No Such Luck

I picked up the tools I needed to try and perform a little clean up of the teriyaki spill that has taken down my PowerBook. Opening up the laptop was really straight forward once I had the (ridiculously small) Torx T6 screwdriver.

Alas, all this was to no avail.

My plan had been to crack it open, spray some contact cleaner onto the now-encrusted teriyaki. Following the instructions from iFixit.com, I was able to open the laptop with much trouble. These instructions were for the model previous to the one that I own. This turns out to differ slightly from the latest model^[1].

There are a few extra screws that hide underneath the right side speaker. Not being aware of these, I tugged on the logic board a few times before poking around a bit more for those extra couple of screws. It could be one more cause for the permanent damage to the unit.

Getting the logic board out is a bit of a trick. It has to be angled just right (about 45 degrees) to pull it out. There's a little hook shaped bracket that sits over the board just to the left of the DVI connector. This is what one has to work around. This is another place where there might have been a little jostling on my part.

Looking over the board, it really looks like it was hardly touched by the teriyaki invasion. Mostly, the sauce pooled in the bottom corners, around the power connector, and a little by the DVI connector. Spraying the contact cleaner in those places seemed to clean away most of the mess. It was a bit difficult, however, as there was a considerable number of sesame seeds^[2] that got stuck in the power connector.

Putting it all back together was just a matter of reversing the process (as usual). I missed a connector or two along the way but, after a few attempts to power it up, I figured out where all the pieces go.

I pressed that button, that pretty silver button, and nothing.

All that was left was to rifle through its pockets and look for loose change. I pulled out all the useful bits and pieces - hard drive, optical drive, and the memory. I'll have to see if I can part the thing out on Ebay.

This isn't exactly a Bad Thing, of course. I'll have to get a shiny, new MacBook. The G4 was starting to show its age and those Core Duos are speedy.

Only, I'll have to wait until October. Stupid Leopard delays.

[1] And by the latest model, I mean the last model of PowerBooks. This is before the switch to the MacBook/Intel line of laptops.

[2] It's a really tasty sauce, Veri-Veri Teriyaki by Soy-Vey. I recommend using it on a nice piece of salmon - marinate the salmon for at least a half hour, broil it for ten to twelve minutes, and enjoy.