[maxhedrum]

I'm in the process of trying to revive a bady mistreated 1ghz G4 Powerbook for a buddy on the cheap.

After touching up solder joints on the video side of the motherboard, replacing the HDD and Superdrive, and going over everything else, it works OK 'till you try and install applications. The monitor spazz's out to the point where you can't see well enough to accomplish anything. The only way to get it back is to run Diskwarrior and permission repairs.

Running with just the basic OS install, DVD's play well and movie files play as well via Quicktime.

The lower RAM slot is dead. I contacted the folks mentioned here, but they don't take repairs of just the mobo. You have to send the whole machine. They were also unsure whether they would be able to reball the video processor as well. I aso contacted the people who reball the video chip, but never heard back from them as to whether they can do the RAM slot fix or not. I also contacted a couple of board rework outfits in San Jose, but none had experience working with Mac boards and could not guarantee results. I'd like to find a rework company who would be able to take care of both problems.

Hoping that someone here would know if the RAM slot problem is with the RAM slot module itself, or it's connection to the board.

Would also be interested in knowing about anyone doing the RAM repair without having to send in the laptop. Sending the board out twice would only be a minor incovenience, if that's what it takes.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

[Waragainstsleep]

The RAM slot issue is more common on the 1.5 and 1.67GHz machines. Can't be sure its the same issue. You can test the connection to an extent, by firing it up while pressing the RAM into the slot.

[maxhedrum]

There have been numerous reports of this happening with the 1ghz machines as well, which I guess Apple has just chosen to ignore. It's even included in the petition being circulated to try and get them to fix the problem.

I switched the RAM between the two slots and the lower one always shows as being empty. Even tried Stabilant, which is used to revive poor flexible circuit board contacts.

If I knew whether the problem stems from a defective slot module or it's connection to the board, it would give me a better idea as to where to go next.

Thanks for the input.