There's a short on the motherboard. Last night, I had some time to strip the iBook completely down. I had the bare motherboard connected to the battery and the LCD screen (data + power). Attempting to plug in the AC adapter made a small pop, and the indicator light on the adapter dimmed and flashed regularly. I assumed that was because it is a switching-type power supply, and it was attempting to save itself and/or the iBook due to an exceptional condition.
I think that the short is most likely due to the component that blew up on Sunday and released its magic smoke. I still have not identified which component it was. I could not locate any scorch marks or other signs.
Also, I disassembled the screen and used the volt meter on the inverter board. The 4 wires going into the board tested OK. They had DC voltage. However, the two wires coming out of the plastic connector that connects to the LCD panel did not register on the volt meter. However, the LCD panel still shows an image. It's just the backlight will not come on with any amount of fiddling.
Just to recap: the iBook will still boot up and load whatever OS is on the HD. I can still use it with an external monitor (which is what I did last night), and it claims that the battery still has about 2 hours of life left on it.
However, due to the fact that the logic board has a fault, and now the inverter board also appears to have a fault, I think that I'm going to call it quits on this poor machine. I'll save some of the components (AirPort, RAM, HD, DVD, battery) and recycle the rest.
I think that the short is most likely due to the component that blew up on Sunday and released its magic smoke. I still have not identified which component it was. I could not locate any scorch marks or other signs.
Also, I disassembled the screen and used the volt meter on the inverter board. The 4 wires going into the board tested OK. They had DC voltage. However, the two wires coming out of the plastic connector that connects to the LCD panel did not register on the volt meter. However, the LCD panel still shows an image. It's just the backlight will not come on with any amount of fiddling.
Just to recap: the iBook will still boot up and load whatever OS is on the HD. I can still use it with an external monitor (which is what I did last night), and it claims that the battery still has about 2 hours of life left on it.
However, due to the fact that the logic board has a fault, and now the inverter board also appears to have a fault, I think that I'm going to call it quits on this poor machine. I'll save some of the components (AirPort, RAM, HD, DVD, battery) and recycle the rest.