i assume you pulled out any RAM that is extra (like anything not actually soldered to the Motherboard).
if that's the case, send it in to get it fixed. this is a hardware issue.
Yes, I'm afraid that was the first thing I did... and unless the RAM physically soldered to the motherboard has blown it can't be RAM.
Interestingly I found someone over at a ThinkSecret forum who seems to have had very similar problems to me and so I registered and posted asking for some information as to what Apple did to fix his iBook (seeing as he has sent it in and had it back presumably fixed). If anyone is interested the thread can be found HERE.
I luckily had a reply from an opey_taylor on a thread over at ThinkSecret who seemed to be having very similar if not identical problems as me. Here is his interesting reply:
Quote:
Retrograde and iThink..., I didn't get a lot of information from AppleCare about how they fixed my machine, but what they did do sort of surprised me. I thought that they would replace the HD, but all that was indicated on the repair record was replacement of the CD-drive. _That may sound weird, but I had been experiencing some problems with the CD tray (one of these days I'm going to get a slot-loading machine). It wouldn't open sometimes. I would hear click-click-click...click-click-click...etc. _Had to resort to sticking a paperclip in the release hole. I was waiting until after the school semester to send it in for repair, but the boot up problem forced my hand. I actually forgot to tell the Mac Genius about this particular problem, anyway. But, it seems clear to me that they did indeed replace it, and it works after the first click. I should also mention that the previous one had an annoying buzz, that silly me thought was normal. My old Tangerine iMac CD tray buzzed some too until Apple released a software fix for it. The buzz on the iBook was fairly minimal, so it didn't bother me. Anyway, not knowing a thing about how the machine works (I'm longing for the days of my first Mac-a 512k Fat Mac with dueling 400k drives [one internal, one external]), I'm guessing that the glitchy CD drive was giving the machine some kind of fit. Perhaps it was looking for some kind of signal that it wasn't getting.
This makes me think (seeing as my combo drive died roughy 2 weeks or so before I started getting the flashing question mark problems) that all of my boot problems and freeze problems are a result of the dead or problematic optical drive. Both the combo drive and the hard drive are on the ATA bus and so I guess it is possible that the combo drive is causing problems on the bus that has to look for the hard disk too.
Anyone think this is a likely scenario? Or does this seem unlikely?
First: My apologies for bringing this thread back from the dead but I feel I owe those who helped me in my time of need the facts on the resolution of the problems
Well, I got the iBook in to an Apple Centre today and it looks like it has all been fixed (although I will need to run the iBook for a few days to be entirely sure that everything is fine). The problem appears to have been caused by the "missing" combo drive. Because the ATA bus (which both the hard disk and combo drive sit on) couldn't "see" the combo drive it went into a panic mode on boot up and caused the flashing ?/caused it not to see the boot disk itself.
The good news was that it was not a dead combo drive (like I had had before, apparently) but the cable running between the drive and the mobo was dead and needed replacing. They put a new cable in (and charged me a whopping 125 pounds for it!!! That's $200US or $290CDN!!! ...for a freaking cable!) and now not only does the combo drive work but the whole iBook seems to be running smoothly again
Oh one other thing: The technician said, Whoever did work on your machine last did some pretty shoddy work. I'm surprised the drive lasted as long as it did. The cable was badly doubled over and folded which will almost always eventually lead to a broken cable. Now, I had the last drive replaced by Apple under warranty so obviously it is Apple (or one of its contractors) who did the shoddy work. Needless to say I am not impressed and plan to call Apple to make a complaint. \
Glad you got a fix: did you get that information from the technician in writing? Obviously that shoddy repair is entirely Apple's responsibility, and if they did it under warranty, they should pay to sort out their mistake rather than you.
Glad you got a fix: did you get that information from the technician in writing? Obviously that shoddy repair is entirely Apple's responsibility, and if they did it under warranty, they should pay to sort out their mistake rather than you.
Unfortunately I wasn't thinking at the time and didn't ask... I wonder if they would put one in writing though? They are a Certified Apple Service Provider ... do you think they would want to bite the hand that feeds it? I just might give this a try though
One thing of note that I failed to mention earlier for people who are experiencing problems like these: the technician said to me that iBooks and iMacs will not work if the optical drives are either not working or not present (I had hoped I could just unplug the combo drive from the mobo and buy a small portable burner). So if you are having problems like those described in this thread it could lead back to the optical drive and/or its cable.
Does anyone else think this is a little lame? If the optical drive dies then the whole computer goes out of whack and you cannot decide to just unplug the drive and use an external portable. Why?!
Oh one other thing: The technician said, Whoever did work on your machine last did some pretty shoddy work. I'm surprised the drive lasted as long as it did. The cable was badly doubled over and folded which will almost always eventually lead to a broken cable. Now, I had the last drive replaced by Apple under warranty so obviously it is Apple (or one of its contractors) who did the shoddy work. Needless to say I am not impressed and plan to call Apple to make a complaint. \
Retrograde: How long ago did Apple repair your optical drive under warranty? At least here in the US, Apple's repairs carry a 90-day parts and labor warranty. However, I have no idea whether Apple would reimburse you for a repair that you arranged and paid for yourself (assuming the first repair was less than 90 days ago). In any case, the bottom line is that your iBook is fully functional again, which is what matters most.
Retrograde: How long ago did Apple repair your optical drive under warranty? At least here in the US, Apple's repairs carry a 90-day parts and labor warranty. However, I have no idea whether Apple would reimburse you for a repair that you arranged and paid for yourself (assuming the first repair was less than 90 days ago). In any case, the bottom line is that your iBook is fully functional again, which is what matters most.
Escher, the repair was done a little more than 6 months ago so there was no chance Apple would repair it for me (I called them to double check on that in any case). I definitely don't think Apple will reimburse me for the repair (whether they ought to or not is another question I suppose) seeing as it is out of warranty and seeing as I will just be calling with a complaint concerning the last repair, a complaint moreover that they will merely take as unsubstantiated seeing as I will just be telling them what the technician told me informally and who I'm sure wouldn't put anything in writing for fairly obvious reasons.
Really my only complaint or point of fact is to tell them that the reason I had to repair the iBook, according to the technician, was that the work they had done (well, one of their contractors in the UK, "AMSYS plc") was done poorly. I don't realistically expect any remuneration, I just want them to know that AMSYS plc or one of their employees did poor work leading directly to a premature failure on my iBook.
A side quibble of mine is that a 90 day warranty on new parts seems pretty lame to me. Is this the industry standard? I guess I think "a new part is a new part" and should come with a 1 year warranty. But in any case that won't help me because the "new part" Apple replaced before was the combo drive itself and probably not the cable (although I suppose they might have replaced both at the same time?).
In any case--and as you point out--the main thing is that the iBook is up and working again. And it feels as solid and as reliable as the first day I got it
Comments
if that's the case, send it in to get it fixed. this is a hardware issue.
Originally posted by alcimedes
i assume you pulled out any RAM that is extra (like anything not actually soldered to the Motherboard).
if that's the case, send it in to get it fixed. this is a hardware issue.
Yes, I'm afraid that was the first thing I did... and unless the RAM physically soldered to the motherboard has blown it can't be RAM.
Interestingly I found someone over at a ThinkSecret forum who seems to have had very similar problems to me and so I registered and posted asking for some information as to what Apple did to fix his iBook (seeing as he has sent it in and had it back presumably fixed). If anyone is interested the thread can be found HERE.
Retrograde and iThink..., I didn't get a lot of information from AppleCare about how they fixed my machine, but what they did do sort of surprised me. I thought that they would replace the HD, but all that was indicated on the repair record was replacement of the CD-drive. _That may sound weird, but I had been experiencing some problems with the CD tray (one of these days I'm going to get a slot-loading machine). It wouldn't open sometimes. I would hear click-click-click...click-click-click...etc. _Had to resort to sticking a paperclip in the release hole. I was waiting until after the school semester to send it in for repair, but the boot up problem forced my hand. I actually forgot to tell the Mac Genius about this particular problem, anyway. But, it seems clear to me that they did indeed replace it, and it works after the first click. I should also mention that the previous one had an annoying buzz, that silly me thought was normal. My old Tangerine iMac CD tray buzzed some too until Apple released a software fix for it. The buzz on the iBook was fairly minimal, so it didn't bother me. Anyway, not knowing a thing about how the machine works (I'm longing for the days of my first Mac-a 512k Fat Mac with dueling 400k drives [one internal, one external]), I'm guessing that the glitchy CD drive was giving the machine some kind of fit. Perhaps it was looking for some kind of signal that it wasn't getting.
This makes me think (seeing as my combo drive died roughy 2 weeks or so before I started getting the flashing question mark problems) that all of my boot problems and freeze problems are a result of the dead or problematic optical drive. Both the combo drive and the hard drive are on the ATA bus and so I guess it is possible that the combo drive is causing problems on the bus that has to look for the hard disk too.
Anyone think this is a likely scenario? Or does this seem unlikely?
Well, I got the iBook in to an Apple Centre today and it looks like it has all been fixed (although I will need to run the iBook for a few days to be entirely sure that everything is fine). The problem appears to have been caused by the "missing" combo drive. Because the ATA bus (which both the hard disk and combo drive sit on) couldn't "see" the combo drive it went into a panic mode on boot up and caused the flashing ?/caused it not to see the boot disk itself.
The good news was that it was not a dead combo drive (like I had had before, apparently) but the cable running between the drive and the mobo was dead and needed replacing. They put a new cable in (and charged me a whopping 125 pounds for it!!! That's $200US or $290CDN!!! ...for a freaking cable!) and now not only does the combo drive work but the whole iBook seems to be running smoothly again
Oh one other thing: The technician said, Whoever did work on your machine last did some pretty shoddy work. I'm surprised the drive lasted as long as it did. The cable was badly doubled over and folded which will almost always eventually lead to a broken cable. Now, I had the last drive replaced by Apple under warranty so obviously it is Apple (or one of its contractors) who did the shoddy work.
Originally posted by Overhope
Glad you got a fix: did you get that information from the technician in writing? Obviously that shoddy repair is entirely Apple's responsibility, and if they did it under warranty, they should pay to sort out their mistake rather than you.
Unfortunately I wasn't thinking at the time and didn't ask... I wonder if they would put one in writing though? They are a Certified Apple Service Provider ... do you think they would want to bite the hand that feeds it? I just might give this a try though
Does anyone else think this is a little lame? If the optical drive dies then the whole computer goes out of whack and you cannot decide to just unplug the drive and use an external portable. Why?!
Originally posted by Retrograde
Oh one other thing: The technician said, Whoever did work on your machine last did some pretty shoddy work. I'm surprised the drive lasted as long as it did. The cable was badly doubled over and folded which will almost always eventually lead to a broken cable. Now, I had the last drive replaced by Apple under warranty so obviously it is Apple (or one of its contractors) who did the shoddy work.
Retrograde: How long ago did Apple repair your optical drive under warranty? At least here in the US, Apple's repairs carry a 90-day parts and labor warranty. However, I have no idea whether Apple would reimburse you for a repair that you arranged and paid for yourself (assuming the first repair was less than 90 days ago). In any case, the bottom line is that your iBook is fully functional again, which is what matters most.
Escher
Originally posted by Escher
Retrograde: How long ago did Apple repair your optical drive under warranty? At least here in the US, Apple's repairs carry a 90-day parts and labor warranty. However, I have no idea whether Apple would reimburse you for a repair that you arranged and paid for yourself (assuming the first repair was less than 90 days ago). In any case, the bottom line is that your iBook is fully functional again, which is what matters most.
Escher, the repair was done a little more than 6 months ago so there was no chance Apple would repair it for me (I called them to double check on that in any case). I definitely don't think Apple will reimburse me for the repair (whether they ought to or not is another question I suppose) seeing as it is out of warranty and seeing as I will just be calling with a complaint concerning the last repair, a complaint moreover that they will merely take as unsubstantiated seeing as I will just be telling them what the technician told me informally and who I'm sure wouldn't put anything in writing for fairly obvious reasons.
Really my only complaint or point of fact is to tell them that the reason I had to repair the iBook, according to the technician, was that the work they had done (well, one of their contractors in the UK, "AMSYS plc") was done poorly. I don't realistically expect any remuneration, I just want them to know that AMSYS plc or one of their employees did poor work leading directly to a premature failure on my iBook.
A side quibble of mine is that a 90 day warranty on new parts seems pretty lame to me. Is this the industry standard? I guess I think "a new part is a new part" and should come with a 1 year warranty. But in any case that won't help me because the "new part" Apple replaced before was the combo drive itself and probably not the cable (although I suppose they might have replaced both at the same time?).
In any case--and as you point out--the main thing is that the iBook is up and working again. And it feels as solid and as reliable as the first day I got it