Hi all,

my little old ibook's logic board finally crapped out.  I don't want to sell it, so i'm thinking of fun ways that i can use it (if at all)...or even parts of it.  everything still works in it, just the GPU's not attached to the logic board anymore and it's not worth dishing out the $$ to get a replacement. 

for instance:  is there anyway that i can change the wiring on the LCD (via adapters or whatever) so I can use it as a monitor??

Creative Ideas are welcome.

Thanks!

Afraid not. Its too complicated.

You can change the LCD into a desktop monitor but by time you buy all of the parts for it could of been cheaper to buy a 21inch LCD.

Heres all you can do really. Use the CD drive and hard drive. Unless you have a older iMac G3 you might be be able  to use the memory. To use the CD-ROM and Hard drive though you would need to buy a adapter.

good news!

so, i decided to try the famed "jam something between the metal shielding and plastic bottom cover directly above the GPU" trick, and lo and behold, it worked!  I ended up using some polyeurethane surface savers...aka feet for miscellaneous stuff.  my only worry is that the heat from the GPU might melt them if it gets too hot.  I have a few left over, so i'm going to put 'em in the toaster oven and see how much heat they can take.

Thanks for your replies, and i'm hoping this fix will last me the next 4 months till i'm done school, then i'm going to retire it and do something really crazy with it.

I'm still open to fun mod ideas as a hobby project though, i'm all about creativity!

Jordanit, try this when you retire it:
http://geektechnique.org/projectlab/726/diy-obsolete-ibook-logic-board-repair
:p

Hi Jordanit, you may want to try Apple on this. I know their web site states that the extended repair program for G3 iBooks finished some time ago but they repaired mine at no charge in Nov. 06 then two of my friends got theirs repaired in Dec. (we are all in Australia - not sure if that makes a difference).
I don't know Apple's official position on this but it might be worth a try.
Failing that MacJunky's tip looks like a heap of holiday fun!

thanks for your suggestions!  my rubber-feet-in-the-case fix worked, but about 3 days before christmas my video went back to it's old habbit of freezing and crackling.  I wasn't very happy.  BUT, after leaving it off for a couple days, it worked again.  pretty much it works when it wants too...but the last two times i've fired it up, everything runs perfectly.

I'm going to fire it up tomorrow and let it run for a bit.  I have a suspicion that some of the adhesive on the rubber feet isn't sticky, and so the pressure isn't being applied. (at least i hope that's the case).  Perhaps when it's on for a long time, the heat from the processor is enough to render the feet-fix obsoslete.  I'll probably take it apart on soon, and replace the feet with some high grade popsicle sticks and/or a metal shim of some kind. 

again, thanks for the suggestions, I especially appreciated the tealight +alcohol soldering job :)  if nothing else, at least it looks like fun!
jordanit

alright, i figure it's time for an update.  the rubber feet didn't last long, and neither did the business cards, so i decided to buckel down and try the suggested X-treme tealight fix (thanks MacJunky!).  in case you're wondering...here's what i did:

1) heated up 4 tealights until the wax was melted, and then pulled out the wick from 3 of them and put them in the 4th tealight.  i then emptied about half the wax out of the new uber-tealight so it's half full (or half empty...)
2) took apart my ibook so it's bottom was completely exposed, including the yellow foamy stuff over the graphics card, and set it upside down, screen open, on a flattened, empty cereal box, over the edge of a desk.
3) lit three of of the 4 wicks in the uber-tealight and fired up the ibook to produce extra heat.
4) sat back and waited for the fan to turn on.


once the fan turned on i left the tealights burning for as long as i could bear.  by this point, the three flames had combined into one big flame, which was jumping in the tealight tin container.  i just grabbed the tealight with a set of pliers and blew it out and threw it in a sink (it's VERY HOT).  then i shut the book off, let it cool down (still upside down), and put it back together. 

the good news is that i didn't not fix it!  it's been working since then, but i'm a little hesitant to leave it on too long, so the solder doesn't re-melt itself.  if anyone knows of a good program or hack that will allow you to control the fan in an ibook G3, please let me know!  I've found "Fan Control", but that doesn't work on the ibook.

Thanks again for your suggestions, and if you have any questions, i'll try to answer them!