PowerBook G4 12" Maintenance/Servicing

[Certificate of Excellence]

I use specifically (a WD-40 company) 3-1 PTFE oil blend drip, commonly available at all major retailers, ie: True Value, Samons, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. It is a PTFE & oil blend designed for use on both metals and plastics, reducing friction & extending operational life. Works very well on the fans in my powermac G4s. As stated above, for hard to reach fans, an appropriate viscosity oil may be a better choice for longevity between servicing, but if 3-1 PTFE is all I had, I'd not hesitate to use it.

3-IN-ONE Multi-Purpose PTFE Lubricant

Perform under pressure with this PTFE lubricant designed for all your heavy-load tools and equipment.

www.3inone.com

Here's the products MSDS.

https://files.wd40.com/pdf/sds/3inone/3-in-one-multi-purpose-ptfe-lubricant-drip-oil-us-ghs-sds.pdf

I have not used a dry PTFE lube on cpu fans - I use it all day long on my road bike chains but that's a different animal. I can speak to the PTFE oil Blend working and playing well with the electronic fan PET plastics. FYI, this blend can damage polycarbonate & styrene plastics so be aware of that.

 

[ervus]

I recently repaired another one of these, so I did a before/after test with Temperature Monitor and using TenFourFox. This one was not even all that bad, but you can clearly see that the CPU gets hot quickly compared to the GPU:

 

[ervus]

I did some maintenance/upgrades on one of these for a friend and this is the "copper cross" for the GPU I mentioned before:

 

[PowerPCFan]

As someone who's kept his old college 12" PowerBook chugging for years now, there's a few kind things you can do for it.

1. Repaste/repad. The 12" PowerBooks use three pads, two soft ones on the GPU and Bridge, then a hard one on the CPU. The soft ones need to be replaced with similar pads (they're cheap online in large sheets that you cut to fit), but I've found that the CPU one can be replaced with paste. The GPU and Bridge are designed to have space for a pad, while the CPU nestles snugly against the heatsink. Double-check on yours before committing to it by putting a little dab of paste on the CPU, screwing down the heatsink, and seeing how well it spreads.

2. Cleaning. A teardown and thorough cleaning with a bunch of paper towels, Q-tips, and alcohol can make your PowerBook look and feel like new! Great chance to bang out any dents or warps that may be in the aluminum too.

3. As for your keyboard lifting in the middle, pop off the RAM door on the bottom and check the long black screw that goes up into the bottom of the keyboard. I've seen that work its way loose over time. Tightening it may drag the middle of your keyboard back down. If not, your keyboard may be bent somehow. Pop it off (take out the long black screw and two others on the top between F1/F2 and F11/F12 and see if you can straighten it out on a table.

If you have any specific questions, I'm happy to help. I love the little 12" and love helping people keep them running!

Arctic MX-5 worked great in my G5 and my G4 tower.