Is your Mac iBook’s video flaky? Does putting pressure around the middle left of the base fix the video momentarilly? Chances are your graphics chip has a cracked solder joint. Basically, there’s a chip on the motherboard that is used for some video processing. The chip has a faulty solder connection to the motherboard. For more background on the issue, see this article, and for more technical info, see this report.

There are at least three remedies for this problem that we’ve found, all of which have varying degrees of difficulty and efficacy. All of them require opening the Mac.. ready?

Opening the G4:
Take out the battery. Pry off the four corner stands, as below:

Mac g4

Take out the screws on the bottom of the base. You’ll need a torx driver for some of these.

Remove the two screws in the battery well :

Mac g4

Pinch the plastic around the battery well to pry it off

Mac g4

Use a screwdriver and pry off the small slot in the battery well.

Mac g4

Work your way around the base with a soft tool to prevent damage.

Mac g4

When you have 3 sides pried off, lift up on the front, and the base should come apart:

Mac g4

Take out the screws holding the metal shield:

Mac g4

Pulling up the black power ribbon reveals the Vreg chip

Mac g4

Option #1)
If pressure or a GPU reset (holding command-ctrl-A-V during startup) fixes video temporarily, the easiest of the remedies to try is to put some sort of wedge on top of the Vreg chip. This might not work for long however, since the wedge will eventually settle and release pressure on the chip. Anyway, it’s worth a shot, and is a good test to try before trying the other remedies.

Option #2)
Try to remelt the solder around pins 1 and 28. These are the two shown here, pin 1 denoted by the dimple on the chip, pin 28 across from it.

Mac g4

It’s possible to do this with a heat gun, but a soldering iron is more precise. Hold one to the two pins for a few seconds. If you smell something burning, it’s probably long enough. Make sure you apply pressure to the chip while you do this to ensure a good connection when the joint reflows. Consider epoxying the ends of the chip so it does not move off of the board:

Mac g4

Unless you’re a gambler, we wouldn’t recommend covering the pins with epoxy since you might have to go with option 3 in the future. Put something heavy on the chip while the epoxy cures.

Option #3)
If the above options failed, the last option before purchasing a new motherboard is to resolder pin 28. This is usually the first to go, presumably because it is a power pin for the chip. You could also try pin 1 if you want. Scrape off some of the green PCB plastic around the pin.

Mac g4

Solder the pin to the PCB and make sure the solder flows over the pin. We usually use a blade to protect neighboring pins 27 and 2:

Mac g4

With any luck and steady hands, you should be able to get the pins resoldered properly. Something like:

Mac g4

Epoxy the ends of the chip as above. Close up your Mac, and good luck.

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