Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iBook G3 Clamshell broken DC-IN jack?

garirry

garirry

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 27, 2013
1,543
3,907
Canada is my city
Hello,

I recently took my iBook G3 Clamshell from my collector's shelf just to play around with it again and because I had the sudden urge of installing Panther (it was running Jaguar), and unfortunately, the computer would not see the power adapter. Now, I do remember last time I used the computer (a few months ago probably), the connection was poor and I had to jiggle it around to get a proper connection, and sometimes even if I moved the cable a tiny bit, the computer would just shut off (as the battery inside is dead). While I have removed the battery because I tried replacing the cells individually but that failed, I doubt it has anything to do with the issue. My biggest disappointment was that I found out that the DC jack costed 80$ on iFixit and not available anywhere else really. I tried to fix it manually, pulling some of the connectors to try and get a better connection, but that didn't work and if I tried measuring voltages on my multimeter, it would give me this weird "kilo/mega omega" result which I have no idea what it is. Anyone has any tips of fixing the jack at least temporarily since I can't spend 80$ right now on a pathetic jack? Also, I don't have any other G3 laptops nor any G3 chargers to test with it. Thanks for all solutions.
 
I would instead try opening it up to see what the in-board looks like and if it perhaps just needs to be repositioned. I had to do that with an iBook G3 that I owned and that was the simplest and least expensive fix ever!
 
RedCroissant said:
I would instead try opening it up to see what the in-board looks like and if it perhaps just needs to be repositioned. I had to do that with an iBook G3 that I owned and that was the simplest and least expensive fix ever!
Click to expand...
I did. I even tried to slightly pull the connectors inside so that the contact could be better, but that didn't work at all. :(
 
garirry said:
I did. I even tried to slightly pull the connectors inside so that the contact could be better, but that didn't work at all. :(
Click to expand...

Then the only thing I can think of to revive your current iBook is either buy the expensive unit or buy a replacement iBook and take that inboard and do a swap. Sadly, that's what it has come down to for me a couple of times. I once traded a working Dell XPS AIO for a pseudo working PowerMac G5 just so I could replace the superdrive in my Quad with the one from the dual 2.3.
 
RedCroissant said:
Then the only thing I can think of to revive your current iBook is either buy the expensive unit or buy a replacement iBook and take that inboard and do a swap. Sadly, that's what it has come down to for me a couple of times. I once traded a working Dell XPS AIO for a pseudo working PowerMac G5 just so I could replace the superdrive in my Quad with the one from the dual 2.3.
Click to expand...
Question; Is it possible to use the DC jack from the Snow iBook G3 to put in my clamshell? Is there any soldering to do? If it does, then I guess I'll try to track down either a DC jack from it or a broken computer.
 
Returning to this project after a few months of doing nothing.

I can't find out whether the problem is actually the DC Jack or the DC Plug on the charger. I don't have access to any G3 Clamshells nor Yo-Yo Chargers to try them, and considering how limited is my money, I'd rather not spend on something I don't know whether that's the problem or not. Any way to test one of them to see what the problem is? Thanks.
 
Just get/borrow another generic 9.5mm Apple charger if you think the problem lies there. Pretty much any will do. It does not have to be a yo-yo design.
 
garirry said:
Returning to this project after a few months of doing nothing.

I can't find out whether the problem is actually the DC Jack or the DC Plug on the charger. I don't have access to any G3 Clamshells nor Yo-Yo Chargers to try them, and considering how limited is my money, I'd rather not spend on something I don't know whether that's the problem or not. Any way to test one of them to see what the problem is? Thanks.
Click to expand...

I'd be very surprised if it wasn't the DC plug on the charger. I say this as it's the component that is the most susceptible to wear and tear due to pushing and pulling, and it's not too uncommon to find that the wiring within that plug is damaged. There is a repair for this if you google, 'How to fix a yoyo power adaptor for a G3 clamshell iBook.' I started to do this with one which had partially torn away at the yoyo end connector. Before the repair was completed I found another perfectly serviceable yoyo in a thrift shop for 5 euros, and bought it. So never needed to repair the other.
Do you not have a friend or a local Mac user's club who could let you try another charger? That would immediately eliminate as faulty either the charger or the internal Clamshell jack assembly.
I've just checked on one of my local sites, and a genuine iBook clamshell yoyo is listed at 20€ ($22) and a Mac PowerBook 45W AC adapter M5159 at 19€ ($21).
Regarding eventual change of the internal Clamshell jack assembly, imho it isn't exactly an easy task. The very first time I fully stripped a Clamshell, I found that internal jack assembly rather tricky to remove. One has to be very careful not to split the casing as that jack is fitted in there as tight as a nun's underwear.
Bonne chance.
 
The original clear YoYo AC adapters had a common problem with the cable breaking where it enters the plug.

The DC inlet on the iBook itself also breaks loose. For a while Apple used surface mounted AC inlet sockets that just didn't stand up to multiple or rough handling. This is easy to check with a small plastic implement to see if it moves at all. If not, then the issue is probably with the YoYo AC Adapter.

Be aware that the plug on the cable is near impossible to get a voltage measurement from. The outer casing is a low voltage which tells the iBook that a certain wattage AC adapter is connected. The center pin has three separate contacts. The outermost (on the end) is not connected to anything, the inner two are the Ground and positive voltage.

EDIT. - I used to have a socket cannibalized from a PowerBook G3 to test the AC Adapters.
 
Surprise, I just got the power adapter that I order a little bit after posting here, and everything works just fine. I'm glad I get to have my clamshell up and running again! :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: barbu
CooperBox said:
Glad to hear it's now back to normal. Did you subsequently get Panther installed, and how does that run compared to Jaguar on your Clamshell?
Click to expand...
I installed Panther, but I had to re-burn the discs because the old ones were corrupted to death. I'm still experimenting with the system and such. Only problem, the latest version of Safari doesn't seem to load any pages correctly, probably because it's so old. As for the performance, I'm not quite sure yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back