Pin 28 on your Vreg chip has come loose from the logic board.
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/tips/iBookG4_vreg_repair/ibookG4_vreg_repair.html
You don't have to scrape the laminate from the logic board to repair it (if you were to solder the pin back down it would work fine) but I would advise doing so where possible. I repair these iBooks pretty frequently and to scrape the laminate back and solder to the copper below is a must if you ask me, otherwise the board flexing will only crack pin 28 again. That extended solder allows some room for flexing. The pins themselves are quite densely packed together and are around 0.8mm in width each, so the finer tip soldering iron you can use, the better. A magnifying glass is also recommended.
The symptoms of a broken Pin 28 on the Vreg chip is a seemingly random dropout of the system to a grey screen. The backlight of the LCD continues working but the video doesn't. The computer may respond to Caps Lock, etc but overall the system will be frozen. The issue can be compounded when the computer is moved or picked up because it causes the board to shift, and the pin loses contact. If you force shut down and restart the system, the computer will boot as normal but eventually the issue will reappear again. Sometimes, in severe cases, the computer will not reboot as normal and you will get absolutely nothing (no video, no keyboard, no HD activity, no chime) but the rear enclosure fan whirring at full speed.
From what i've found, the GPU isn't at fault as commonly on iBook G4's due to the relocation of the GPU chip on these models. The GPU is positioned just to the left of the RAM/AirPort slot below the keyboard as opposed to the left of the trackpad on the iBook G3s.
Pushing down on the chip with a shim may work, but it can't by any means be considered a permanent repair. The "shim fix" lasted about a week on both of my iBook G4s, but the solder repair is going on 3 or 4 months now without an issue.
For the sake of reference, most of the repairs i've seen are home repairs, but i'm also sure if you printed the above article out and took it to any electronics repairer, they could probably do the job. Bonus points if you already have the machine opened for them since that part is pretty tricky.
Good luck with it, heres hoping you can get it running smoothly again.
Cheers
- Michael
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/tips/iBookG4_vreg_repair/ibookG4_vreg_repair.html
You don't have to scrape the laminate from the logic board to repair it (if you were to solder the pin back down it would work fine) but I would advise doing so where possible. I repair these iBooks pretty frequently and to scrape the laminate back and solder to the copper below is a must if you ask me, otherwise the board flexing will only crack pin 28 again. That extended solder allows some room for flexing. The pins themselves are quite densely packed together and are around 0.8mm in width each, so the finer tip soldering iron you can use, the better. A magnifying glass is also recommended.
The symptoms of a broken Pin 28 on the Vreg chip is a seemingly random dropout of the system to a grey screen. The backlight of the LCD continues working but the video doesn't. The computer may respond to Caps Lock, etc but overall the system will be frozen. The issue can be compounded when the computer is moved or picked up because it causes the board to shift, and the pin loses contact. If you force shut down and restart the system, the computer will boot as normal but eventually the issue will reappear again. Sometimes, in severe cases, the computer will not reboot as normal and you will get absolutely nothing (no video, no keyboard, no HD activity, no chime) but the rear enclosure fan whirring at full speed.
From what i've found, the GPU isn't at fault as commonly on iBook G4's due to the relocation of the GPU chip on these models. The GPU is positioned just to the left of the RAM/AirPort slot below the keyboard as opposed to the left of the trackpad on the iBook G3s.
Pushing down on the chip with a shim may work, but it can't by any means be considered a permanent repair. The "shim fix" lasted about a week on both of my iBook G4s, but the solder repair is going on 3 or 4 months now without an issue.
For the sake of reference, most of the repairs i've seen are home repairs, but i'm also sure if you printed the above article out and took it to any electronics repairer, they could probably do the job. Bonus points if you already have the machine opened for them since that part is pretty tricky.
Good luck with it, heres hoping you can get it running smoothly again.
Cheers
- Michael