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Woah! I just found my 12" Powerbook after 4 years!

Just make sure you have a system to keep track of screws and which go where. They may look the same but they're not. Is your RAM maxed on it? I think it'll take 768 max. If not, I've got a 512MB stick I'll give you too.

If you get it working again, load Tiger and you will be able to surf the web, itunes, office and a lot of other stuff. STAY AWAY from Leopard. May as well pop in a new HDD while you're at it. ATA6. Get a 5400rpm drive and it's like a newer laptop going from a 5400 to 7200 speed increase. Remember, the stock drive was only a 30GB @ 4200rpm.

Newegg:
1 x ($74.99) NBHD 250G|WD 5K 8M ATA6 WD2500BEVE - OEM $74.99

Put three of them in PB's so far and they work great.
 
NC MacGuy said:
Just make sure you have a system to keep track of screws and which go where. They may look the same but they're not. Is your RAM maxed on it? I think it'll take 768 max. If not, I've got a 512MB stick I'll give you too.

If you get it working again, load Tiger and you will be able to surf the web, itunes, office and a lot of other stuff. STAY AWAY from Leopard. May as well pop in a new HDD while you're at it. ATA6. Get a 5400rpm drive and it's like a newer laptop going from a 5400 to 7200 speed increase. Remember, the stock drive was only a 30GB @ 4200rpm.

Newegg:
1 x ($74.99) NBHD 250G|WD 5K 8M ATA6 WD2500BEVE - OEM $74.99

Put three of them in PB's so far and they work great.
Click to expand...

You, my friend, are a God among humans. (well demi is close enough!)

Thanks for all the advice and help. I'll do my part over the next 2 days and if successful, I'll take you up on your offer of the logic board and RAM. I've got it sitting next to me and its looking even sexier with the potential of being able to work again. It's exactly what I need to throw in my day bag for editing and re-editing at my agent's command!


Take a couple dozen screws out to see the logic board. If you get the board out without breaking the Airport antennas or DC in board or Bluetooth board or bendy things on heat sink to fan and still want one, mine worked perfectly fine and is already out. It's yours for the shipping.
Click to expand...
 
Use two egg cartons for your screws and download the ifixit page on taking apart the 12" PB.

Did you try resetting the pram, too?

Did you try taking out the battery and plugging it in?

I might just be the DC in board, and you might try cleaning off the old spilled beer with distilled water and a q tip.

Let it dry and try again. Who knows... it could still work great if cleaned off.

Remember distilled water does not hurt your logic board. It is non conductive.

But beer is.

That's what I'd do.

Also on that ancient 867mhz Powerbook you MUST upgrade the ram with a 1 gig chip. You will have a total of 1.12gbs of ram after that. You only have 128mb built in on the logic board and one ram slot.

You can run Leopard on it, just disable Dashboard.

I'd get the 320gb hard drive. They are not that much money and you can always put back the original drive and keep the new one if you decide to sell it.

I'd also put a new superdrive in the PB, unless it came with one.
 
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FireArse said:
What exactly are you suggesting he does with this?!




This is good information. I haven't disabled Dashboard, I simply don't use it on mine. And good luck. These aren't easy at all..
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If there is some malty, sugary stuff from a beer spill on his logic board, he should try to clean it and restart before chucking it.

The PBs are not easy mostly because they are time consuming and one must keep track of the screws, in order, as you take them out of the machine.

A few years ago, someone on MR had an Apple genius take apart his PB 12" and put in the wrong screws in the bottom case. The too long screws poked down and dented the metal, but still worked.
 
California said:
Also on that ancient 867mhz Powerbook you MUST upgrade the ram with a 1 gig chip. You will have a total of 1.12gbs of ram after that. You only have 128mb built in on the logic board and one ram slot.

You can run Leopard on it, just disable Dashboard.

I'd get the 320gb hard drive. They are not that much money and you can always put back the original drive and keep the new one if you decide to sell it..
Click to expand...

You are correct on the RAM, I still had max from original, before 1GB sticks were invented.

Leopard is not worth it on the PB. I just went through an exercise in futility trying. It will run. Tiger runs better hands down. Of course if you can find all Flash free web sites, you'd be fine.:rolleyes:

YouTube is near unusable. If you go through the standard software updates, you'll get stuck w. Safari 4. Safari 4 is a resource and mem. pig w. a new Intel Mac and not a viable browser for a PB. Downgrading it to 3 and Flash to 9 was a royal pain in the ass and it still worked worse than Tiger w. Safari 3. This was on a 1.5GHz, 1.25GB RAM PB 12" BTW.

Ifixit shows you how to take it apart fairly well but where it says to remove 6 screws here, you'll need to note which one of the six is a wee bit longer. I thought they had a screw guide but I couldn't find one.
 
try it witout the battery and see if the light is green then. Do you have another charger or another battery? At least a friend with one?
 
Update: Resetting the RAM didn't do anything. I took out the battery, light is still orange.

Both the iFixit guides look straightforward and easy to follow.

My next step is to 'clean up' the logic board and then take up NC MacGuy's offer on his logic board and memory.

Quite a fun project, actually. I'll keep posting here with updates. If I do get it to work, I'll make the screensaver "Dedicated to the MR Collector's Forum" :)

eV
 
eVolcre said:
Update: Resetting the RAM didn't do anything. I took out the battery, light is still orange.

Both the iFixit guides look straightforward and easy to follow.

My next step is to 'clean up' the logic board and then take up NC MacGuy's offer on his logic board and memory.

Quite a fun project, actually. I'll keep posting here with updates. If I do get it to work, I'll make the screensaver "Dedicated to the MR Collector's Forum" :)

eV
Click to expand...

I have the same issue with powerbook 1Ghz 17 inch. Already cleaned the logic board. Have reset the RAM. Battery charges fine, but light always stays orange and a fast ticking sound can be heard ( no its not the hard drive, as I disconnected that already). Any ideas... logic board, DC inboard or the PRAM battery
 
makatopia said:
I have the same issue with powerbook 1Ghz 17 inch. Already cleaned the logic board. Have reset the RAM. Battery charges fine, but light always stays orange and a fast ticking sound can be heard ( no its not the hard drive, as I disconnected that already). Any ideas... logic board, DC inboard or the PRAM battery
Click to expand...

A ticking sound?

the only thing I can think of is the Slot Loading drive, the speaker or the fan (if there is one, im not sure)

because other than the Hard Drive, fan and CD drive there is not that many moving parts inside the machine.
 
Bringing this thread back from the dead ....

Hi all,

Long time macrumors lurker here. I couldn't help resurrecting this thread as I'm in almost the EXACT situation as the OP.

I was just cleaning up my workspace at home when I chanced upon my old (dead) 12" PB (867 MHz). It had died on me abruptly a couple of years back and hence I had to upgrade (to a black mb). Anyways, I'm not sure what exactly was wrong with it (technically that is), so I hit the power button today and viola! .... she purrred!!! No, it's still not working, but the machine goes past the grey screen with the apple logo and comes to the blue screen, after which it just stays on that screen (blue). I vaguely remember an App rep telling me that how fixing it would cost me a whole lot as the logic board had died and that I might as well upgrade (which I promptly did). Anyways, from looking around (ebay), I found boards for really cheap and I'm seriously considering fixing her up for use as a 'net' book (still heavier than my current mb, but cute as hell) to run safari, office and a few other software.

First question: from the description above, would anybody be able to tell me if that sounds like a logic board problem? It will make no sense buy a logic board if that is not the problem in the first place, but from what I recollect, that seems to be the likely problem. I just spoke to a local mac repair guy (in Toronto) and he said that it may even be a cable problem or something else. The thing is he will charge me a whole whack of money just to open it up, and, being a grad student, I don't want to spend too too much. Any ideas on diagnostics people? Also your opinions on whether to fix it up (with a ram upgrade to boot)?

Would love to hear back from the people who have done this. Also, if you know of masochistic people who like doing such stuff (ie replacing logic boards) for reasonable fees (in Canada), do let me know!!

Cheers,
Raj
 
^^ My 14 inch iBook does the same thing, I would like to know what causes it too. I have tried removing everything except the dc inboard and a external monitor and still did the same. I don't know what's wrong with it but I suspect it is the logic board.
 
dmmcintyre3 said:
^^ My 14 inch iBook does the same thing, I would like to know what causes it too. I have tried removing everything except the dc inboard and a external monitor and still did the same. I don't know what's wrong with it but I suspect it is the logic board.
Click to expand...

Have you guys tried re installing Mac OS X

If thats not the problem, Reset the PMU by unplugging all keyboards, mice.etc and power, Remove the battery then hit the powerbutton, wait 15 seconds then plug the power back in.
 
Yes, multiple times, PRAM, NVRAM, sits without power for months at a time. Must have been September when I last touched it.
 
Yup, I tried the PRAM test (when it died on me last year), and I'm pretty sure that it was zeroed down to the logic board. However, I could be confusing my PB for my cousin's dead 15th PB that I helped sell last year :). Anyone know where I can find step by step instructions on diagnosing a dead pb?? That would be very useful ....!

Also, anyone have any thoughts on whether I should get this fixed or not?

cheers..
 
@eVolcre:
How did you get on with your 12"PB repair?

I am still using my 1Ghz 12" PB from 2004- I love the thing. I am running Leopard and Safari 4 and it does run, albeit slowly and youtube is a no-no.

After reading NC Mac guy, I do now wonder if going back to Tiger would be a good move. Without the Tiger disk, I don't know how I would go about it though.

Don't give up on the project, if you have the time, it will be worth it.
 
DanBUK said:
@eVolcre:
How did you get on with your 12"PB repair?

I am still using my 1Ghz 12" PB from 2004- I love the thing. I am running Leopard and Safari 4 and it does run, albeit slowly and youtube is a no-no.

After reading NC Mac guy, I do now wonder if going back to Tiger would be a good move. Without the Tiger disk, I don't know how I would go about it though.

Don't give up on the project, if you have the time, it will be worth it.
Click to expand...

I used to have tiger on my 12" 1.5Ghz PowerBook G4, Leopard runs faster, but it gets bogged down when too many things are open.
 
Yes, another revival - OP did you ultimately get the PB working (out of all the Macs I've owned the 12"PB was my fav), and if so I think we need some updated pics on the process ;).
 
Brilliant! Is it still okay?

My dad still uses the Powerbook I gave him a few years ago. Bought in 2004 and the only thing we've had to replace is the battery. I imagine the next owner will be the cockroaches at the end of the world. Indestructible!
 
Thought I'd update this thread. Just got back to the states for Christmas and will try again. Been traveling nonstop these last few years. This time if I can't fix it it's going to be sold or given away on the forums for a very nominal amount. Let someone have fun w it, it's just sitting on my desk.
 
Merry Christmas!

Having pulled many of these apart (just to get the Optical Drive out) I don't envy you replacing the logic board.

If you're good at fixing things with tinny screws and have a lot of patience then you should be fine. Just take it slowly.

What speed is it? You mention it MIGHT be an 867Mhz. If you look in the battery bay, you should see the original config label AND the serial number.

Ultimately, if it were a 1.5Ghz model, I'd give it a go but the 867Mhz was really underpowered.

In my experience, if you remove the battery and the charger plug still glows orange, that means that the internal recharge-able lithium backup battery is flat (it keeps the real time clock going when you change batteries). However, the fact that the PB12" DOESN"T have one and instead uses a slow discharge capacitor like the iBooks means that there is probably component damage. Beer is not real great. In fact, no liquid spill is kind to a laptop.

If you do get it apart, take some hi-resolution photos (or better yet, scan) the logic board on both sides if you can't see any problems (corrosion) on the board.

Good Luck!
 
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