[Gankdawg]

Disassembled the iBook yesterday, going to ship it out to FPT this week. Will let everyone know of the results. Wiped the hard drive just in case it doesn't work, that way I can part the iBook out......

[nitronick]

Originally Posted by Gankdawg 

Disassembled the iBook yesterday, going to ship it out to FPT this week. Will let everyone know of the results. Wiped the hard drive just in case it doesn't work, that way I can part the iBook out......

Maybe I'm missing something here....
If you have a G4, it is not the BGA graphics chip like in the G3s. On page three of this thread, the 5th post down, there is an very close-up picture of the chip. It appears to be the solder pin of a surface mount chip. I don't understand why you couldn't just find a soldering iron with a very small tip, and reheat the pins.

[Gankdawg]

Originally Posted by nitronick 

Maybe I'm missing something here....
If you have a G4, it is not the BGA graphics chip like in the G3s. On page three of this thread, the 5th post down, there is an very close-up picture of the chip. It appears to be the solder pin of a surface mount chip. I don't understand why you couldn't just find a soldering iron with a very small tip, and reheat the pins.

Don't have a solder gun and don't have the skills necessary. $50 seems very reasonable to send it to a professional to do. Plus it gave me a reason to completely disassemble the shell to paint it.

[nitronick]

I understand not having soldering skills. Though I quoted you, I really wasn't addressing you in particular. Sorry.
While I am sure the pins are small, I don't see anything special required other than a small tipped solder iron and a magnifying glass. There shouldn't be any need for a heat gun.

[Langdon]

Originally Posted by nitronick 

I understand not having soldering skills. Though I quoted you, I really wasn't addressing you in particular. Sorry.
While I am sure the pins are small, I don't see anything special required other than a small tipped solder iron and a magnifying glass. There shouldn't be any need for a heat gun.

I am in the same boat as Gankdawg since i have a G4.
I took the iBook apart to see the chip and the tip needed to do the solder would be needle sized. And we're be talking about a sliver of solder you'd have to place just right so you wouldn't fuse two of the pins together by accident.

I've resoldered a few loose and broken connections on laptops but I would be really nervous to try this repair. Plus if you don't have the right kind of iron and the right tip you're already you need to buy $20-30 worth od stuff just to try it.

So if this place turns out to be reputable and they can offer a warranty on their repair I think its worth a look. So if anyone else has done business with them feedback would be great.

[nitronick]

It's not that big of a deal to find a small replacement tip for an iron, and even the cheap ones from Radio Shack have the removable tips. A magnifying glass and a steady hand should have the G4 iBook up and running in no time.

[leoisright]

Oops... Anyway I set the lamp on its side and turned it on and layed it on the chip. I then turned on the computer and heard the fan running very loudly. I assumed the chip had heated up and was doing what I had hoped (resolder the chip). I let the lamp sit on there for no more than 10 minutes and then shut off the lamp and let the chip cool down. Once it did, I put the computer back together and pressed the power button and wah lah, it worked just fine.

I've picked up the iBook while running and no problems. I had it run for 12 hours consecutive the next day and not a single problem.

A couple days later I put the battery (which was thought to have been bad) back in it and it started charging. But all of a sudden it started to freeze. So I reset the PMU and let it sit for a half hour unplugged, took the batter out and restarted it. No problems at all. I am wondering if the DC board may have a problem with the power but I really don't care any more. It works great with out the battery now. I am very happy to have an 800mhz iBook with airport, 640mg, and 120 gig HD working just fine all for the cost of $80 (for the HD).

If you have any questions email me and I'll walk you through the steps. Oh BTW, I have tried the shim thing a couple times which worked for a little while but eventually failed with in a couple days.

Now it's been about a week and running for atleast 5 hours a day and not one problem!!!

[Gankdawg]

Originally Posted by Langdon 

So if this place turns out to be reputable and they can offer a warranty on their repair.

They called me and said it's done. It got there last Thursday and it was done on Monday. Waiting for it to come back.

I never even asked for a warranty, I doubt they give one. I'm not expecting a warranty anyway. My mindset is that if it works, great, if not, I'm only out $50 (plus shipping) and I will just part it out.

[Langdon]

Originally Posted by Gankdawg 

I never even asked for a warranty, I doubt they give one. I'm not expecting a warranty anyway. My mindset is that if it works, great, if not, I'm only out $50 (plus shipping) and I will just part it out.

I wasn't looking so much for a 1 year warranty or anything of the like.
I wanted more of a guarantee that they are going to do more than just poke around in there with a hot soldering iron and give fixing it a shot. I'd like some sort of reassurance that they will do work on a professional level and not some amateur hackjob.

I understand the issue is a design defect that is probably not going to be fixed forever but I want to know they do resolder all the pins and restore the unit to working condition.

[Gankdawg]

Originally Posted by Langdon 

I wasn't looking so much for a 1 year warranty or anything of the like.
I wanted more of a guarantee that they are going to do more than just poke around in there with a hot soldering iron and give fixing it a shot. I'd like some sort of reassurance that they will do work on a professional level and not some amateur hackjob.

I understand the issue is a design defect that is probably not going to be fixed forever but I want to know they do resolder all the pins and restore the unit to working condition.

Yeah, I hear you.

[Gankdawg]

Well, here's the udpate. Got the logic board back a couple of weeks ago and put everything back together. Pressed the power button and immediately the fans kicked on and the laptop didn't start up. Pulled the battery and reinstalled it, squeezed the case left of the trackpad and it started right up. Sent an email to First Phase asking what they did, if anything. They called me the next day and offered to reflow at no additional charge (only shipping back to them).

Tore the whole apart, sent it back to them, got it back yesterday. Reassembled the laptop, started it up and it worked -- for about 5 minutes before it shut off.

So now what? Put the pieces on sale in the marketplace and move on. I will be listing the hard drive (120GB that I installed), 1 GB RAM chip, Airport Extreme card, and whatever else.

[Langdon]

Ouch.
Sorry to hear it didn't work out. But at least we can add First Phase to the list of companies that suck. I'd ask for a refund or at least some sort of compensation for the utter lack of technical know how they have shown in their workmanship.

Its too bad there's no reliable fix for the G4 iBooks. But I will keep my fingers crossed that something comes along.

[Gankdawg]

Parts are in the market place:

http://forums.macnn.com/59/marketpla...t/#post3490663

Thanks for the info guys and good luck with your iBooks. I hope to get a Macbook at some point.

[tom1ptech]

Originally Posted by Langdon 

Ouch.
Sorry to hear it didn't work out. But at least we can add First Phase to the list of companies that suck. I'd ask for a refund or at least some sort of compensation for the utter lack of technical know how they have shown in their workmanship.

Its too bad there's no reliable fix for the G4 iBooks. But I will keep my fingers crossed that something comes along.

Langdon, I want to mention that First Phase Tech uses a programmed reflow machine and an identical process on each and every logic board we receive. The variable here is the mismatch in solder ball / paste printing used by the OEM (Apple) which we have no control. Most laptops take, and some do not. We have rescued hundreds of laptops at this point for our customers, but we are not 100%. I make this very clear in the waiver. We deal with units purchased off of ebay, shimmed for months, connnectors and traces ripped off the boards by consumers and have inexperienced techs putting these back together. Our consumer repair rate is 84%. Our success rate for certified Apple reapir centers is 96%. You add FPT to your list of companies that suck, and we'll add you to our very short list of customers who suck!

[Langdon]

Originally Posted by tom1ptech 

We have rescued hundreds of laptops at this point for our customers, but we are not 100%. I make this very clear in the waiver. We deal with units purchased off of ebay, shimmed for months, connnectors and traces ripped off the boards by consumers and have inexperienced techs putting these back together. Our consumer repair rate is 84%. Our success rate for certified Apple reapir centers is 96%. You add FPT to your list of companies that suck, and we'll add you to our very short list of customers who suck!

This is one of the largest Mac online communities in existence and not one of these very satisfied G4 iBook owners you claim to have helped has ever come to discuss the value of your service. I even publicly solicited readers of this thread for experience with your company 6 weeks ago and no one came forward.

I am at least satisfied you didn't make a shill account (yet) to counter claim the experiences of existing members with your company but you'd think that with the 31,000 views this thread has had that at least one person who you fixed a G4 iBook for would come to praise First Phase Tech for saving their laptop.

If you google to find info on repairing iBooks with logic board problems you find this thread in the first two pages of results. With the Apple boards censoring these topics there aren't too many other places people can congregate to exchange information and experiences repairing G3 and G4 iBooks. This thread is pretty comprehensive in collecting information on the subject.
Yet still not one of your hundreds of customers has found their way here to recommend you after First Phase Tech helped them in a bind.

I am sure no repair service that works with electronics will ever have a 100% success rate. But the claims you have come here to preach are meaningless when the only person who supports their validity is the owner of the company.
Thus far from the independent posts that have been made about your service First Phase Tech seems no more capable than any other amateur in providing a reliable repair for the faulty iBooks. You can refute it all you like but there is no independent evidence to the contrary on this board.

Of the companies who have official representatives who post on Macnn to aid the community I must say you are the least professional and credible person to have ever graced the board.

[ghporter]

Lack of positive feedback on our forums does not equate to bad service. Time and again I have to point out that people that are happy with their computers don't post here-people with problems do. And we are hardly all inclusive; we may have a lot of users, but there are a lot of other Mac forums out there.

Does anyone (except tom1ptech) know how much a reflow soldering machine costs? How much time and effort it takes to train someone to run it? I have an inkling, and it ain't inexpensive. A company that can afford this sort of hardware does NOT stay in business without making that hardware pay for itself. So attacking a company's reputation for one or two reports, and then attacking a representative of that company because YOU haven't heard any positive feedback about his company is hardly a mature response. Give him a break, eh?

[variable m.]

I just completed a heatgun repair of my G3 700. The 'genius' at the Apple store told me how I could resuscitate the computer when it wouldn't boot by 'massaging' the corner and that led me to this forum. Thankfully my G3 is running and doing fine.

However, the thermal pad did not come off clean at all and I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for a replacement. I have lots of thermal paste, arctic silver, even some old Pentium II pads that came with the stock heatsinks but none of them are thick enough to replace the one I took off.


I had thought of getting a copper shim and using arctic silver for the contact points, but I'd really like to know if I can just replace the heatpad. Right now the GPU seems to be doing fine, but I know the contact surface is scarred and pitted and that makes me uneasy.

[MarcosRobertoSilva]

I would like to inform that I successful solve the same problem in my Ibook G3 700mhz using the procedure described by Guy Kuo. Thank you very much.

Best regards.

Marcos Roberto Silva
Brazil

[mcdermd]

I have actually used First Phase Tech's service for a 14" G3 800mhz iBook board with a bad BGA. You only pay shipping to them, return shipping is included in the $50 fee. The turnaround was less than a week (over the week of Christmas, no less). The iBook has gone from flipping out if moved off the table to rock-solid for a month now. I would have no problems recommending First Phase Tech to others with an iBook logic board problem.

I have a friend that's supposed to be sending in her G4 iBook board at some point soon so maybe I can report back about her experience later on.

[wei]

I wonder this fix works with iBook G4 1.2Ghz??
Have a friend offering me his iBook. The iBook will boot into bluescreen (after grey spinning circle, before Mac OS X loading) and hang.