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Krypton · Mar 19, 2005, 02:16 PM

I have in my possession an original iBook 500Mhz that had the misfortune to go through an airport x-ray machine. Ever since it has been acting fairly funky, freezing every 2 min and the screen won't work after about 20 min of usage.

I've wiped the disk and reinstalled OS 9, everything seemed fine. However, re-introducing X caused the symptoms to come back (a freeze during installation).

Any ideas? What version of firmware could I re-apply as all the updaters I have found refuse to install.

Captain Obvious · Mar 19, 2005, 02:51 PM

I don't think it was going through the xray machine that did it. The electromagnetic field it makes should not be strong enough to damage anything.

Mojo · Mar 19, 2005, 03:50 PM

I have not heard of airport x-ray machines affecting computers. It is my understanding that if you have the computer booted-up when you go through security that they typically won't put it through the machine. Does anyone know different?

I would do a Google search and see what turns up regarding this subject.

Krypton · Mar 19, 2005, 04:01 PM

Well, the freezing coincided with having been through the x-ray machine. The firmware I think is wonky as the firewire logo in target disk mode is corrupted. The versions I can find are 2.4 and 4.7.1 but neither will install.

I was hoping this was fixable, but everything I try eventually the freezes return. The logic board repair programme stopped last friday I think so I'm probably out of luck.

Captain Obvious · Mar 19, 2005, 04:55 PM

It is not the xray machine.
Boot into open firmware and reset everything back to default. Boot to CD, zero the hard drive, and then reinstall.

iDaver · Mar 19, 2005, 05:05 PM

Have you reset the PMU?

Link

Zapped the PRAM?

Just a couple of stabs in the dark.

ghporter · Mar 19, 2005, 06:25 PM

The worst that an x-ray machine can do to a modern laptop is bounce it around. This, in fact, is what I think may be your problem.

Try making sure the RAM is properly seated, and of course doing the normal "it's doing weird" fix actions (reset PMU, etc.).

Krypton · Mar 20, 2005, 04:34 AM

Ok I've reset the PMU as instructed and we'll see what that does (already zapped the PRAM).

It appears to freeze when it is doing any slightly heavy disk access - the machine runs fine when booting off of a firewire disk. Re-seating the RAM is going to be the next port of call I think.

Thanks for your help so far everyone.

iDaver · Mar 20, 2005, 08:19 AM

Originally posted by Krypton:
It appears to freeze when it is doing any slightly heavy disk access - the machine runs fine when booting off of a firewire disk. Re-seating the RAM is going to be the next port of call I think.

Could be your hard drive is going bad. This comment makes it sound like a possibility.

jamil5454 · Mar 20, 2005, 09:05 PM

If you're running fine off a FW HD, my guess also goes to the internal HD. Look on the bright side - this will give you an excuse to pick up a new 7200RPM HD!

Krypton · Mar 21, 2005, 05:57 AM

Well, just to add a little more info, this iBook belongs to my Dad not myself - and he has recently upgraded to a 12" PowerBook (not as a result of the iBook committing hari-kari).

I was attempting to fix it but as you can see have had little luck. He really doesn't fancy replacing the HD again, as it had a new 30Gb drive a year or two again and it was fairly tedious getting it apart and putting it back together (and I really don't think I'd be able to do it personally).

Thus I think this may be going to eBay for spares or sit in a drawer for a long time.

bimmerphile · Mar 22, 2005, 11:02 AM

Originally posted by Krypton:
Well, just to add a little more info, this iBook belongs to my Dad not myself - and he has recently upgraded to a 12" PowerBook (not as a result of the iBook committing hari-kari).

I was attempting to fix it but as you can see have had little luck. He really doesn't fancy replacing the HD again, as it had a new 30Gb drive a year or two again and it was fairly tedious getting it apart and putting it back together (and I really don't think I'd be able to do it personally).

Thus I think this may be going to eBay for spares or sit in a drawer for a long time.

Get the Apple service manual, and take your time. it walks you through step-by-step. It's really not hard, but the reason we mac techs loathe it is because when you charge $xyz for a repair...iBooks take substantially longer. It's tedious from the perspective of keeping all the screws in order: use a tacklebox.

Have you ran the SMART diagnostics on the drive?