. You could almost buy two of the same entire used machines online for about the same cost. I wonder how many potentially very long term customers Apple loses vs. people who upgrade due to what appears to be the most common point of failure: the GPU soldered to the lobo
- for MBPs in warranty: take it to Apple
- for MBPs out of warranty: still take it to Apple, as its likely that they have extended the warranty for your GPU due to a known problem with Nvidia
 
Ahh. How long do logic boards usually last when showing on and off symptoms? I remember I had the same problem last summer, and it never came back until a couple days ago.

And thank you for the link, though I couldn't find my computer on it. I have a powerbook G4 15"

Anymore help?
 
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