Is it possible to turn on a PowerBook G4 (17", 2004, A1085) without the keyboard?

[Baldung99]

Page 154 of this: http://tim.id.au/laptops/apple/powerbook/pbg4_17_dl_167_15_133ghz.pdf
shows it. I've yet to test it but thanks to Amethyst1 for pointing me in the (hopefully) right direction.

Edit; It works. It looks wonky but it works.

Today I grabbed one of those fabled 17" PowerBooks, after having resigned myself that I'll never seen one in person. Sure, it's... fairly basic all things considered and slightly worse than my 15" model and way - way - crustier. But hey, it works and it was (relatively) cheap. And it had a 250GB hard drive and a second 1GB DIMM... which I put in my 15" model.

In a great stroke of utter stupidity, I checked absolutely no guides, so I wound up ripping the keyboard ribbon off its connector. While it's not 100% dead, it's way too finicky, because the connector is messed. Since the connector sits directly under a RAM slot, it's really not feasible to fiddle with it if I slot in a second DIMM (something I'm planning to do).

Is there another way to turn it on?

 

[AphoticD]

You can jump the power on pads on the logic board... but it’s not an ideal solution.

I’ve got a 17” in the same boat and have been considering soldering a wired button/switch onto the power on pads which could be accessed externally via the unused RJ11 modem port...

 

[Amethyst1]

Booting a PowerBook G4 without its top case?

The correct way to puwer the system on, without a power button is to locate the power jumpers: There are a pair of jumpers on the mainboard, that you need to bridge to start the system without the top cover. These are left of the centre horizontally, and near the centre vertically, on the...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[eyoungren]

Today I grabbed one of those fabled 17" PowerBooks, after having resigned myself that I'll never seen one in person. Sure, it's... fairly basic all things considered and slightly worse than my 15" model and way - way - crustier. But hey, it works and it was (relatively) cheap. And it had a 250GB hard drive and a second 1GB DIMM... which I put in my 15" model.

In a great stroke of utter stupidity, I checked absolutely no guides, so I wound up ripping the keyboard ribbon off its connector. While it's not 100% dead, it's way too finicky, because the connector is messed. Since the connector sits directly under a RAM slot, it's really not feasible to fiddle with it if I slot in a second DIMM (something I'm planning to do).

Is there another way to turn it on?

You can try taping the connector back to the logic board but getting the contacts lined up is the really hard part. I bought a junk 17" once with the intent to fix it up, but discovered that someone had done what you did. It was always hit and miss to get the damn thing to boot because the connector kept popping off the contacts.

The kicker is that disconnecting the ribbon is one of the easier steps in getting the top case off.

 

[bobesch]

Today I grabbed one of those fabled 17" PowerBooks, after having resigned myself that I'll never seen one in person. Sure, it's... fairly basic all things considered and slightly worse than my 15" model and way - way - crustier. But hey, it works and it was (relatively) cheap. And it had a 250GB hard drive and a second 1GB DIMM... which I put in my 15" model.

In a great stroke of utter stupidity, I checked absolutely no guides, so I wound up ripping the keyboard ribbon off its connector. While it's not 100% dead, it's way too finicky, because the connector is messed. Since the connector sits directly under a RAM slot, it's really not feasible to fiddle with it if I slot in a second DIMM (something I'm planning to do).

Is there another way to turn it on?

Check, if only the keyboard-ribbon's connector is ripped off and the connector is still fixed to it's socket on the logicboard. Then you can try to gently remove the connector-plug off the manboard's socket and you're able to attach another new keyboard-assembly to the 17"PB.

 

[Baldung99]

You can try taping the connector back to the logic board but getting the contacts lined up is the really hard part. I bought a junk 17" once with the intent to fix it up, but discovered that someone had done what you did. It was always hit and miss to get the damn thing to boot because the connector kept popping off the contacts.

The kicker is that disconnecting the ribbon is one of the easier steps in getting the top case off.

I was expecting it to be similar to my 15" model (a connector on the top of the motherboard). Getting it back together was surprisingly hard. Putting a shim in there and taping it in is what I've thought of doing in the first place, but I'm still tinkering inside of it so that'll have to wait.

Check, if only the keyboard-ribbon's connector is ripped off and the connector is still fixed to it's socket on the logicboard. Then you can try to gently remove the connector-plug off the manboard's socket and you're able to attach another new keyboard-assembly to the 17"PB.

The little white flap that secures the ribbon cable in the connector has been completely torn off. I still have it, so I can wedge it in its place but... it's a friction fit and a loose one at best. I *should* be able to have it fixed by having someone just swap the old socket for a new one and it possibly won't be expensive since it looks like a standard part. At this moment though, I really can't be bothered.

 

[bunnspecial]

It seems strange to me sometimes what people do to these, and I suppose just don't understand about how the ZIF/LIF connectors work.

I have 1ghz 17" that's otherwise really nice and even has working L3, but someone broke/removed/lost the clamp on the socket. I have a paper shim in it(IIRC, and a bit counter-intuitively, the shim goes under the cable, but I could have that backwards) and it works most of the time, but sometimes just drops out.

 

[eyoungren]

It seems strange to me sometimes what people do to these, and I suppose just don't understand about how the ZIF/LIF connectors work.

I have 1ghz 17" that's otherwise really nice and even has working L3, but someone broke/removed/lost the clamp on the socket. I have a paper shim in it(IIRC, and a bit counter-intuitively, the shim goes under the cable, but I could have that backwards) and it works most of the time, but sometimes just drops out.

One of the first things I check whenever I'm going to open a Mac I am unfamiliar with is iFixit. If you're unfamiliar with the 17s and don't check you're likely not going to realize how it is the ribbon cable is held in.

It's easy to disconnect if you know you have to disconnect it, but if you just rip the top case off then this is the kind of damage that results.

Frankly, I actually prefer this. Anytime I have to open a 15" Mac (MBP or PB) I'm always afraid I will pull on the top case too fast and rip the connector off the board. With the 17s I don't have to worry about that because disconnecting the cable from the bottom is done first and it's easy.