Powerbook G4 graphics problem??? - CNET Mac laptops Forums

Answer Best answer as chosen by user winterseve

Given the age.

by R. Proffitt - 8/13/12 7:58 AM

In Reply to: Powerbook G4 graphics problem??? by winterseve

Let's hope our resident guru pitches in but do try the usual canned air cleaning and given the age it may be time to strip it down to replace old heatsink compound. This is not a trivial task.
Bob

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Answer Best answer as chosen by user winterseve

I'd have to say

by Jimmy Greystone - 8/14/12 7:25 AM

In Reply to: Powerbook G4 graphics problem??? by winterseve

I'd have to say that sounds like a GPU issue. The canned air idea is a good one to try, but I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope. Honestly, I'd say it sounds a bit like you've got a solder joint going cold. It's not quite there yet, but it will be soon. It could also probably be a bad cap issue. Either scenario would require a fair bit of skill with a soldering iron to fix, which involves getting the unit open, and the PBG4 is kind of infamous in repair circles for the ridiculously short top case ribbon cable that makes it really easy to damage the logic board connector latch.

It's probably really not worth trying to repair this thing given the age, because if you repair one issue, another will likely just crop up a month or two later, and it'll be a never ending game of whack-a-mole. Pretty soon you're spending more time fixing it than using it, and you've invested enough money in repair materials that you probably could have bought a new unit.

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Thank you for that.

by R. Proffitt - 8/14/12 7:46 AM

In Reply to: I'd have to say by Jimmy Greystone

I'm never sure exactly which of those issues apply to these older machines. In the shop we don't see many Apple's (we try to send them to Apple) but if it's a client of ours they sometimes insist so we always give it the usual cleaning and always do the BAD CAPS inspection. The BAD CAPS plague has spread to almost every device today.
Bob