HI. I replaced the right hinge, optical drive, and top case on a MB Core Duo. The top case & optical drive were used, hinge came from iFixit. When I got it back together, it kept kernel panicking.
Thinking the used optical drive was the problem, since it was making too many eject-attempt noises, I removed it, then experimented. I did try another top case with same result. I found that you can test booting without completely reassembling, with the top case just setting on top, though the hard drive cable (even with no HD) needs to be connected for the power light to illuminate. I thought there might be a problem with the cables that route around the optical drive, though I was extremely careful in the original repair to route them tidily and comfortably.
Now it doesn't kernel panic any more, but most of the time there's no chime, just a brief flash from the display, then nothing (it is providing power to an external USB drive). When it sometimes does boot, it won't stay on--after a few minutes the video goes black, there seems to be no disk activity (using either an internal or external boot drive), but the power light is steady on. I've tried numerous combinations of firmware and SMC resets, and actually got it halfway through a Leopard installation once (from a USB drive), then it shut off again.
Latest try: fired it up in Target mode, connected to another MB, and used the other MB to successfully install Leopard from a USB drive. This is with the optical drive in the target MB connected but just laying inside, and the top case just laying on top. So in this scenario I'm using the logic board in the good MB to do the heavy lifting and the sick MB is just acting as an external HD. The video is still fine, firewire symbol bouncing happily around.
It's rebooted to itself now, and installing updates it shut off again; the USB drive was lit, the internal drive was spinning, the power light was off, and when I restarted it I got a KP at boot. Based on this description, can anyone tell me what might be wrong? Could perhaps a damaged video cable (from the original broken hinge) cause a shutoff like that? I read somewhere else that routing those cables can be very tricky. I wonder if the logic board is the problem, since in target mode it worked long enough to install Leopard.
Thanks for any assistance.
BTW a white MacBook looks pretty cool with a black top case.
[quote|colleenthompson]HI. I replaced the right hinge, optical drive, and top case on a MB Core Duo. The top case & optical drive were used, hinge came from iFixit. When I got it back together, it kept kernel panicking.
Thinking the used optical drive was the problem, since it was making too many eject-attempt noises, I removed it, then experimented. I did try another top case with same result. I found that you can test booting without completely reassembling, with the top case just setting on top, though the hard drive cable (even with no HD) needs to be connected for the power light to illuminate. I thought there might be a problem with the cables that route around the optical drive, though I was extremely careful in the original repair to route them tidily and comfortably.
Now it doesn't kernel panic any more, but most of the time there's no chime, just a brief flash from the display, then nothing (it is providing power to an external USB drive). When it sometimes does boot, it won't stay on--after a few minutes the video goes black, there seems to be no disk activity (using either an internal or external boot drive), but the power light is steady on. I've tried numerous combinations of firmware and SMC resets, and actually got it halfway through a Leopard installation once (from a USB drive), then it shut off again.
Latest try: fired it up in Target mode, connected to another MB, and used the other MB to successfully install Leopard from a USB drive. This is with the optical drive in the target MB connected but just laying inside, and the top case just laying on top. So in this scenario I'm using the logic board in the good MB to do the heavy lifting and the sick MB is just acting as an external HD. The video is still fine, firewire symbol bouncing happily around.
It's rebooted to itself now, and installing updates it shut off again; the USB drive was lit, the internal drive was spinning, the power light was off, and when I restarted it I got a KP at boot. Based on this description, can anyone tell me what might be wrong? Could perhaps a damaged video cable (from the original broken hinge) cause a shutoff like that? I read somewhere else that routing those cables can be very tricky. I wonder if the logic board is the problem, since in target mode it worked long enough to install Leopard.
Thanks for any assistance.
BTW a white MacBook looks pretty cool with a black top case.[/quote]
