I've had a beater iBook G4 around for years now. It's a 14" 1.0GHz late 2003 machine that I picked out of the recycle pile at the computer shop I used to work for. It was well-used; one of its USB ports is missing (someone ripped it out), it has a crack in the front left corner, several of the key caps are rubbed off, it's always had dirt and grime in all the little nooks and crannies, and it's missing all of its feet. I've kept it around as something to noodle around on. Today I decided to give it some well-earned TLC.
My biggest goals were a fresh load of OS X, general cleanup, repad/paste, and replace the missing USB port. I spent much of this morning tearing it down, soldering, pasting, and cleaning, and the patient survived and is now in much better shape than ever! I've attached some pics of the process today. If you've never had the "pleasure" of working deep inside an iBook, it's something to cross off your bucket list. It's off mine. This thing made my 12" PowerBook G4 seem like a pleasure to disassemble
First, here's the view from the outside. You can see that the left USB port is entirely missing, and the right one is bent up a bit.
And the view inside! The port was just ripped out; all the pins are still soldered in to their mounts.
While disassembling I managed to break off the microphone holster from the logic board. Oops.
Ready to rock! My soldering station isn't the most professional, nor do I pretend to be a pro at this, but I'm good enough at it for fairly delicate hobby work.
Old solder won't come out? When in doubt, drench it in flux! Works every time.
Managed to reattach the Microphone holster. (Spoilers - the mic worked fine once I got the machine back together!)
Quick test fit of the new USB port. Important to note is that most replacement USB ports you'll find have those metal flares around the outside edge. These prevent it from going in the hole in the I/O shield on the iBook.
I snipped off the sides and bent the top and bottom outwards flat so that they would go in the hole.
Quick test fit with the I/O shield; it fits perfectly fine!
Got the new port soldered in and starting to reassemble the iBook. The new port doesn't look 100% original, but it sure looks better than a black hole there.
My biggest goals were a fresh load of OS X, general cleanup, repad/paste, and replace the missing USB port. I spent much of this morning tearing it down, soldering, pasting, and cleaning, and the patient survived and is now in much better shape than ever! I've attached some pics of the process today. If you've never had the "pleasure" of working deep inside an iBook, it's something to cross off your bucket list. It's off mine. This thing made my 12" PowerBook G4 seem like a pleasure to disassemble
First, here's the view from the outside. You can see that the left USB port is entirely missing, and the right one is bent up a bit.
And the view inside! The port was just ripped out; all the pins are still soldered in to their mounts.
While disassembling I managed to break off the microphone holster from the logic board. Oops.
Ready to rock! My soldering station isn't the most professional, nor do I pretend to be a pro at this, but I'm good enough at it for fairly delicate hobby work.
Old solder won't come out? When in doubt, drench it in flux! Works every time.
Managed to reattach the Microphone holster. (Spoilers - the mic worked fine once I got the machine back together!)
Quick test fit of the new USB port. Important to note is that most replacement USB ports you'll find have those metal flares around the outside edge. These prevent it from going in the hole in the I/O shield on the iBook.
I snipped off the sides and bent the top and bottom outwards flat so that they would go in the hole.
Quick test fit with the I/O shield; it fits perfectly fine!
Got the new port soldered in and starting to reassemble the iBook. The new port doesn't look 100% original, but it sure looks better than a black hole there.
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