Powerbook 17" keyboard, trackpad and power switch not working

[theitsage]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here and I'm very glad to have found this great place with such helpful advice. I'm currently looking to buy a powerbook 17 and came accross one for a great price $1240 shipped from an eBay seller. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5859666985&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEDW:IT&rd=1

From what the seller posted, this seems like the latest revision of the powerbook line. A few things of concerns though. Besides the fact that the keyboard, trackpad and power switch not functioning, I noticed that it only has a 80GB hard drive. The options for the hard drive I found on Apple online store are either 120GB @ 5400RPM or 100GB @ 7200RPM.

My question is how challenging is it to fix all this? The seller stated "the keyboard connector will need to be resoldered" - I don't think it's that easy. Anyone has experiences with the innards of the powerbook please help me. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

 

[katie ta achoo]

if it's still under applecare warranty, I'd take it to an apple store after buying it.

 

[theitsage]

if it's still under applecare warranty, I'd take it to an apple store after buying it.

That's a great idea! However, I worry that if the owner messed that up himself and the Apple genius finds out, would they honor the warranty and fix it??

 

[xFU3Lx]

The keyboard, trackpad, and power switch are all connected to the logic board by the same 'ribbon'/flex cable. It could very easily be just the connection to the logic board.

 

[theitsage]

The keyboard, trackpad, and power switch are all connected to the logic board by the same 'ribbon'/flex cable. It could very easily be just the connection to the logic board.

Thank you for poiting that out. I was able to download a service manual for this particular powerbook model. Looking at the flex cable and the section "Zero Insertion Force Connectors", these seems to be very fragile. This from the Manual "Warning: If a locking bar breaks, you will need to replace the board." The locking bar is where the flex cable goes in.

This is a section from the Troubleshooting:

*Top case flex cable (to logic board)
- Keyboard data and status
- Power-on signal
- Power to keyboard backlight LEDs
- Trackpad data and power
- Sleep sensor

My guess is this top case flex cable is busted, and the recommended solution is to replace it. I hope it has nothing to do with the logic board. Any comment on this??

 

[redAPPLE]

has apple acknowledged the trackpad problem officially?