Faulty iBook!

[Flompy]

Help! A friend of mine has lent me his iBook in the hope that I might be able to fix it, now he bought second hand it for his daughter a fair while ago- unfortunatly it seems pretty dead to me. I am unsure of the spec or model as there is no indication shown on the unit itself.

The battery is quite loose, but it has power- when it is not plugged in and I press the button green light comes on. I assume this means it is working fine, however when I plug it into the iBook it does nothing. It is loose however- the lock device does not seem to work.

Despite this, when I apply pressure or keep it pushed into the position it would be when not loose, the iBook does not power on at all. No response to the power button or the keys, the machine just stays the same as when turned off. The machine is just dead!

Does anybody have any advice on what the problem could be, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

[segages]

Have you got the power adaptor? The iBook should work with the power supply plugged in, regardless if the battery is in or not. That'll tell you if it's just the battery.

If it doesn't work via the mains, it could be anything. I took my iBook to pieces a few weeks ago to replace the internal hard drive for a faster, larger one. It's not for the feint hearted and takes a while but you can check all manner of connections when it's in pieces, specifically if the connection that takes the power from the battery/external socket to the motherboard (logicboard) is in properly.

I can't remember exactly where, but either beneath the keyboard or the next layer down is a strip that shows the spec of the machine.

http://www.pbfixit.com/Guide/ is a great place to see step-by-step what to do if you decide to take it apart.

[Angry the Clown]

It MIGHT be a power management issue and require a reset. Do you know what model of iBook it is? If so, check out the instructions relating to that model at the following link and give it a try:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449

I'll second the question in asking whether it works via the mains adapter. Does it? If so, if you've got access to the OSX instillation discs you should be able to put in the first disc and run an app that checks if all the internal hardware is in working order. The instruction manual should explain what you need to do.