PowerBook G4 Titanium Common Problems and Solutions

[128keaton]

Hello, if you are reading this thread, odds are, you have a Titanium PowerBook G4. First off, if your Mac was made before Sept. of 03, your Macintosh PowerBook is, infact, a Titanium PowerBook. Anything after is an Aluminum PowerBook. Eventually, this guide/manual will be put on either Gavin or I's website.

Backlight Issues:

Symptoms:
Flickering Backlight
No Backlight.
Backlight turns on briefly then goes off.

Causes:
Bad Inverter Board ($6 USD)
Bad Backlight (new LCD required)
Bad Backlight Cable.

Solution:
First, buy a new inverter board, cheap fix, and install it. If you still have issues, check the wire running from the inverter to the screen. If everything is in order, your bulbs might be bad. A new screen is required.

Hard drive won't appear or is erratic:
More than likely, its the hard drive cable running from the drive to the motherboard.

Speaker (left or right) isn't working. (Coming soon).

Lid won't shut:
More than likely, the release button has worn out, replacing it is rather easy.

Performance is really slow: (only applicable to DVI models)
Unlike their Aluminum counterparts, later Titanium PowerBooks will throttle CPU performance if the battery is absent, dead, or faulty. Replace the battery to restore full performance.

 

[bunnspecial]

Another common one:

Hard drive not visible or erratic-

Bad hard drive cable($5-10)

 

[128keaton]

Another common one:

Hard drive not visible or erratic-

Bad hard drive cable($5-10)

Got it. Thanks. Also, you should be able to edit the post yourself. Its a wiki post.

 

[AtaruBarreau]

Could anyone with ideas and/or knowledge about paint-restoring could contribute?
(sry for necrobumping)

 

[kajac123]

It the TiBook is completely dead (does not respond to powerbutton-presses at all), there is a good chance the internal clock battery is dead. This can either be removed or replaced to make the machine work again.

 

[AphoticD]

It the TiBook is completely dead (does not respond to powerbutton-presses at all), there is a good chance the internal clock battery is dead. This can either be removed or replaced to make the machine work again.

The PRAM issue applies more specifically to pre-DVI models 400MHz - 550MHz IIRC. I have a 1GHz Titanium which would not respond to power button press, but did boot once I jumped the pins at the power button connector on the bottom of the logic board. The solution was to replace the power button in the top case, which involved a complete tear down.

 

[galgot]

@AphoticD started two very complete and informative threads , mandatory for Titanium maintenance and repairs :

Success! - PowerBook G4 Titanium 15" Repair Thread

I have recently acquired four PowerBook G4 15" Macs which all need some work; PowerBook G4 Titanium 667Mhz - This is our honorable donor. Currently not booting. There are a few missing resistors on the logic board near the power input preventing the board from powering on. The display assembly...

forums.macrumors.com

My Titanium PowerBook G4 Repairs (Continued ...)

I've been mostly away from MR forums for some time (still lurking a little), but recently created some space for myself to pick up where I left off with some of my old Macs. So, first up are the Titaniums. There was a very long thread on the first few repairs of these PowerBook G4s here...

forums.macrumors.com

+

Titanium PowerBook G4 - Renewal of Thermal Paste

Titanium PowerBook G4 I have been putting it off for a while now, but decided to pull apart my 867Mhz Titanium PowerBook G4 for a cleanup, SSD installation and thermal paste renewal. I followed the iFixit guide for replacing the Logic Board (DVI+ models) to tear it down. All was smooth until I...

forums.macrumors.com

Could anyone with ideas and/or knowledge about paint-restoring could contribute?
(sry for necrobumping)

You might look at my try here :

Titanium Hinge madness (lots of picts)

I allow anyone to question my sanity when reading my stubborn and futile attempt at repairing a stupid 18 years old computer hinge. Having said that, I have a Beautiful Ti 1Ghz that suffered from the infamous hinge problem. The right one became stiffer and stiffer with time, no matter what I’ll...

forums.macrumors.com

For repairing and repainting an hinge.
I did found a close match for the Ivory paint, but not the exact thing. I think to make it perfect would be to repaint all the Ivory colour pieces, but that involves complete disassembly, including unglue the plastic framing from around the main metal case. Can be done, but I was lazy.
This is a car repair trick, as there can be small differences in paint colours even within the same reference stock and also a fresh paint always look different from the paint already there for some time, if you repaint say a damaged front fender, you'll see a small difference with the rest of the car side. repainting the all car always look better, if you can.