Ibook G4

[michaelthehannigan]

So I'm going to probably buy an 800mhz g4 ibook from a friend of mine but it has a problem, when the computer is placed upon a flat surface, such as the desk im writing on, or a table, it runs perfectly. When the laptop is moved around, ie taken from one desk to another, the computer freezes up. For him this is a not a problem, he's just going to buy a new macbook pro and call it a day, for me it won't be either, if i can't get it working properly I'll turn it into a picture frame for school. However having taken this into apple, he has been told that the logic board has a crack in it causing this problem. However , and as a precursur I have yet to open it, many people say that inserting a shim in between the case and the logic board housing will fix this. If I can fix this it would be a great help to me as my current hackintosh is slated for reformating for school. Any ideas?

[tainice]

Adding a shim is only a temporary fix. Best way is to open up the case and solder the parts together.

[bofors]

I do not think a shim is necessarily temporary at all. One could certainly epoxy it into place. It also is much safer then trying to solder the circuit board (if that is even a feasible in this case). I think shimming is definitely the way to go here. It is easy, safe and should work.

 

The real question here is what kind of material are you going to use for a shim. Obviously, you probably want something non-conductive, but you also want something stiff enough to last for a long time. Aluminum might be the way to go (perhaps shielded with some insulator), but rubber could be even better. I am thinking that you could just put some rubber bands in the case to tighten things up. You should not have to worry about heat to much, the G4 is fairly cool.

[RideTheCliche]

The shim is not a real fix but a nice hack... the deal is that those iBooks had a dodgy logic board; a solder joint on the ATI GPU would break over time, causing flakiness and eventual failure. The shim would push the GPU into the logic board.

 

Forget about a solder fix, IIRC the ATI GPU is a BGA (Ball Grid Array) not a quad flat-pack form factor; you'd need some specialized equipment to fix it.

[-TiLT-]

Obviously, you probably want something non-conductive[...] Aluminum might be the way to go (perhaps shielded with some insulator)

 

Aluminum: Electrical resistivity (20 °C) 26.50 nΩ·m

Copper: Electrical resistivity (20 °C) 16.78 nΩ·m

Insulator: Electrical resistivity (20 °C) nearly infinite nΩ·m

 

Aluminium might not be the best choice

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_conductor

[michaelthehannigan]

so i may have fixed the problem. i opened up the case once and inserted about five business cards into the area just above the video, and it worked for a couple of days, then it would freeze about half an hour into using the computer, i opened it up again and inserted abbout ten cards this time. I just worry about the cards bending, but i was just thinking that a flat piece of hard rubber with a high flex point might work even bettter, i really dont want to damage the case before i get the chance to change it.

 

I guess i will try this for a while and if it works then i shall not worry, if it doesnt work for a long time i can move into the whole clamp thing i guess. Its a really low power consumption, low heat machine for what it packs.

 

BTW does anyone else seem to have this problem with their machine?

[Swad]

I think there have been quite a few problems with the logic boards of the ibook, from what I've heard.