This article was posted to the Usenet group alt.hackers in
1995; any technical information is probably outdated.
How to fix a Mac PowerBook
Article: 7520 of alt.hackers Newsgroups: alt.hackers From: J.P.Knight@lut.ac.uk (Jon P. Knight) Subject: How to fix a Mac PowerBook Originator: jon@hill.lut.ac.uk Message-ID: D5J4zt.Ex0@lut.ac.uk Sender: usenet@lut.ac.uk (Usenet-News) Approved: me Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995 10:55:05 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: hill.lut.ac.uk Organization: Dept of Comp. Studies, Loughborough University of Tech., UK. Lines: 32 Status: RO
OBHack: I picked up an Apple PowerBook 140 6/20 about a year ago for about 400 pounds (it was a refurbished ex-Apple internal usage machine). Everything was fine and dandy except that after a few months the LCD display would suddenly go black and I'd have to thump it a bit to get it to come back on. A bit annoying but not a real problem. Anyway, about a week ago the display finally gave up the ghost completely; no amount of thumping or twisting would bring it back to life. I managed to get hold of a no. 8 Torx screwdriver (I really must buy a set of these for myself!) and opened up the display case. As I did so, the display came back on. Ah great I thought. As I pushed the display case back on, the display went off again. Bummer. Time for a hack: I moved the display case back and forth and noticed that it was moving a thin plastic ribbon cable on the right hand side of the LCD by pressing down on some metalicised cardboard (which I assume is some sort of shield). The cable was firmly seated in its connectors so I could only assume that it had a broken track or loose joint that was being separated by the pressure of the cardboard pressing against it. To overcome this I simply cut a strip out of the cardboard shield around the ribbon cable. When I put the display case back on, there was no cardboard to press against the ribbon cable and so the LCD carried on working. Bingo! As I'v heard lots of people whinging about the cost of replacing PB140 LCDs I thought I'd pass this on for your delictation and delight. Jon -- <A HREF="http://hill.lut.ac.uk/People/jon.html"> Jon Knight </A> * Its not how big your share is, its how much you share that's important. *