pssssst! brainfag is retired! i'm now at natebeaty.com

 

Damn, I fixed my old junk.

posted in Geek Talk on June 05, 2006

I didn't get a good picture of just how extensively I had to disassemble my cantankerous Powerbook to put in the eBay-procured, $200 logic board replacement, which is a shame, because it was pretty gruesome. You basically have to take the entire thing apart, pulling off the airport card, hard drive, optical drive, DC-in board, and modem filter, and then with tons of little screws and ribbon cables delicately splayed, yank out the logic board.

TiBook Repair

The guide I was using (iFixit: very cool resource) said simply to reverse the order of disassembly, but didn't give much advice on that front. I cleaned up the main processor (which had goo spread all over it, looking much like the MacBook Pro photos circulating), applied a thin layer of Arctic Silver thermal compound, and then as delicately as I could, jammed the whole thing back together.

Once assembled, I plugged it in, and CHIME! Wala! It works! Haha! So not Hacksaw Buasky!

We watched some Six Feet Under on it, noting that the speakers and screen are way better than the plastic MacBook we'd previously been using. The TiBook is a damn nice computer when it works.

So now what? Do I really need to keep my $1800 replacement computer? For some reason I got so depressed when my old computer was fixed, as that means it's not a clearcut decision anymore. Agh!

6 comments on this entry

As usual, you are the fix-it genius, you irritatingly-brilliant SOB. It's beautiful to hear people ripping straight into the mystery-shrouded heart of the MAC technocracy... Go, cowboy, go.

Dwight 6/5/06
 

Ha. Congrats.

You should prolly keep yr macbook pro... I bet you'll be upgrading within the year, anyway. Then you can run the snazzy stuff like Light Room. And boot camp. Plus, you & Soon Bok can go sit at cafes with separate laptops... hee.

BTW, there's a bunch of macbooks (13") on ebay, selling for close to what you'll pay brand new...

Joseph 6/5/06
 

Man, I have this 17" Apple flat panel display (the acrylic kind, not aluminum) along with the box that connects it to a laptop. It stopped working the other day mysteriously - the power still goes on and the computer sees it's there, but no display. If you think you can fix it, get in touch with me today and it's yours! You fixer upper you. I don't know what to do with it or what it's worth in this condition....

Raymond 6/6/06
 

@dwight: ha! yeah, stumbling through the fog.. i was seriously nervous about opening up my TiBook when i first got it, which is where i'm at with the MBP i guess, but in the last 3 years i did a lot of repairs on the ol' TiBook, mostly dealing with the notorious pinched trackpad ribbon cable.

@joseph: i think i am gonna keep the MBP. i'm about to ride it down to apple to have the superdrive replaced.. fun!

@ray: sure! i'm not sure what that could be, but maybe it's something simple..

Nate 6/6/06
 

nate,

i didn't get to comment on this earlier, but i really can't express how badass you are for doing all this shit, between making that awesome stand for your computer to fixing your old one... you really are a renaissance man.

high-five to you.

jonathan 6/11/06
 

anybody that can fix one o' those is awesome. and rocks. you rock, awesomely. or something like that.

wils 4/19/07
 
 

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