Broken Laptop

Tuesday, 5 April 2011

A while back my dad gave me his old laptop. The screen had a bunch of lines across it, so the monitor on it was basically useless. But i had it connected to my tv so i didn't need the monitor.

But i thought i'd try and fix it the other day, hoping i didn't make it any worse. Using this guide, i saw that if i just removed a few things i could get to the monitor plug/cable. So i took out the screws and removed the keyboard and cover.


I looked at the cable. It seemed ok, maybe a little pinched at the hinge point but nothing obvious.
I then unplugged it, used the old nintendo technique of blowing air into it, which really does nothing, then firmly plugged it back in. While the keyboard was still off i put the battery back in and turned it on. That seemed to fix it. I guess it was just a loose connection with one of the pins.

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iMac G3

While driving over a month back i noticed this computer by the side of the road. It looked like it was fairly new so i threw it in my trunk. Ya i took a computer out of the trash.

I started reading about it and learned that it was an iMac G3 and they stopped making them in 2003. On ebay, when they work, they are only worth about $300.

I plugged it in and amazingly, nothing happened! I kind of figured that since it was in the trash. So i went about trying to fix it.

The short version of the story is I didn't fix it. These iMac's are impossible to work on. It took probably 2 hours of me removing screws and trying not to break plastic before i could even look inside of the thing.


My only hope was a fuse i saw on the motherboard that might have blown. I checked it but it was fine. So i said forget it, there's no way i'm going to get this to work so i started taking everything apart. That took another hour or so.

I realized why they probably threw it out. It's one of those things where the broken part might only cost a few dollars but the cost to pay someone to fix it might be a few hundred dollars.

I ended up throwing most of it out but i did get the 80Gb hard drive, DVD drive, 2 small speakers and 2 ram cards. I'm using the hard drive in the new computer i built.

But if anyone asks for your help in fixing a Mac, just tell them to throw it out, it isn't worth it.

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