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748snowman · Aug 8, 2006, 03:15 PM

Ok so the deal is. I open my ibook turn the power on and push the screen all the way back. I smell smoke and it powers off. Now when i plug in the A/c i smell smoke and last night for a second i saw a spark. It does nothing, doesnt power on, nothing. Now i dont really care if the laptop is dead but my concern is the Hard drive. Is it toast and how can i find out? There are quite a few files on there, that i wasnt able to back up, I just returned from a trip and didnt get a chance to do so. Any help would be awsome also i did a search on this and nothing really pertaned to what happend to mine.. Btw the smoke and spark came from (faceing the ibook from the back) the left side.

ghporter · Aug 8, 2006, 04:06 PM

Most likely it's NOT the drive. Search for instructions for changing out the drive on your model and you'll get the instructions you need to get the drive out.

It's almost certainly not the drive-they just stop working. I'm betting it's the power circuits.

748snowman · Aug 8, 2006, 07:41 PM

I under stand its not the drive but my concern is, If the drive is ok, or did the short in wiring kill the drive and everyhting else. The crappy thing is, there isnt really any way to konw except for spending 300+ at the apple store. and hope the drive is ok.

i was planning on switching to a mini mac in the next few months but alot of the photos on my ibook werent backed up, so they might be all lost.. If i can take the hard drive out of the ibook and put it in a firewire caddy to run as a back up drive would i beable to get everything off of it? Also i never under stood how to back up my itunes. any adivse and thanks again guys!

ghporter · Aug 8, 2006, 07:55 PM

Like I said, just open the machine and pull the drive. It's very unlikely that the drive was damaged-almost certainly it wasn't. Once it's out, you can put it in an enclosure and read it, probably without any problem. I got a USB-IDE drive adapter for about $25 that includes a laptop drive connector; all you have to do is plug it into the drive and your computer, and it's an external drive! It's not pretty, but it works-and well.

seanc · Aug 8, 2006, 08:08 PM

I suspect it's the screen cable shorting out.
Did you see the spark from the screen hinge area? There was a video floating around the web that I have of an iBook G3 with flames coming out of the hinge due to a shorted screen cable. If you were to disconnect the screen cable while you had it open, the iBook would probably work just fine and you could use it connected to an external screen.

748snowman · 09:43 PM

Thats what i wanted to hear.. How do i back up the music from my itunes? As for the screen cable how would and could i replace or repare that? And my last question. Does anyone know of a company that makes a enclosure for firewire, to work with this hd? Thanks again

seanc · Aug 9, 2006, 08:55 AM

To backup your music from iTunes, just copy your music folder to another HDD.
You could start by disconnecting the screen cable, it's connected to the logic board. ifixit.com has dissasembly instructions. I got a replacement thinner cable from eBay along with a new screen hinge that won't damage the cable, any 2.5" firewire enclosure should do.

ghporter · Aug 9, 2006, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by 748snowman

Thats what i wanted to hear..

That's not what you said, so that's not the question I answered. Sorry I couldn't be of help..

748snowman · Aug 9, 2006, 04:49 PM

No no you did help! i was really worried that i might lose everything on my HD.. but it seems that my HD might have been spared... But im gonna rip into it in the next few days. anyone know of a good enclosure to use for this, or brand.. Thanks again for the help all

imitchellg5 · Aug 9, 2006, 05:38 PM

For your iTunes Music Store songs, open iTunes, select the Advanced drop down menu then select check for purchased music.