StevieB from ABQ

I got this laptop from a friend. She said it was dead. My first thought was the battery thus I have checked and OEM...

I have 2 RAM chips (2 GB PC3-10600S-09-11-b2) from an upgrade. My A1342 has 2 1GB PC3-8500 RAM chips. Could I use the...

This question was asked and the answer didn't solve my problem thus asking it again. I got this Mac (A1342) from a friend...

Another question about my daughter's PB. The airport card sees her wireless network but will not connect to it thus no...

I see that Rick asked a similar question (21 Feb or so) and has not provided additional details so here is my problem,...

I swapped out the optical drive from what was supposed to be a dead 12" PowerBook into a revived G4 iBook. (upon...

What is the Largest Hard Drive currently available for my 2.4 GHz MacBook? Western Digital's 1TB & 750 GB SATA 3 Gb/s...

I removed a 30 GB HD from a G4 iBook (1.2Mhz) and replaced it with a 40 GB that already had OS 10.5 on it. The laptop...

A few years ago, I downloaded from your site a screw guide fr my 12 inch PowerBook. I put double sided scotch tape (placed...

OK, she replaced the battery and now the computer works normally. Sees the network, connects...even keeps the correct time and date. Now I am really confused... Any one know why?

OK, she replaced the battery and now the computer works normally. Sees the network, connects...even keeps the correct time and date. Now I am really confused... (similar post on my other thread.)

I put a 1 G chip into my 12" PB, 1.33 GHz. Got the chip off Amazon, fairly cheap if I remember. I think it was about 38 bucks plus shipping, less then 42 bucks total. I also put a dual layer burner into it also. It runs great, even running Leopard.

OK, To close this out. I found this video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE8FJDRWp... . It is one of three (this one is clip 2). It is a YouTube video of a 12/14" iBook G4 disassembly. Quite good. It certainly augments the written instructions. At the 2:45 minute point is clearly shows the magnet I forgot to re-install. Recommend the site instructions be updated to include this magnet.

My 12" PB got dropped from about 5 feet by a porter and then failed to come on. When I pushed the 'on' button, I'd hear a couple of clicks, feel the HD spin up but nothing else. No screen, non-responsive to keys and had to not only unplug it, had to remove the battery to turn off. The top of the unit where the HD sits got EXTREMELY hot. Was told by a 'repair' shop that the motherboard was damaged and it would be cheaper to get a newer machine than repair the PB. That was 15 months ago. A couple of weeks ago I salvaged parts (memory and optical) to upgrade an iBook and put the old parts back in the PB for practice/experience. I thought what the heck, wonder if it now works?? And it did!! Must have been a connection that got knocked loose. Not saying if your situation is the same but the optical removal was nearly a complete teardown so most if not all the connections were 'broken' and then remade. Couldn't hurt to try on yours. If it does not work, what have you got to lose other than time. Think of the...

iFixit has detailed instructions for tear down and how to open up an optical drive. Not sure as to how comfortable you are with being a 'do it yourselfer' but my limited dealings with computer stores is that their technicians are not more competent than I am. With the correct tools (Lowe’s has some 8-1 tool kits for the flat/Phillips head screwdrivers (#1, #0, #00 and #000) as well Torx 8-1 tool kits) and a little fearless attitude, you can do nearly all replacements/repairs yourself. Will definitely need a grounding wrist band to shunt off any static (CRITICAL) and plastic ‘pry tool’ (like spudger, I use a Tupperware orange peeler). A soft pad to lay the computer on while working on it. AND read the instructions at least twice BEFORE starting. Piece of cake….(grin)

Yes, also the Optical drives and memory chips are interchangeable. I recently took the optical drive as well as the HD out of my 1.33 GHz 12 inch PowerBook (phew, what a tear down that was!!) and placed them in a 1.2 GHz G4 iBook. I put the combo drive and HD back into the PowerBook for S & G's since I had a repair shop tell me the PowerBook's motherboard was damaged after a bellhop dropped it November of '08. What the heck, experience is experience. I also took the 512 MB chip out of the bottom and placed it in the iBook. There is 256 MB on the board of the PowerBook so it would not miss the chip, besides, it was supposed to be dead. The iBook works like a champ (also a previous victim of a Apple store Mac-Genius telling my ex it's motherboard was shot). All it needed was a DC-IN board ($49.95 from here) and it came back to life. Now with 768 MB of RAM, a superdrive all courtesy of the alleged dead PowerBook, runs great. It even runs Leopard but I plan on going back to Tiger once I find the darn disks....