Powerbook G4 , no audio

[Pontoneer]

I recently bought a 17" PB G4 , 1Ghz with 1 gig RAM on eBay .

 

The machine is a minter , completely unmarked and works perfectly , except for a lack of audio . The seller did point this out beforehand and I bought it hoping it would be easy to fix .

 

The machine is primarily for photography , internet and email so audio is not vital but would be nice to have . I still have my previous PB G3 Pismo which works fine but the screen was getting dim in its old age and the 400 Mhz processor doesn't cut it anymore , hence the newer machine .

 

I know the 1Ghz G4 isn't all that fast by today's standards , but I have a dual 2.5Ghz Powermac G5 at home ; this Powerbook does have a nice , bright 17" matte screen and it is fine where I have to process a few photographs at a job and burn a CD for an end user .

 

When I got the PB , it had Leopard installed along with iLife 08 . My first course of action (after jiggling a pair of headphones in the jack socket to test for a fault there) was to do a complete erase and clean install (initially of Tiger) . Since there was still no audio with Tiger , I then put Leopard back on . At some point , I tried resetting the PRAM , this did not seem to make any difference , but again somewhere along the line I pressed the power button when already holding down CTRL , OPT , P , R and got both the startup chime plus the second chime - this is the most audio I've had from the machine . Being unsure of the RAM , even though the system profiler showed it as 'OK' , I tried each piece separately and in each slot - still no audio . I also tried resetting the PMU - Shift , CTRL , OPT , PR without any luck . I'll most likely replace the RAM with 2x 1Gig sticks before long as I tend to max out RAM in all my machines .

 

I should also state that I had been through system preferences and checked all the settings in the Sound pane , also audio MIDI setup :- everything seems to be as it should be , when the volume buttons at the top of the keyboard are pressed , the dots on the screen go up and down ; it all looks right but nothing is heard . The only sound from the loudspeakers is a 'thump' when the unit is powered on , after that - silence .

 

A visit to the 'Mac Genius' bar at the Glasgow Apple Store , just came up with the opinion that it would need a new Logic Board and the board would be 'around £500' , plus the repair charge . Since that was considerably more than I paid for the machine and more than the problem is worth to me , I left it at that .

 

I looked on the internet for disassembly instructions - I had expected the unit to be horrendous to pull apart because it is so compact - and was pleasantly surprised to find it is really easy to work on . I was also pleasantly surprised to find there is a separate audio board . The whole unit looked like it had never been disturbed previously , but I unplugged the ribbon cable linking the main logic board to the audio board , checking for damage to the contacts at each end then replaced it , making sure it was properly seated at both ends .

 

Being no further forward , but still having a machine that is fine in every other aspect , I went on to update to 10.5.1 and installed all my software . I've been using it for 2 or 3 weeks now without any other problems arising : it runs Lightroom and CS3 just fine . The Superdrive is pretty slow to burn DVD's , only wanting to burn at 1x speed (I use Toast 8 Titanium) although CD's don't take so long . There are newer and faster optical drives available so I might upgrade if I find this a pain .

 

I started a topic over on the Apple discussion forums re this problem , and OVER THERE A NUMBER OF PEOPLE HAVE REPLIED THAT THEY HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS EXACT SAME PROBLEM AFTER INSTALLING A RECENT SECURITY UPDATE onto various Powerbook G4 computers . For some people , resetting PRAM has worked after several attempts , for others like me nothing has worked .

 

For all I know , my machine may have had this security update installed before I got it - I have no way of knowing - I bought it with this fault , got it fairly cheap and have no comeback against the seller .

 

The two most likely scenarios I can think of are either a hardware fault ( logic board or audio board ) or the firmware has become corrupted somehow .

 

I was looking to see if there's a way to download and restore the original firmware , but haven't found anything so far . I did find THIS website , which is a big plus , this is one of the best Mac forums I have found so far

 

Does anyone here know if there's a way to do a firmware restore ?

 

I'm keeping a lookout for a spares machine going cheap , maybe one with a damaged/broken screen , so that I can get a logic board/audio board out of it ; that seems my best option .

 

Does anyone here know if I can fit a logic board from one of the faster 17" G4 Powerbooks ? I suppose it depends mainly on the port layout being the same so that it fits my case ? Unless I hear otherwise that someone has successfully fitted one , I'll look for an exact replacement .

 

Has anyone else on here had this problem ? More importantly , has anyone found a solution ??

[(MoC)]

Well, I really do not know if you can find a fw update to re-flash it. But I don't think it would be worth it. Sell the PB on ebay as-is and get a newer PB 1.67 GHZ 15". I wouldn't go through that much trouble!

[Pontoneer]

Well, I really do not know if you can find a fw update to re-flash it. But I don't think it would be worth it. Sell the PB on ebay as-is and get a newer PB 1.67 GHZ 15". I wouldn't go through that much trouble!

 

 

I really am not inclined to sell it - I like the 17" screen for photo processing , I wouldn't want to go back to a smaller screen - with the wide screen you can still have your pallettes and toolbars beside a good sized image .

 

A machine as mint as mine would cost something like £500 - £800 fully working , more for one of the newer models with a faster processor ; I'd been watching the prices for a while before I bought this one for just over £300 .

 

While I'd quite like to get the audio working , I'll just live with it as is if I don't find a cost effective fix .

[(MoC)]

Google for a lboard replacement for your model and see...

[Pontoneer]

They do turn up on eBay , at inflated prices as the guys breaking machines want every last penny of profit .

 

I'm watching for a complete machine with knackered screen for a bargain price , and am in no great hurry .