I'm the mac daddy

[gav]

the other day my screen went blank on my ibook. I could fainlty see something so took a look at some help sites and diagnosed that the backlight cable had broken within the lid hinge.
Called the local Mac repair place and they said it would take 3 - 4 weeks to get a cable and cost about 150 euro to fix !!!
Yikes !! I thought.
Downloaded a service manual, took the whole thing apart to detach the cable(bad design) and sure enough 1 wire was broken and another on it's way.
snipped out a section and soldered a new bit in. put it all back together and amazingly it works !!!!

So if anyone has this problem, it's something you can do yourself.

Just had to brag about it, even though I have 3 tiny screws left over ????
woops.

[Jim]

Nice. I've never hacked my mac apart like that before, but now I'm not so scared to try.

I usually have one screw/bolt/nut leftover after taking something apart, but if I had THREE, I think I'd go back and see where I forgot to put them.

[Rachel Peters]

I once took apart a salami sandwich, put it back together, and had two screws and one bolt left over.

[gav]

Actually the previous run down was exactly true. The first time I opened it and tried to fix it the problem was 'screen tilt' dependent I put it back together and it didn't work at all. It was only then that I downloaded the service manual and tried again. I had those same 3 screws left over the first time and on the second attemot I felt sure I would find a home for them.
Couldn't see where they went. I'm assuming they are 3 of many that hold down the internal shielding.

I recomend an ice cube tray to seperate all the screws.
I also recomend that you don't step on it and make all the screws jump to another compartment !!

If you want a simple mod. You can open the the screen and put a different colour of plastic where the light shines through the apple logo.

[Mr Qwirk]

a few months back, i brought an internal superdrive - dissasembled my ibook, took out the old CDRW and put in the new DVD burner. best thing i ever did! it runs like a champ!!

[gav]

I have a new career

High on the success of the ibook repair I decided to have a go at an old dv camera that hadn't worked for 2 years and was of an age that I didn't want to pay for it to be repaired.
Much smaller screws, but I took better care to document where they all came from and.......
Success, again !!!
2 repairs in one day.
I've got a retirement career.

[fettucinibrother]

Mac Dude!!!

You are an inspiration to all of us who are mechanically challenged. I am a serious Mac user and have never dreamed of doing the kinds of things you speak of. My hats off to you, indeed. Let me know when you are going into repair business.
Alfredo

[gav]

I'll start now, trouble is I'm in Zagreb Croatia. That's why I did it myself, because it takes forever for them to get parts or send away for repairs here.

[Paul Garbanzo]

hey gav,

speaking of Croatia, I would love to find out more about this festival you've been talking about there. my troupe is going to be in Italy this june and we could make a trip out there if you're interested. I tried to send you an email privately, but your email is full.

send me an email and let me know what's up!! paul@garbanzojuggling.com

https://www.garbanzojuggling.com

talk to you soon!

paul

[Lee Nelson]

yo mac daddy

looking for some help from the premier mac agony aunt on pnet.

Dear Gav

In the side of my powerbook, the headphone jack is working fine but the microphone jack is getting nothing so I cant use Skype and stuff.
What do you think the problem is? Should I take it in or should I grab a small screwdriver and a soldering iron and get busy??

Yours in skype silence
Lee