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I guess I have to admit it now
Jan. 8th, 2005 02:23 pmI am a geek. Not just any kind of geek. I can't code...I pretty much failed BASIC in high school. But I seem to have a knack for hardware. In the past I've replaced my harddrive and my power supply in my desktop. But yesterday and today I field stripped Leda, my laptop...three times.
It started because months ago I was noticing a significant decrease in connectivity with the wireless network. Not enough to hamper getting online, but enough to hamper doing things like long downloads, etc. On broadband, that's a bitch...I mean, that's why you get broadband, so that you don't feel like you've got a 28.8 connection while downloading pictures or movies or the like.
Then a few weeks ago I had to take Leda into the shop because the display had gone dark. The display needed to be replaced. After I got her back, I could barely get onto the network at all, and only from certain parts of the house (closest to the base station).
At first I thought something nasty had happened to my Airport card. But when a friend came over with his 14" iBook and we swapped Airport cards, I realized it was my box that was the issue...he had no problem getting onto the network regardless of which Airport card he used. But I still couldn't get on using his Airport card. As I did research, I started reading a lot of people having problems with the wireless antenna inside their iBook or Powerbook.
"Great," I thought. "Just what I needed. Another expensive trip to an Apple Specialist."
Then I thought, I'm not going to do that quite yet. I'm going to find out exactly what's going on inside there. I did a lot of research, and made absolutely sure that I was 99.99% it was the antenna. Then, yesterday, I printed out two free schematics that I had found and got started.
After a short bit I realized that I needed more info, and that I also needed a tool. I found the tool for $10, and I found the info for $10...a complete take apart manual of my iBook (unlike the other ones I was looking at which were for versions a little different from mine). For $10 you couldn't beat it with a stick.
I took apart my laptop (I like to call it field-stripping :) three times. The first time it was to survey everything inside and see if there was a way to move the antenna around (or replace it if need be) so that it wouldn't get pinched. I was pretty sure it was getting pinched underneath the hinge for the display where it winds through (bad design, Apple...naughty company, no biscuit!!!). And it is, but there is no way to remove it without replacing the whole display (bleah) so I just moved things around so that it had more maneuverability. I'm pretty sure that the Apple Specialist who replaced the screen before pinched the antenna worse when he put it together again.
And I really did take that thing apart...I even separated the display from the carcass, moved the harddrive and the CD-ROM drive around, etc. And therein lay my nemesis for the next two field-strippings. I put Leda back together again (I had been at this for hours) and turned it on again. It worked great, and I was getting better connectivity than before, albeit not as good as I would optimally have wanted. Still, I can now surf the web from my living room again. :) I checked my files and all, then put her to sleep for the night and plugged her into the wall socket.
This morning when I went to check my email, I noticed that the connector to Leda from the wall socket was still shining orange. This is the color it shines while it is powering up the battery. Not a color it should be showing after powering up all night. Just great.
I fiddled, and found that after the electricity hit my laptop at that plug, it didn't go anywhere. Which meant there was a loose plug somewhere (thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elfs and fallenpegasus for pointing this out).
So, it was open my laptop up again, and see where the plug was loose. I finally found it...the power cord that winds under the CD-ROM drive and hooks right into the mother board had been jarred loose, but you couldn't really see it unless you were specifically picking the CD-ROM drive up and looking under, which I wasn't really doing so hadn't seen when I was putting things together the second time. So, plugged it back in, zipped Leda back up, and now I'm posting from a complete laptop.
I'll need to replace that CD-ROM drive pretty soon (the ejector is broken) and now I don't have to go to a specialist to do it. :D And all of this has cost me a sum total of about $20. Not bad, I'd say, and I have obtained quite a bit of experience. Matter of fact, I could probably go into someone else's iBook and replace their CD-ROM drive, harddrive, keyboard, etc, etc...it really isn't that hard, once you get the hang of it.
And you're anal like me. ;)
(I taped the screws to blown up copies of the pictures showing where the screws came from so I didn't forget where they came from...don't sue me, I didn't originate the idea ;)
It started because months ago I was noticing a significant decrease in connectivity with the wireless network. Not enough to hamper getting online, but enough to hamper doing things like long downloads, etc. On broadband, that's a bitch...I mean, that's why you get broadband, so that you don't feel like you've got a 28.8 connection while downloading pictures or movies or the like.
Then a few weeks ago I had to take Leda into the shop because the display had gone dark. The display needed to be replaced. After I got her back, I could barely get onto the network at all, and only from certain parts of the house (closest to the base station).
At first I thought something nasty had happened to my Airport card. But when a friend came over with his 14" iBook and we swapped Airport cards, I realized it was my box that was the issue...he had no problem getting onto the network regardless of which Airport card he used. But I still couldn't get on using his Airport card. As I did research, I started reading a lot of people having problems with the wireless antenna inside their iBook or Powerbook.
"Great," I thought. "Just what I needed. Another expensive trip to an Apple Specialist."
Then I thought, I'm not going to do that quite yet. I'm going to find out exactly what's going on inside there. I did a lot of research, and made absolutely sure that I was 99.99% it was the antenna. Then, yesterday, I printed out two free schematics that I had found and got started.
After a short bit I realized that I needed more info, and that I also needed a tool. I found the tool for $10, and I found the info for $10...a complete take apart manual of my iBook (unlike the other ones I was looking at which were for versions a little different from mine). For $10 you couldn't beat it with a stick.
I took apart my laptop (I like to call it field-stripping :) three times. The first time it was to survey everything inside and see if there was a way to move the antenna around (or replace it if need be) so that it wouldn't get pinched. I was pretty sure it was getting pinched underneath the hinge for the display where it winds through (bad design, Apple...naughty company, no biscuit!!!). And it is, but there is no way to remove it without replacing the whole display (bleah) so I just moved things around so that it had more maneuverability. I'm pretty sure that the Apple Specialist who replaced the screen before pinched the antenna worse when he put it together again.
And I really did take that thing apart...I even separated the display from the carcass, moved the harddrive and the CD-ROM drive around, etc. And therein lay my nemesis for the next two field-strippings. I put Leda back together again (I had been at this for hours) and turned it on again. It worked great, and I was getting better connectivity than before, albeit not as good as I would optimally have wanted. Still, I can now surf the web from my living room again. :) I checked my files and all, then put her to sleep for the night and plugged her into the wall socket.
This morning when I went to check my email, I noticed that the connector to Leda from the wall socket was still shining orange. This is the color it shines while it is powering up the battery. Not a color it should be showing after powering up all night. Just great.
I fiddled, and found that after the electricity hit my laptop at that plug, it didn't go anywhere. Which meant there was a loose plug somewhere (thanks to
elfs and fallenpegasus for pointing this out). So, it was open my laptop up again, and see where the plug was loose. I finally found it...the power cord that winds under the CD-ROM drive and hooks right into the mother board had been jarred loose, but you couldn't really see it unless you were specifically picking the CD-ROM drive up and looking under, which I wasn't really doing so hadn't seen when I was putting things together the second time. So, plugged it back in, zipped Leda back up, and now I'm posting from a complete laptop.
I'll need to replace that CD-ROM drive pretty soon (the ejector is broken) and now I don't have to go to a specialist to do it. :D And all of this has cost me a sum total of about $20. Not bad, I'd say, and I have obtained quite a bit of experience. Matter of fact, I could probably go into someone else's iBook and replace their CD-ROM drive, harddrive, keyboard, etc, etc...it really isn't that hard, once you get the hang of it.
And you're anal like me. ;)
(I taped the screws to blown up copies of the pictures showing where the screws came from so I didn't forget where they came from...don't sue me, I didn't originate the idea ;)
