There are some hints on what lays inside, waiting for you to peek inside, with help
of a few repair guides with fair image detail and steps to take such a device apart.
If you have a 12-inch iBook G3 (white) or 14-inch similar model, there are two guides:
• iBook G3 12-inch repair guide (white)
https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iBook_G3_12%22
• iBook G3 14-inch repair guide (white)
https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iBook_G3_14%22
Certain circuits may fail to due age and heat expansion/contraction due to natural
warming and cooling during periods of use and non-use; there are solder joints in
these which may be affected by time. Some issues were known to exist as time
went on, because in part, the chemical composition or type of solder was changed.
If this is a contributing cause, further investigation may be required and symptoms
of this may be difficult to narrow down. Unless you can get it working again, to have
it fail similarly. A solder joint issue had been discovered by Corey Allen (or sim name)
and that effect was given his name. He devised a way to put shims inside the body
of the iBook (white) to apply pressure on the CPU and push the microscopically tiny
broken solder joints together without re-soldering. There are companies who can do
the micro-soldering or re-ball of tiny affected logic board failures, sometimes these
are sporadic due to heating and cooling; other times there is a complete failure and
the board may be repaired in a well-qualified shop, instead locating a replacement.
{I no longer see the old article of how this DIY repair by compression online
and it does not appear in a search of the name mentioned above.}
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=iBook+G3+logic+board+repair+&t=ffsb
http://www.applerepair.co.uk/ibook-logic-board-repair.htm (G4 iBook noted)
So trouble shooting is the primary difficulty without technical skills or understanding
of how the device works, and a schematic of the electrical pathways to test them.
There may be a copy of the original apple Service manual online in PDF worth a look
to see if you can download one; be careful since posers may have uploaded malware.
Not sure who will see and reply to your thread (there should only be one, going ahead)
however the device should not be thrown away yet. I have a few older Macs that are
in need of microscopic repair out of my league, sitting nearby. Much older ones had
better access to the internal parts, such as desktop PowerMacs, etc. Compact design
is part of the problem, intricate integrated electronics; increased difficulty for end user.
Perhaps some of those who visit and reply here who have done troubleshooting will
see your thread and suggest methods to further test the unit; because these are so
much older, only a few qualified trained specialist authorized service providers will
touch them. And their time cost the same if you have a new model or an antique.
The level of their ability to know what needs repair & troubleshooting it, varies. In
the US a company such as wegenermedia.com could restore the unit, especially if
a complete portable computer were sent to them for initial diagnostic testing.
When a computer is otherwise a lot like new in appearance, it may be worth fixing.
Anyway, it's late here in my time zone and so I should've been sleeping instead...
Good luck & happy computing! 🙂
