[dreilly1]

OK, all you (dual USB) iBook owners: turn your iBook upside down. Now look at the battery lock thingy that you need to use a coin to turn.

You see the white plastic doohicky that fits around the disc that you turn with the coin? That's what broke last night! Half of the plastic circle is still there, but I've already had the disc fall out a few times, since the doohicky is what's keeping the disk thingy in place. Once I lose that disc, it will become very hard to take the battery out.

Does anyone know where I can find one of these? Does Apple even have a part number for them?

It seems silly to send it back to Apple just to fix this. (I bought Applecare after my logic board went south a few months ago). Could I possibly get the part from a CompUSA or Apple Store? (CompUSA is actually preferred, this time, since there's no Apple Store in Rochester yet...)? Or can I call AppleCare to tell them the problem and have them send me the part?

Thanks!

[Stinkysteve]

I would call Apple and be really nice to them on the phone. That would be the easy way!

[dreilly1]

OK now, I lost the silly metal disc thingy this weekend. Conveniently, I purchased AppleCare on this iBook when my logic board died the first time, so it should be a simple matter of calling Apple and getting the part sent to me, right? This repair seems as simple as replacing the rubber feet on the bottom, after all.

Well, not really. Apple apparently doesn't stock the disc thingy and plastic doohickey as separate parts, service centers can only order the whole bottom case. Which means that I can't get anyone to order it for me and deal with the repair quickly. Apple wants me to mail it in, since they'd technically be replacing the whole bottom of the case, and all the authorized service centers want to put the job in their regular repair queue, which could take a few days. All for a "repair" that I could do in five seconds if I could just get my hands on the part.

So as I see it, my only options are to send it to Apple (who would probably ship it right back out to me the next day), bring it to a local service center and have it take just as long in their queue, or buy an old bottom case off of eBay or from a used Mac place and replace the pieces myself.

Now that the logic board failures will be covered separately anyway, my AppleCare purchase seems kind of useless now...

[iREZ]

Take it to an Apple store, if they have an iBook laying around for parts they'll just fix it right there on the spot, atleast that's what they do with other small inconveniences.

[dreilly1]

Originally posted by iREZ:
Take it to an Apple store, if they have an iBook laying around for parts they'll just fix it right there on the spot, atleast that's what they do with other small inconveniences.

The closest store to me is in Buffalo, an hour's drive away. I can't just casually drop by to see if they had any parts. I called them and they said that they didn't have any of those parts in stock. And they also said that they're not authorized to repair laptops yet, so they'd just send them out anyway.

The problem stems from the fact that officially, it's not just replacing the disc thingy, it's replacing the whole bottom case, since that's what the part number is for. So unless a place happens to have an iBook torn apart for parts that I can salvage, they're going to consider it a major repair. And nobody's going to order a $100 part just so that I can salvage the $10 part I need from it.

Unless a local repair place can give me a same-day turnaround on the repair, I may have no choice but to send it in. But one place tried to tell me that AppleCare wouldn't cover it, since it wasn't a manufacturing defect. Like hell it isn't, or are those things only supposed to last fifteen months?

[cSurfr]

Originally posted by dreilly1:
The closest store to me is in Buffalo, an hour's drive away. I can't just casually drop by to see if they had any parts. I called them and they said that they didn't have any of those parts in stock. And they also said that they're not authorized to repair laptops yet, so they'd just send them out anyway.

The problem stems from the fact that officially, it's not just replacing the disc thingy, it's replacing the whole bottom case, since that's what the part number is for. So unless a place happens to have an iBook torn apart for parts that I can salvage, they're going to consider it a major repair. And nobody's going to order a $100 part just so that I can salvage the $10 part I need from it.

Unless a local repair place can give me a same-day turnaround on the repair, I may have no choice but to send it in. But one place tried to tell me that AppleCare wouldn't cover it, since it wasn't a manufacturing defect. Like hell it isn't, or are those things only supposed to last fifteen months?

Maybe you could try www.wegenermedia.com or www.pbparts.com ? Just a thought. Wegener Media has a ton of parts, all you have to do is call and ask

[dreilly1]

Originally posted by cSurfr:
Maybe you could try www.wegenermedia.com or www.pbparts.com ? Just a thought. Wegener Media has a ton of parts, all you have to do is call and ask

pbparts wouldn't separate the stuff I need from the bottom case, which costs $100. And I don't blame them: If you son't have that part lying around separately already, why would you take apart a servicable $100 part to salvage a $10 part?

I haven't heard of wegener before, maybe I'll contact them today.
I'm fully expecting them to not have it either, I'm just hoping that maybe they have a damaged bottom case part that I could snag my doohicky from...

[darcybaston]

LOL! I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at me because I almost *made* mine come off by overscrewing the battery thing too far in the wrong direction.

[Detrius]

That part is not sold separately. It is part of the bottom case kit, which should be less than $100. It's also a serious pain to remove the bottom case kit. When you know what you are doing, it takes about a half an hour or so.