Curtis, if you buy a new airport/bluethoot card and you install it my advice would be to test the card before closing the iBook top case. You don't want to reopen the case if the card doesn't work don't you ?

To do it you need an external usb keyboard and mouse. So install the card then connect the external keyboard and the mouse.

Connect the top case power switch connector in his socket (at the upper left of the iBook logic board, the blue and white cable) then plug the AC adapter to the iBook. Push the power button, the iBook should boot and once it's booted check if the card is seen by the computer in the Apple menu "About this Mac..". If so open iTunes and play songs with animations on full screen for half an hour or play a movie (we need an intensive job done to heat the iBook heatsink). If the card is still seen by the computer and there were no freeze or kernel panicks during the itunes animations playback then the card and the card socket should be OK. You can reassemble the machine. If the same problem occurs with the new card then you have the AP slot failure so take off the card and use a wireless USB dongle.

The iBook G4 1.33Ghz 12" and the iBook G4 1.42Ghz 14" are the only 2 iBooks G4 models that use the airport/bluethoot card (model: A1126). The card is installed deep inside the machine and you must open the iBook to reach it. There's a well documented issue about the AP/bluethoot card slot failure on the 1.33 12" model causing kernel panick events or card not "seen" by the computer. In many cases the bluethoot service is still available but the only cure for the slot malfunction is to take off the card and use a wireless USB dongle instead. Another solution is to install a shim over the card to apply pressure to the card connector but the fix doesn't appears to work for ever. For more infos about the issue just google:

iBook G4 1.33 airport card socket

http://www.ehmac.ca/mac-iPod-help-troubl...

http://www.macrecycling.com/images/produ...

With respect for what Lemerise said, I've also seen this card go bad, replaced it with no further problems. Here's the card: iBook G4 12" 1.33 GHz or 14" 1.42 GHz Airport/Bluetooth...

Here's how to put it in: Installing iBook G4 12" 1.33 GHz AirPort/Bluetooth Board

Just to add a few comments -- this problem seems to have varying levels of severity. Anything from freezing, to the Airport not being recognized, to the machine failing to boot into the OS. But it's pretty common, to the point where when I'm stuck figuring out how to fix a machine of this model, I ALWAYS try removing the Airport, just to see if whatever problem it's having is being caused by this issue, and fairly often it is. If a machine has this issue, I wrap the two Airport cables with tape (so they don't touch each other or short out the board), and then tape them to the bottom of the board, and leave the Airport out of the machine entirely. Also, I have found some 1.2GHZ 12" iBooks with the internal Airport as well, although they are nowhere near as common as the 1.33GHZ 12" iBook.