I own a 466Mhz Graphite ibook (with firewire and a 10GB hard drive) it is just over 4 years old, has maxed out memory and runs great.


Over the last year, the display started flickering. When I would readjust the angle on the screen, it would come back. Lately, this problem has gotten much, much worse. Now the screen only works when it is 80-90% shut.

After much research and based largely on the fact that the display does indeed work at a specific angle (just not when open enough to see and type) my guess is that the cord from the logic board to the display has become compromised. Opening the ibook puts stress on the cord, which is frayed, and less contacts are made - which shuts off the screen. (Just an educated guess.) It seems that if the logic board was in need of repair that it wouldn't work at any angle.

I took the LCD Torx screws out (on either side of the bottom corners of the LCD) and found the wire. A portion of it was wrapped in cloth tape, but was intact and undamaged in the hinge area. (Too bad, as I was hoping for an easy quick fix.)

I then took off the ovular panel in the back, surrounded by the hinge mechanism and saw that the cord goes into the main compartment under the keyboard. I downloaded a fix-it guide on powerbookmedic.com and plan to take the entire machine apart. (After my trial today and a thorough reading of the fixit guide, I'm more than willing to try to fix it myself.)

The problem is this - while the guide entails how to disassemble a display and the data cable (logic board to LCD), it did NOT detail how to replace this cord. It snakes through a hinge and seems to be quite tight in terms of length.



If you have any experience fixing this problem, please respond to me at:
spygirl(AT)att.net

I realized that I put in the wrong URL for the fix-it guide and that some members might be interested in seeing what taking a clamshell ibook apart entails.

here is the URL:

http://www.pbfixit.com/guide/49.0.0.html



(Apparently this is a pretty common problem in this generation of otherwise sturdy ibooks.)


Hope this info helps someone.

The center piece of the display "hinge" is hollow, secured by three small screws to the main chassis, and is a conduit for the three cables. The wires may break over time, or the connectors may become loose.