Someone gave me their old Powerbook 17 inch G4 with the 1.67ghz cpu/512 megs of ram/100 gig drive. I love this laptop and would love to get it running.
It has intermittent lockups that are not software related. It just seems to hard lock at random times and then on a regular basis, it refused to boot, it just bongs and the screen stays dark. Other times it just runs perfectly normally.
I tried all the typical troubleshooting such as different ram, reset pram, etc. I also opened it up and reseated all the easily accessible ribbon cables.
At this point, I'm betting its a motherboard or other related daughter card.
Is there any place where I can buy replacement motherboards from scrapped laptops (a laptop salvage vendor). I see lots of places where I can buy various windows based laptop parts, but I can't find any Apple based ones.
I prefer to not deal with Apple directly since the motherboard from them is probably going to be more expensive than the laptop is worth.
Any suggestions on parts suppliers or even suggestions on what might be wrong with the laptop?
`
Also, when it bongs and stays at the black screen, the external port doesn't work either (no external video).
It's a long shot, but there is an outside possibility that there may still be warranty coverage on your PowerBook. As for parts, your best bet will be a local Apple repair shop (not CompUSA, not the Apple Store, but a bonified independent apple shop). The parts won't be cheap, however they will be cheaper from the reseller than anywhere else short of the occasional eBay auction of parts that may or may not work. The parts places on the web typically charge 1.5-2x what the part sells for from a reseller.
Here's an example ... http://www.ifixit.com/cart/customer/product.php?productid=1167&cat=&page=2 $50 for a part that costs all of $10, maybe even $15 from an apple reseller tops! Apple's pricing isn't always that bad.
Assuming that the issue did not stem from a liquid spill, you can expect to spend $600/$650 for a board from a reseller plus labor (about an hour or so) to do an exchange of the defective board. If you want to buy a new board without an exchange, expect to spend a minimum of $900, which is what PBfixit will charge you http://www.ifixit.com/cart/customer/product.php?productid=1431&cat=55&page=1 .
I'd say that you have a bad logic board as well, but chances are good that if you have a certified tech go over it, you can get a better idea of what's going on. As I recall, there was a logic board replacement program on that series machine due to bad ram slots (which this issue looks like one of the failure paths of a ram slot) Take it to an apple reseller to be checked out, you'll be glad you did.
Have you tried running Apple Hardware Test?
Thank you for that info.
No the machine is out of warranty. When the staff member brought me the laptop, that was the first thing I did (check for warranty entitlement). He only got the 1 year warranty and he bought it back in mid 2005 so its out of warranty.
I will check into what you suggest. I'm not against paying 600 or so for a new/warrantied used logic board but I would rather that someone check it out.
I'm really curious about the ram slot issue. That was my first thought as well when I first got the machine at my desk but i ruled that out due to the fact that I tried several different ram chips and they all experienced the same failure.
As for apple hardware test, no I can't get it to boot to the cd/dvd at all right now.
You can join join LEM-Swap for buying & selling Mac stuff. http://groups.google.com/group/lemswap
After you join, post a WTB (want to buy).
Cheers, Tom
Mac Troubleshooting, Maintenance & Tips
http://www.geocities.com/texas_macman/MacTroubleshoot.html
Thanks again!! New place to join...