Help! Worn-out TiBook won't boot

[AtaruBarreau]

Hi everyone!
So got myself my second TiBook (the other is in my apartment, this one at my parents place) for 15€.
So not a lot of money, but in the seller's blurry pictures it actually looked quite good, just said "untested because no charger".
So I got the computer; it's (like most TiBook out there) really worn-out, as you can see in the pictures I took before cleaning it (sorry they're blurry because it was kinda dark in the room). It's a early model: 400Mhz, with a production date of 01/04/01.


It was pretty gross, especially the keyboard which I took the time to really dig the grime out of it.



So I cleaned it, plugged the thing in the mains after inspecting the motherboard (the back and behind the keyboard), it did nothing.
With a little help of someone on fb's Low End Mac group, I did the PRAM battery connect-disconnect trick, I heard the drive's motor, and it finally bonged.

It also beeped 3 times.

Well, ram-slots I thought.

But after testing out with known good ram and "trying" to PRAM reset (trying because it never completes the zap, never bongs twice), now it almost always bongs and do nothing. It doesn't beep anymore (or once in a while after testing other RAM configurations), just bongs and that's all. It gets pretty warm, almost as hot as my other TiBook when it's running Tiger and doing stuff.

What can I do now?
Here's a recap of all I did so far:
1. Overall clean-up of the computer + Deoxit in all ports and on some parts of the motherboard (cleaned afterward with alcohol)
2. Tested with three RAM sticks (2 unknown condition, 1 good) in all configurations with 2 slots, with inconsistent results (one sticks would make the computer beeps once, and then never make it beep ever again).
3. Tried every command (PRAM, Verbose, etc...) with no avail.
4. Leaving the PRAM battery disconnected, connected, disconnect it while plugged in the mains and then reconnecting it: doesn't change anything, always most of the time bongs and do nothing, and sometimes beeps.
5. Tired to plug the VGA-out on my monitor, it wouldn't output anything.

Basically, seems bricked. If it's a matter of remplacing the very small caps or chips, I don't know if my soldering skills can do much, but if it's something bigger, like, a bigger chip let's say (aha), I'd like to try out.

Thanks for reading this very long post.

 

[eyoungren]

You have my old Powerbook.

Try hooking up the VGA monitor again and getting it to boot. Close the lid. Wait a few. If the Mac doesn't display video on the monitor, try plugging in a USB mouse and keyboard and pressing the spacebar to see if it starts sending a signal.

If not of that works you can't rule out that the logicboard is bad. Unfortunately that may be the case. I went through two LB's on my TiBook.

 

[AtaruBarreau]

You have my old Powerbook.

Try hooking up the VGA monitor again and getting it to boot. Close the lid. Wait a few. If the Mac doesn't display video on the monitor, try plugging in a USB mouse and keyboard and pressing the spacebar to see if it starts sending a signal.

If not of that works you can't rule out that the logicboard is bad. Unfortunately that may be the case. I went through two LB's on my TiBook.

So I tried that out. I got nothing more than usual and the USB port doesn't seem to power the mouse (no red light emitting from its led).

I inspected once more what I can see from the motherboard and noticed these white residue/traces on the headphone jack side of the computer.

That the viewer behind the keyboard

and the same area but in the back.


I cleaned those area with alcohol once more after some Deoxit and now it seems clean.
This may indicate a problem from this side of the motherboard? Any words of knowledge or ideas about that?

 

[m1maverick]

It appears that it may have seen some liquid enter the case and therefore a thorough cleaning is in order. By thorough I mean removing the logic board and cleaning it with alcohol or, if possible, using an ultrasonic cleaner.

If you decide to undertake replacement of any parts I highly recommend you obtain a rework station with a hot air nozzle and proper soldering iron. They can be purchased for relatively low cost on Ebay. Here's an example of what I'm referring to. I am neither recommending or not this particular item (MODS: Not my auction):

2in1 862D+ SMD Soldering Iron Hot Air Rework Station Hot Air Gun Digital Display

You will also want some means of magnification to permit you to see what you're doing. Either one of the lighted magnifying lights or a magnifying headset. This is really, really, really important and, without one, will almost doom your efforts.

I perform board level reworking and find it enjoyable. However it may not be cost effective unless you plan to do more than a handful of boards.

Good luck.

 

[AL1630]

If you do decide to do board level repairs to it, you might consider going to youtube and watching some videos by Louis Rossmann. He works on newer stuff but he has tons of videos all about board level repair.

This would be a good machine to practice on considering it's already dead and in pretty poor condition anyway. Then if you have something more valuable to fix, you can have some experience.