Another iBook logic board repair

My iBook Logic Board Repair

What's on this page:
This is merely Yet Another iBook Logic Board Repair Experience.

Probably you came here through a link in the users-comment section of Corey Arnolds page on an iBook G4 logic board fix.
If you came here via an other link or a search page I recommend reading the page of Corey Arnold first, and from the beginning.

10/6/2007 Current status of my iBook: A deep coma again :'(
My attempts with using a shim on the chip were not successful on the longer term. Trying to reflow the solder worked much better. My iBook reached an 'uptime' of nearly a month. Then it failed again. A second reflow attempt went wrong, probably the PWM controller chip passed away due to the heat.

For me this is bad news, because I really liked this computer. With writing this experience down I do not mean to discourage people to resolder their logic board. But if you decide to resolder the notorious PWM chip, you have to be very very carefull. Depending on your skills and tools there might be a chance that it will not work out right.

If I would be in the same situation (same iBook, same knowledge same soldering experience, slightly better tools) I would try it again.
For now I have to use an other computer (PC) though.

Also defective iBook owners should be aware that actually this problem should be solved by Apple Inc. This is a structural design fault, it should not break down in this way. All the time and effort you put into the iBook now is done because the manufacturer (Apple Inc.) is not willing to help in a reasonable manner (at least until now)

So, my iBook kind of died forever after I tried to repair it for the 5th time. What went fine, what wrong, and what lessons can be learned?
First, in my experience, a reflow of the solder is a better solution. In my case it failed after a month. I think this is because I was 'too' cautious when I tried this the first time. It failed after a month probably for the same reasons as described in the Danish lab report. The second time I might have acted too courageous (partly due to the circumstances).
These circumstances were:
I'm not a specialist in soldering when it comes to tiny SMD components
I had not too much time to find the really good tools for this kind of
soldering. But I needed my computer for a presentation.

The reflow on the left side of the chip went very nice (pin 1). The reflow on the right side (pin 28), did not go so nice. The soldering took longer than I wanted. Probably the chip got overheated and broke down in the mean time.

Fortunately I could borrow an another notebook for a day. But I had to remove the iBooks harddisk to be able to access the latest version of the presentation. Btw, windows PC's run powerpoint too :-) .

When the time pressure dropped a little, I found an other lab with better equipment. At least they had a stereoscopic microscope.

Looking at the soldering joints with a good stereo microscope.

Also their soldering station was better suited for this sort of soldering.
In the "I-should-have-known.." dimension I maybe would not have been sitting behind this old Dell Computer (but lets be glad there is one). Thats the way things go.

3/5/2007 18:30 News:
Peter Hansen mentioned on the iBook G4 Logic Board Petition Site that the Danish Consumer Board investigated the issue and recently made a press release (opens in a new window).
This can have world-wide consequenses for the way Apple Inc. has to treat its customers.
This Danish Consumer Board also published a very interesting lab-report, with much better pictures than the pictures I made and published in this page.

I'm happy to see that Corey Arnolds took over this newsflash quickly. :-) This is important because I think Corey's page is getting an increasing amount of attention.

Now I will return to my previous story. This contained three attempts to use a shim. And the fourth attempt was my first try to do a reflow.
I still think that a decently applied reflow is a good solution. It has the potential to work for two years (as many iBook break down after "only" two years).
But again, ofourse if you intend to use any information given here, it is for your own risk.

My pre-repair experience:
I bought my 12" G4 1.2Ghz iBook somewhere in February 2005. I use it intensively, carry it along everywhere. It proved to be very very reliable, with one exception: Only once in the two months or so, the iBook did not wake up from standby, especially after I had traveled and wanted to start working. A cold boot was needed then.

In March 2007, the not-waking-up-from-standby suddenly became more frequent (once or twice a day). Then also the iBooks screen tended to turn black suddenly, after working an hour or so. Rebooting immediately resulted in a black screen and (sometimes, not always) a loud blowing fan. The errors became more frequent, for me my notebook became unusable.

Context: In February I just started with my graduation project. I really need something reliable to work on, and my only reliable alternative was a an old Windows Desktop computer. It works, but switching (back) to windows is time consuming, and kind of annoying :-(.

Then I started searching on the internet, and I found some very interesting and useful information. I will provide the links over here

A first try:
I used a rubber foot in order to press down the troublesome chip.

the notorious chip

This is the chip that needs a shim on its top.

Chip with rubber feet on top

The chip with a rubber feet on top. (maybe putting it somewhat more to the right might have been better, to increase to pressure on pin 1)

Result:
It worked! But after 5 days of continuous functioning, it crashed again :-(.

A second try:
It appeared to me, that this had something to do with heating up. Especially when I did video-intensive tasks, the crashes came sooner. I could imagine that, when the chip heats up after heavy use, it expands, and this might be an extra reason for loosing contact (when the soldering is not OK).
So, maybe it is better to try to use a metal shim. It has a bigger surface to give its heat off. Also letting this metal shim make contact with the metal shielding in the casing could help.
But, of course, one should be very careful not to create any shortcuts.
I used a 2 cents euro coin. Its made of copper covered steel. I winded some copper foil around it, to make the package slightly thicker. (I know, a heat sink would be better when its made of just one piece, but hey, we have to improvise here).
I also made a thin layer of cardboard, with a hole for the chip, in order to protect the construction against shortcuts.

The chip with cardboard around it, to put a metal shim on top of it.

chip with metal shim on top

The chip with a metal shim on top, and the cardboard to protect the surrounding circuits and components for shortcuts.

Result:
I did not work well. After a day the machine behaved instable again. :-(

A third try:
I again used the rubber feet as shim, but made it thicker with double sided sticky tape. I did not trust this construction, but I really needed the machine to function for a few hours.

Result:
I did not work well. After a few hours the machine behaved instable again. :-(

A fourth try:
After deliberating the risks, I tried to re-solder the chip, or at least the not good looking solder joints. I have no experience with soldering on this small SMD scale. I do have some experience on normal through-hole PCB soldering.
I found a lab equipped with a soldering station for small scale soldering. There was a magnifying glass with a lamp, but the magnification is (to my opinion) not big enough. So I used my small 8x25 binocular telescope in the reverse direction. In this way you can get a nice magnification, but the field of sight is obviously quite small.
When looking in this manner to the contacts, I was still hard to detect something that was obviously wrong. I thought I noticed something that might be a crack, but I was not 100% sure.
But when I tried to touch one of the contacts with my still cold soldering point, I saw it moving, and that is definitely not OK.
It was the contact most near to the CD-rom player.

Of what I know about this kind of soldering: The device definitely should not get too hot, because it will break. But the solder needs to flow a bit, and with this lead-free solder, a high temperature is needed too. Holding the solder-tip longer to the joint will help to increase the temperature, but will also help to heat up the chip too much.
Anyway, a nasty contradiction.
Still I tried. Actually, by my way of working the soldering joint did not look much 'nicer' afterwards but it looked like 'a better contact'.

Binoculars positioned towards the chip

Binoculars positioned in reverse direction, pointed to the chip

A view through one of the telescopes. It is hard to make a sharp picture with my digital camera in this way. In reality it works better. The soldering looks not nice for a factory made connection. Its hard to say whether it is broken.

the soldering station

The soldering station I used.

contact 1 after soldering

The contact after soldering. Again, it is hard to make a clear and sharp picture in this way.

Result:
In the terminal application one can give the uptime command. It looks like this:
~ user$ uptime
16:52 up 6 days, 22:43
So, my iBook worked fine for almost a week at that time.
It went on until 25 days or so.
Then it broke down again :-( I already described the circumstances above.

1) Note:
My iBook always has had strange behaviors when I tried to wake it up from standby, although this only happened very rarely. Maybe this re-soldering attempt solved that problem as well, we'll see! Nope, it didn't.

Some useful links:

The Wikipedia article on the iBooks Just recommended.
iBook G4 logic board fix This is probably the best link of all.
A thread on logic board repair on Applefritter.com
The iBook G4 logic board petition site (Opens in a new window) Does not officially cover all affected iBooks, but signing it is useful anyway.
An other petition on the iBook logic board (Opens in a new window) This is an older petition site, asking for a structural solution.
A movie on Youtube with a compressed iBook repair (Opens in a new window) In this movie, the hard disk is replaced. For this purpose the iBook needs to be disassembled much further.

The following shows alternative ways of re-flowing the solder. Again, as you can imagine, such experiments are risky
A movie on Youtube showing a repair by burning a candle (Opens in a new window)
A movie on Youtube about repairing an iBook with a tea-warmer (Opens in a new window)

I wonder what is in the picture below :-) Remember I'm in the middle of my Graduation project. If I'm able to respond at all, It takes at least a few days.

This page is published for the first time on the 3rd of May 2007
Last change/update of this page: 15-6-2007 20:06