iBook G4 Repair with a Blowtorch

[gamakill]

how long do you use the blowtorch for.

[DSetekh]

Try to solder it first? But anyway a great idea man, you are just pure coolness ;)

[mrsinister88]

This music is poison to the ears

[Mayimbej]

Can anyone tell me, if this is flux the video uses? and how many mintues and how tight am i supposed to leave the blow torch on that clamp//???

[samjones747]

get a hot air gun, cost about £30 in uk., it cant be much more then $40-50 for a normal one in the U.S,

put the heat on for about 2-3 mins, use flux, no need to use a clamp.

[midinerd]

I thought this was a joke but... makes sense for soldering multiple things or.. something... I dunno. Pretty cool!

[shigalbigal]

@midinerd This technique is called "reballing"

[drewmuhammaddon]

Hey i have an iBook G4, 1.33GHz, 1.5GB of RAM And im selling it ! ill ship it for free. If your intrested send an AiM to (dufflebagboii23) or leave me a message or comment on youtube thanks !

[samjones747]

my ibook g4 1.2ghz is doing that aswell,

but i have done the BGA reflow of the ATI chip, (as shown in this vid but i used a proper Rework station lol, )

and i have done the Vreg chip fix,

i have done the PRAM and PMU reset,

still if i just knock my ibook it freezes, fipping annoying,

did u find out the issue ?

[AllAroundBang]

maybe its the U-28 or Q-45 chip. they're also giving me hella problems ;D

[TW0SL0]

a friend is selling me one but without the charger. those anybody know how much do they cost?........the charger

[iTechInfo]

ive seen them for about $20 australian bucks which is $17.80 US Dollars hope this helped =D

[dumpsterdives]

10bucks in the US off EBAY

[irulethe70s]

i have a hp desktop and the video card is only showing a black screen at bootup is it the pc or card

[JordantheNerd]

Congrats, I'll give you a call if I get that prob, Lol

[ToAsTmAn119911]

Good video!

[mopheadsk8er]

ya ur a tard cuz what if u burn it to the ground and u start crying cuz ur a loozer

[Sam1487]

It was a do-or-die moment, if this didn't work the machine was useless anyway.

I suppose you are of the ilk that would have taunted those discovering and harnessing electricity. Or people taking chances today and discovering new things.

[mopheadsk8er]

ur a tard

[Sam1487]

For fixing a computer in a novel way?

[Superdude688]

Epic. how do I know if my g4 is having the same problem? what are the symptoms? could you still hear the startup noise from the speakers and everything seemed to work except the screen, or was it not working at all before you did this?

[Sam1487]

It was just the screen, it had a horrible green look to it with interference lines all over it. After we had finished, the screen was fine.

[kasm279]

@Sam1487 The screen might also be completely off, and the external video will show the exact same thing.

[legai77]

hey dude my ibook g4 is having issues when i turn the laptop on. A small box is coming up that is flashing a question mark and the finder symbol can you please help.

[kasm279]

Reinstall the OS and it will work

[claatu]

By the way mine was a freezing screen issue, right after startup. Sometime Black Screen, too. Could be because the ATI gpu is placed upside down on g3 900 14"... don't know....could be...

[maddmaddworld]

I am curious as to whether or not this method would work on the T4x series Thinkpads...hmmm

[Sam1487]

I imagine it would, the theory behind what worked here should work on all laptops with the same problem - just don't hold me to it!

[maddmaddworld]

WHAT?!? You mean that I can't hold you responsible for ME melting my T42?!? LOL ;-)

In the past, I have tried to reflow the GPU pins by using a heat gun, but there is too much air flowing around it and it is causing the nearby components to come off. grrrrr

[Sam1487]

Yep you can't hold me responsible - them's the breaks =P

Well this method has the heat going more directly to the piece you want it to.

[claatu]

Hi Sam, I just want to THANK YOU! and want you to know that your method worked on my G3 900, meaning that my GPU is below the Hard Drive and rear side of the logic board. I blow torched it for 20 minutes+10more, until the flux was bubbling.

I placed more flux and a lump of solder on the F clamp, 1 inch above the GPU, it didn't really melt but about to be bent, meaning that I don't know if it reached 160° C, so I don't know how long it will last. but better this than risking melting the GBA.

[Sam1487]

I'd imagine that if it's working now that it should last a good while, as it melted enough to get to where it needed to be.

[rcnkiller]

when all else fails GET THE BLOW TORCH XD

[nabby3445]

You do know, that if you use this setup on a BGA (which I assume the G4 GPU is) chip, and all the balls actually reach melting temperature they'll most likely flatten under the weight of the clamp quite possibly creating one giant short, right? :D

[Sam1487]

In order for the whole process to work the substance around the chip needed to melt with the things on the chip so that it would reconnect with the board.

Thus making the graphics chip work properly again.

Make no mistake though, we aren't saying this will work all the time or that there wasn't any risk going in to it. It was just an idea that we wanted to test with an iBook that was lying around :)

[darkwiz666]

damn...I thougtht that he was just going to destroy that piece of MAC crap....-_-

Unlucky meh...T_T

[Sam1487]

Sorry, we only destroy Windows stuff.

We don't really, but I really wanted to most as unintelligent a comment as yours.

[darkwiz666]

ah! tocuhe! I guess yo like non-upgradeable computers, eh? Oh, and my comment WAS intelligets seeing as I KNOW HOW to respond, idiot....I like computers where I can MOLD AND MODIFIY THEM AS I SEE FIT....(Not fixing somthing with the use of household appliances like you fools.)

And if I have my PC crash, so be it, I can either...

A) Re-boot It

B) Re-install It

C) Purchase a BRAND NEW CHEAPER AND MORE POWERFUL VERSION...

Now, you try those! ):p

[Sam1487]

You believe that Macs can't be upgraded? Then the fact that Apple allow it's users to self upgrade it's compenents under the warranty must be a big joke.

And fools for finding household items to fix things? How do you think things were invented over time? By people thinking outside of the box.

Brand new cheaper version? I guess so once you've picked which software pack you want at £100+...or Leopard for £85.

Knowing how to respond doesn't mean there isn't an idiot behind it.

[Sam1487]

Also I'd like to point out that I don't really have anything against windows or it's users. I just know what I prefer.

It's just tools that I can't stand.

[OwlMovieStudios]

Actually no PC all in one is upgradeable more than the iMac (might be some exceptions), and if you want an upgradeable Mac get a Mac Pro which is better than your PC guaranteed, and lasts long.

So, you like spending money for a new PC each year because its obsolete? That comes up to the price of a Mac Pro.

[claatu]

Don't waste time with them, by the way I would like to ask you what is the thing in the syringe and for how long did your ibook lived using this method?

[Sam1487]

In the syringe is (I believe) Flux, which when heated, melted around the chip and the connection on the board, allowing it to reconnect and work again.

It worked fine for more than a month if I recall, but then some crossed wires led to it plummeting towards the floor and the screen is now broken. However, it still works fine to this day when used with an external monitor.

[claatu]

Thanks a lot,

sad to know neither this method lasted long.

We'll see next few days what I can do when the ibook will be here,

[Sam1487]

Well it would have lasted longer, but like I said, it had a meeting with the floor. Good luck with yours.

[claatu]

Now I see, sorry to disturb you again, I am finding difficult to know the kind of flux inside the syringe, I mean, I don't know what product to ask to the Electric shop, although i don't expect it to find it around, that's all. thanks again.

[claatu]

I found out it's simply called "flussante". Latin language makes things easy.

[NutNapalm]

Same thing happened to mine, lost a couple keys and the CD drive went kaput. Any advice on fixing it?

[Sam1487]

You should be able to get replacement CD Drives. As for the keyboard, either look for a solus keyboard, or a broken identical laptop that you can take the keyboard out of and attach to your current model.

[n3ddya]

Hi there, I have tried every other method from Rubbers on chips to create more pressure to piles of business cards inside the case...

None of these methods can seem to get my ibook running for longer than 10mins without the video freezing.

If i am gong to try the Blowtorch method, but i was wondering what the stuff in the tube (the paste@ 0:52), and what it does to help.

Cheers.

[Sam1487]

The stuff in the tube is flux. Under the pressure and the heat it is the flux that melts and, in a fashion, reconnects the chip to the board.

Whether this is the method to stop it actually freezing I'm afraid I can't tell you.

[claatu]

Ah, I just read it's flux. Can't translate into italian, it just says flusso but I don't know what kind of flux is it.

[DefconComputers]

If this is broken how I think it was... that's pretty crafty.

[limbow3]

00:21 - 00:35 : What was that?

[Sam1487]

The opening you see when installing Apple OSX onto a Mac, the screen is messed up because of a problem with the graphics chip, which, you know how we fixed :)

[jarod01288]

lmao i thought the mac book was singing at the start

[JTP1193]

what the heck were you trying to repair...

[Sam1487]

The graphics chip.

[5n8ke]

cool does that work for normal pc's aswell :)

[Sam1487]

It might do, I assume the build/solder thing is the same. Feel free to have a go - but remember my no responsibility policy ;)