Got a call from my mom about her 12" iBook 1.2 GHz running 10.4.X.
She started up her iBook and the fan immediately started spinning at full tilt. It stopped but the computer would not start up. I told her to hold down the power button until the computer reset itself. It reset and the screen came up and everything was OK.
A day or two later she takes her iBook with her to work. She calls me again saying it won't turn on. My brother takes a look at it and is able to start the iBook in Firewire Target Disk Mode. He connects it to his MacBook and using Disk Utility is able to check the hard disk, find one error, and repair it.
The iBook now boots normally and runs OS X, but the backlight on the display is not working. I can hook the computer up to an external monitor and it will display just fine. I have run Hardware Test and the logic board passed in both quick and extended testing. PRAM/VRAM/PMU resets do nothing.
Doing my background research on logic board failures in iBooks, the spinning fan, loss of video, and repairable error on the HD all seem to be symptoms. I did notice the highlighted 'flowers' on the bottom corners of the LCD display when looking at the screen before (someone reported this in the context of logic board failures). What don't seem to be symptoms are the ability to hook up this iBook to an external monitor, still see the video displayed on the iBook display with no backlight), and generally being able to use the iBook.
I have seen the page calling for the wedge to be put on the logic board where the chip separated. Applying pressure to the left-side of the trackpad does nothing to correct the display problem so I do not think that will be the solution here.
If the spinning fan/disk error/everyone else reporting errors didn't happen, I would say I have a faulty display that needs repairing. But all of that did happen.
The absolute worst part of this is that the $350 extended AppleCare purchased for the iBook expired just 3 WEEKS ago around Christmas. My mom barely uses her computer (3 years in and the battery still lasts over 4 hours) and I am sure if she was a regular computer user this fault would have happened in the warranty period. At least we have AppleCare for credit and can put that towards any possible repairs.
Is it a logic board or something else?
Thanks
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