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tsingher2002

iBook G4 won't boot; possible water damage

Reply by tsingher2002

I have an iBook G4 1.2Ghz machine. When I press the power button there is a very faint flicker on the screen, and after about 3 seconds, the CPU fan spins up full and remains spinning; nothing else happens. It was found in a very shallow puddle of water; I'm trying to determine if only the DC board is fried or if the logic board is the culprit.

The power adapter lights up when plugged in, but the battery does not appear to charge. When I press the status button on the battery, only one light appears and it's flashing.

I hope this gives someone more knowledgeable than I enough info to let me know whether I'm replacing the DC board or the logic board. Or both.

Thanks for your help!

Dave

tsingher2002

Reply reply by tsingher2002

Correction. I left it charging overnight, and it appears that the battery does charge. Sounds like I need a logic board?

QEII Student IT

Reply reply by QEII Student IT

Try booting from an external drive to see if it is your hard drive

tsingher2002

Reply reply by tsingher2002

I tried booting from an external drive; I also tried booting to the OS X installation disk. It doesn't get far enough into the post. With just the battery, nothing happens when I press the power button. With the power adapter plugged in, there's a delay of roughly a second after I press the power button, then there's a solenoid-ish sound, another second or two, and then the CPU fan spins up full. And that's all that happens. It would be nice if it were just the DC board. Any ideas?

lemerise

Reply reply by lemerise

from the symptoms you described I think you got the U28 chip failure on your motherboard. Try to google:

U28 iBook G4

to know more about it.

tsingher2002

Reply reply by tsingher2002

I didn't know about this. I tried some of the suggestions, i.e., clamping, squeezing, but it didn't work. Think I'm gonna just pull the hard drive, save my data and move on to my next laptop. Thanks for all your help.

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