[Kurth]

Hi,

I am a total pc to mac switcher. my first Mac was a lombard I purchased from a friend who turned me on to Macs, I used it for a while then got a tibook 800 about 9 months ago. I love it. Any way, I loaned the lombard to my brother, and when I got it back, it was really bad about staying on AC power, at first I could giggle the end of the AC adapter around, and it would work, then it progressed to the point it is at now where it doesn't run on ac at all, at best i can get to work for a few seconds on AC. LAter he admitted to tripping over it and the poor powerbook falling down. Any way, A little research suggested it was the AC input board/sound card. I took the power book all apart in hopes that maybe I could see an obvious problem with the A/C input board, like a loose connector but it seems pretty solid. I noticed a few sites, like pbfixit.com and powerbookmedic.com sell refurbished AC input boards. Is there something easy I can do to test and repair this card? if not, where is a good place to buy one, and since i have the power book totally disassembled, anything else I should replace? I know it already needs a pram battery... so I'll repalce that while i am in there.

[Dr.Michael]

Originally posted by Kurth:

LAter he admitted to tripping over it and the poor powerbook falling down.

I would try to measure first if the power adapter supplies a stable dc voltage at the output.
If your brother has fallen over the cable maybe thats the only thing that has been damaged. More likely than internal problems if you ask me.

[tooki]

The PRAM battery is probably fine -- it just hasn't been able to charge due to the power problems caused by the broken jack. (The power problems may also have caused the power manager to crash, which could also cause problems that look like a bad PRAM battery. A power manager reset would fix this.)

tooki

[SEkker]

A Lombard failed at work with the same problem, estimate repair from some technician was ~$500. It was then pilfered for its CD drive and then dumped into the spare parts pile. When I also inherited a 5400 rpm HD and a compatible DVD Combo drive from a Pismo, I figured the Lombard might be worth resurrecting.

I did some research and replaced the AC card from Powerbookmedic

http://powerbookmedic.com/xcart1/cus...232619be546881

Was $100. They were terrific.

One warning, tho. The replacement board only lasted about 4 months. They offered me a 20% discount for a second replacement, which has lasted a year or more now.

My take: this part is particularly sensitive to long-term abuse. I figure I'll replace the Lombard in a couple years with a used iBook, so the $180 total was still ok for me.