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stype · Sep 3, 2007, 02:52 PM

I'm having a weird problem and am in the process of diagnosing it, but I figured I'd start a thread here in case anyone has any advice. About a month ago my ibook g4 started making bad sounds from the front left corner, where I believe the hard drive is. It sort of just sounded like something vibrating. While these sounds were there, osx was unresponsive. If I picked up the ibook and put a little pressure on that area, it would come back, but then it would stop again after a few minutes. My only thought was that it would be a hard drive problem, like I'm flexing something by picking up the ibook, but the symptoms don't seem hard drive related. The problem went away a month ago and just came back today.

This computer is almost 3 years old and I'm planning on replacing it when leopard comes out, but I'd like it to last until then. Since it is near the end of its life anyways, I'm probably going to do some exploratory work by opening it up. I'm starting simple for now...I just took out the extra ram chip and I'm going to see if I can get the problem to come back. I'll post updates as I try more things.

stype · Sep 3, 2007, 03:29 PM

Well, after about an hour it started to have problems again. Its not the ram. I'm going to put my extra ram back in and run a memory test, but I'm going back to my original hard drive idea.

seanc · Sep 3, 2007, 04:40 PM

Definitely the hard drive. Make sure you have backups.

Good challenge would be to work out how to replace it yourself.

stype · Sep 3, 2007, 09:14 PM

Well I'm almost positive now that either my ibook is overheating, or the hard drive cable is bad, or both. I've found posts here with the exact same symptoms but no one ever posted if they fixed it. Since it goes away if I sleep and turn it on later, I'm leaning towards overheating. I have it propped up on an ice pack right now and I'm going to see if that fixes anything.

seanc · Sep 4, 2007, 02:05 AM

You have backups, yes?
When this hard drive is gone, it's gone, only thousands of £/$ will get your data back.
If it is getting VERY hot, then that would also point towards failure.

stype · Sep 4, 2007, 05:07 AM

I have backups but I'm making one last backup now while its still sort of working. Everything runs fine for an hour or two before it locks up, so I should be able to copy everything off one last time. I checked the SMART status of the disk and it says "failing" now so it obviously is a hard drive failure. Thanks.

stype · Sep 6, 2007, 08:30 PM

RIP my ibook's hard drive. It passed away today. It was about to turn 3 years old in december. It will be missed.

seanc · Sep 7, 2007, 02:19 AM

Sorry to hear that.
Good thing is that you got stuff backed up before it died.
Now you can go and replace it, stick a 120GB drive in and enjoy the extra space.
iFixit: iPod, iBook, & PowerBook Parts and Accessories has guides illustrating how to do it.

RTFM · Sep 21, 2007, 09:47 PM

Your logic board is bad. But this is specific to the ata-bus off your hard drive. Or some chip related to the hard drive's ata bus. I'd bet you can boot without a hitch off a fw drive, or your DVD OSX installation. This has been my case. I initially thought to be a hd problem, replacing 2 HDs in a row. I later try the same drives with special adapters for my desktop. And guess what? They all work fine.
Contrary to popular belief. The Logic board failure extends beyond the video chipset. It's failure of bad solder points that crack over time. And it could be ANY chip. That's why it works when you apply pressure down on the case. Basically you're joining the bad solder points by force.

Apple is cooking up numbers saying that only a minority of users are experiencing these problems. Instead of saying that only users who bought extended warranties are the ones complaining about this problem.

stype · Sep 23, 2007, 07:16 PM

I thought for a while it might be the logic board, but after replacing the hard drive, I've been running without problems for 2 weeks. Its possible the hard drive cable may have come loose, but seeing how the drive was making horrible noises and generating lots of heat, it sounds like a drive issue. Also, the SMART status of the drive reported failure. I'm not sure a logic board problem could cause the drive's own diagnostics to report a failure.