Repaired my Wife's old laptop for my Daughter

Mi Problema

My wife's old G4 got to the point where you had to do gymnastics with the cord to keep it charging or just to stay on. It sat in a closet for at least a year. Once I found iFixit, I looked up the model and was able to find the DC board repair guide. We ordered the part and the Pro Tech Base Toolkit. I wanted to be able to give my daughter a computer that she could do homework on and surf the web. I also wanted her to learn a lesson in how to be a good steward of resources. I hate planned obsolescence and have grown up repairing and re-using things which is especially important living on a farm and not having a lot of spare cash. I sat down last night and did the repair. I used snack sized ziplock bags that I labled by the steps in the guide to hold the screws and other small parts I was removing. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get the lower case off. The

Mi Solución

I sat down last night and did the repair. I used snack sized ziplock bags that I labled by the steps in the guide to hold the screws and other small parts I was removing. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get the lower case off. The metal shield underneath was more delicate than I thought and I put a few marks on it, but nothing too bad. got the board out and put the new one in and then went in reverse order on the steps. The only hiccup that I hit was when I was putting in the two screws in the battery compartment. I kept having trouble getting them lined up, but eventually succeeded in correctly getting them installed. We fired it up and it works fine now. I don't think that it took me more than an hour of actual work all told. I spent a lot of the time talking to my mom long distance as I was going through the repair and stopped to finish my conversation once I reached the board removal step. I was on such a roll that I didn't even want to slow down to take pictures. We will need to buy a new charger and battery since the poor charging in the past has degraded it, but with the low price of these purchases, my daughter will have a great laptop for school and recreation for very little cost.

Mi Consejo

I wanted to include my daughter in the repair, but she wanted to wait because she wanted to do something else. I got impatient and just did it without her. I think that it would have been a good experience for her if I could have been a little more patient. I used the anti-static wrist band in the Pro-Tech Base Tool Kit, but there were no instructions with it to show me what to do with it so I just guessed and pressed on. I would definitely recommend the tool kit as an essential purchase for this type of repair. The quality and the utility of these tools was great. I am a tool guy and it was really nice to be able to get these all in one place for such a reasonable price.