iBook G4 troubles

[daveyanthony]

Recently i’ve decided to start collecting laptops alongside desktops and I bought a pretty decent iBook G4 1ghz. It was listed as freezing at boot so I figured it would just be a dead hard drive and easy fix. Basically I got the computer and after taking it apart the cause of the faulty boot was found to be the optical drive. Whenever the optical drive is plugged in the computer hangs, when unplugged, it functions perfectly. I hooked up a replacement ribbon cable and drive thinking it was either of those, and to my dismay the computer still hangs even with a known working optical drive. I don’t know much about super technical things like logic board malfunctions and all that so i’m wondering if someone here can help me diagnose what’s wrong and possibly help fix it. Thanks.

 

[eyoungren]

Some years back I was gifted an iBook G4 and every time I tried to install OS X it would freeze at a certain point. The HD had just been replaced and the guy who did it took the Mac back and checked it out. Turns out when he was replacing the HD he had inadvertently lifted the HD connector part of the way off the logicboard. So, it was freezing because there was an intermittent connection to the LB.

Is it possible that in your case the connector for the optical drive ribbon cable (on the logicboard) had pulled up a bit? If so, this would be the same problem I had. If that is the case, you're fortunate in the sense that the iBook can still function without the optical drive. You could still use a USB or FW optical drive.

 

[daveyanthony]

Thanks for your reply, I did try to make sure the connector was in tight and secure but there’s a possibility it still wasn’t in all the way. I’ll try to connect it once more when I get home. I’ve also tried 2 separate ribbon cables. I should add, I tried to connect another DVD drive from a same time period mac mini I had parted out and although the computer did boot with it connected, it just elected to completely ignore the drive.

 

[Amethyst1]

A master/slave configuration issue maybe?

 

[daveyanthony]

If it was I wouldn’t know where to fix it at.. I know in windows it’s in the bios but i have no idea where that is located on mac besides cable select on the desktops.

 

[Amethyst1]

I think there might be tiny jumpers within the DVD drive to configure this. On the hard drive, the pins for the jumper sit next to the IDE connector.

Just an idea: Does the DVD drive work if you disconnect the hard drive?

 

[daveyanthony]

I’ll have to check that when I get home. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[eyoungren]

Thanks for your reply, I did try to make sure the connector was in tight and secure but there’s a possibility it still wasn’t in all the way. I’ll try to connect it once more when I get home. I’ve also tried 2 separate ribbon cables. I should add, I tried to connect another DVD drive from a same time period mac mini I had parted out and although the computer did boot with it connected, it just elected to completely ignore the drive.

No, what I mean was the connector on the logicboard where you plug the ribbon into. If that piece is separating from the logicboard then that could be an issue.

 

[daveyanthony]

No, what I mean was the connector on the logicboard where you plug the ribbon into. If that piece is separating from the logicboard then that could be an issue.

I see what you mean, i’ll make sure to check that once i get my hands on it again. thanks.

 

[daveyanthony]

so, the connector appears to still be on the board, i cant see any visible gaps between it and the board and all the solder joints look good and connected. i also tried to wiggle it a bit and it is quite firm and stuck in place.

 

[daveyanthony]

so now that i’m home, i’ve tried connecting a few different disk drives and disconnecting hard drives, i just can’t seem to get the computer to recognize the optical drive. it’s very odd though since, on older drives like the one it came with it freezes up but with newer ones like out of a 2008 macbook, it boots but doesn’t recognize it. I haven’t been able to find any jumper settings anywhere sadly so i doubt that would be a problem. Is there any possibility this could be a macOS issue? it has a fresh install of leopard on it so i would believe not but it’s always possible.