Overooped

National Consumer Agency of Denmark: iBook Lab Report

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:42:00 +0100

National Consumer Agency of Denmark: iBook Lab Report:

Okay, so back in 2006, the consumer agency of Denmark did some research on why the iBook G4’s logic board seems to break after 12-18 months. Turns out it’s almost always the same fault: a ISL 6225CA chip where the pins 1 and 28 are badly solded to the board, which makes the solder crack. This is why clamping or shimming the iBook makes it work, it rejoins the solder temporarily. Several users have tried to solder the break or shim the motherboard. Shimming only seems to work for a while, while soldering seems to work great.

It’s odd that I had such a hard time to find this report, given that it’s by far the most common reason why an iBook G4 breaks.

It’s about an hour til’ the next year comes round,...

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:48:00 +0100

It’s about an hour til’ the next year comes round, so I put the project in a box to work on it later. BUT HEY, why not boot it while it’s in the box? OHYEAH.

Okay, still broken, but at least FREE OF ITS PLASTIC PRISON!

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:47:00 +0100

Okay, still broken, but at least FREE OF ITS PLASTIC PRISON!

I’m building a wearable computer. Starting with getting...

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:45:00 +0100

I’m building a wearable computer. Starting with getting this old iBook working. Ohyeah.

Broken iBook. Anyone know what this could be? Update: I’m...

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:45:00 +0100

Broken iBook. Anyone know what this could be?

Update: I’m pretty sure it’s a broken graphics card. In the kernel panic crash report, the graphics driver is always in the call stack.