Tips for sending Wallstreet PB in for repair?

MDLarson

Registered
My '98 Wallstreet PowerBook G3 250 / 13.3" has been out of commission for some time now. The batteries don't like to sit tight in the bays, the screen hinge is tired (it flips about 15° freely), but the killer is the power adapter part has broken loose on the inside. I talked to some guys who worked on these models a lot, and they say these are all common problems, but they also say Apple won't let anybody (even Apple authorized outfits) work on laptops anymore. So, that means a quick call to 1-800-APL-CARE and about a $380 flat rate fee for everything (including a $49 charge I don't really need for a telephone troubleshooting session).

For those of you who want to say "Just get a new iBook!", don't. We've looked at that, and it's too much money right now.

On another note, I'd eventually like to setup this PowerBook as a wireless point on a home network. Airport (I think) is out of the question. Anybody have any experience with 3rd party PCMCIA wireless cards?

-Matt
 
I second Matt's request as I am in EXACTLY the same situation. I really don't want to send my formerly wonderful laptop in, especially after I read that the actual cost of the fixes is so much cheaper than what Apple asks for. (The flat rate nonsense is just overboard IMHO.)

My right hinge went completely kaputt last September, putting all the strain on the left one, making the whole screen feel "tired" - perfect way of putting it by the way :). At this point I've basically given up on finding out how to order a new hinge so I can install it myself (there are lots of illustrated guides on the web). I tried pbparts.com after someone mentioned it on a board, and even tried to go to their physical location near Phoenix, AZ to avoid shipping costs, but the address on the top of their site does not correspond to a real location. Somehow I wonder if they are a legit operation? <I just looked at their site again now and their address is now a non-descript Mesa, AZ instead of the fake more explicit one from December...has anyone actually bought anything from them?>

Anyway, I could live with the loose batteries, but after the power plug internally broke last week I'm just totally frustrated. I went to http://members.rogers.com/yhpun/fixsoundjacks.html and resoldered the power adapter this evening like the instructions said, and now when I plug in the green sleep light and the fan just stay on. :mad:

So, MDLarson, I would say you could fix most of the problems yourself (if you have no fear when it comes to cracking open computers ;) ) but as parts are apparently not for sale I don't know... we seem to be in the same boat...

Does anyone know where to get hinges for a 14.1 inch screen? Or a new power card? Apple, unfortunately, did a spectacularly poor job on these two parts for an otherwise great laptop.

Thanks!
 
I just found an old URL for pbparts.com replacement hinges but seriously... $80 (or $169 to install yourself) for a hunk of metal that is going to break in 1.5 years anyway? I'm sure the actual value is less than 3 dollars. Obviously they have to stay in business (even if they are some kind of sham) but charging SO much is a little out of hand I find...

Sorry if I sound like a money-grubber, but the final cost of these kind of repairs almost makes it worth buying a new iBook! Anyone know where to get a simple WallStreet hinge for a more realistic price?

Thanks!
 
Hey thanks for that link in your first post. I'm printing it out now to see if somebody else more profficient at soldering work can do it for me. I've peeked inside my PowerBook a few times and I get nervous if I go past the hard drive.
 
No problem, glad to help out!

http://www.pbparts.com/store/agora.cgi?keywords=support
That's the site I found that has replacement hinges.

Here are a few more links:

http://www.linkedresources.com/teach/powerbook/hinge.html
http://www.OCF.Berkeley.EDU/~kenao/unhinged/
http://www.jeffpollard.net/hinge_fix/
http://homepage.mac.com/wallstreetrepair/

and a nearly abandoned Yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/G3hinge/

You'd think judging from the number of reported hinge problems vs. power adapter problems they would have had a hinge recall instead of the http://exchange.info.apple.com/exchange/adapter one...:rolleyes:

Just wish I could figure out what I did to my power card to make it stay on/fail this way...
 
Is PB parts legitimate? I'd have to say so, they have gone out of their way to work with me on the broken hinges on my Wallstreet. I like you can't afford to purchase a new Ti-book. Just too much money for any new purchases right now.

PB Parts repaired my hinges over a year ago, when the repair failed, they took it back and replaced the parts for free under warranty. Pretty nice if you ask me.

John is the fellow I dealt with, he was patient, accomodating and persistent in discovering problems I encountered after the hinge replacements.

I too checked their location with something like MapQuest. The had a good address and I have never heard a bad word about them or the service they sell.

Unless you live in Alaska as I do, I'd say go for it on the repairs. The round trip shipping from Alaska to Arizona is almost more than the repair. Still, I can't imagine dealing with a broken hinge for as long as some of you have.

Do your self a favor and take the risk, send it in and get it fixed properly, the most they can tell you is that it isn't worth the repair cost.

Good luck.
 
I'm very glad to hear that they are legitimate because they are the only people I can find who sell Wallstreet hinges! :) I might get hinge replacements with them, but the other problem is I also need to get my sound/AC power card replaced (or maybe resoldered by someone who knows what they are doing) ... so I'd like to get everything fixed in one shot to save on shipping (which, if insured, will be very high).

BTW about PB parts location... Unless I have cleverly forgotten how to find addresses (quite likely ;) ), the address at the top of their webpage as of last January and a real location in Mesa, AZ simply did not match up. According to their address, they had an office in a two building complex, but their office number was higher than the real offices'. I even asked some janitors in the complex but they said they had never heard of it. Maybe it was some kind of weird typo...(unlikely), but it was really frustrating to waste 2 hours trying to find after coming from Phoenix.

...after using archive.org... here is their old website. Their address does not exist! (but they changed their website now so it is less descriptive.)
http://web.archive.org/web/20020124194751/http://www.pbparts.com/

Anyway... I might get a hinge through them... but at least I've got my equation down:
(PBG4 with DDR RAM and integrated Bluetooth) + (Snowball with twitchy fistful of cash) = Bliss + (Wallstreet 300 on eBay for -$200.00)
 
Well I'm glad to find out all this information. I like to consider myself pretty internet savvy, but without this forum and its users, I would probably have just "wasted" $380 with Apple for the fix.

I think I'm going to attempt to take my PB apart myself, have a soldering lady at work fix up my power plug, and postpone the hinge fix till I get organized for that. PBParts.com sounds like the only source for a purchase. I think it's disgusting how Apple sells those hinges in packs of FIVE!! What the heck? Whatever. Stupid big heads that Apple execs sometimes get...

Anyway, my third problem I've had for a while is bad connections for the batteries. Somebody at work told me to try rubbing alcohol or something on the contacts—anybody have any experience with this kind of problem? One symptom I think I have is that the battery, while it slides and clicks in, can be pushed in further by force. This doesn't seem to temporarily solve my problem however.
 
Glad you found the information useful. To add a caution. When I make an eBay purchase and I rate the seller I always add, based upon this experience with this seller....

Things can go bad with businesses, just look at all the messes in the corporate world. I don't know about the address changes for pbParts, I just know in my two experiences they've been a wonderful company with which to do business.

I'd recommend having them replace the hinges, its cheaper and you have a warranty. The same with the other problems.

If you can, to save on shipping take out the motherboard and hard drive, definately the battery and cd drive. Don't wait to have the hinges replaced, having them broken as I recall can fatally damage the video connector. I know there are pages on the web showing how one can remove these parts safely. Check previous postings in this string.

Also, I just remembered macresq.com also repairs powerbooks. At least check them out. I've gotten some great deals from them. As I recall they have a good deal on shipping too.

Finally, these hinges appear to be a design defect. Don't count on a permanent solution, but they should last for a reasonable period.

Best of luck!
 
Well, I did what I never thought I'd do. I ordered my tool with a Torx T8 on it and my PowerBook is currently in 10 or so pieces. I am lucky enough to work at a manufacturing place where a lady is really good at soldering work, so I'm going to bring in my sound card (where the power port is located), and she'll probably strengthen the weakened connections and I'll be back in business.

The screen and battery issues remain, but with the laptop apart, I was able to diagnose those problems better. According to one of those website mentioned before, the hinges most often broke NOT on the actual clutch part, but on the "finger" extension parts that went into the base and the screen part. This is NOT the case for me. Some of the encasing metal on the left clutch was worn off. I will try and post some pictures of all of this.

The battery connections seem to be OK (they LOOK like they have a good connection), but I think I will need to just clean the contacts with some rubbing alcohol or something. I'll keep posting my discoveries.
 
Good luck with your repairs!
I haven't had a chance to figure out what's wrong with my power card, and think it will have to be replaced...:(... next week I am taking it into work because we have an Official Apple Authorized Hardware Magician with all kinds of fun diagnostic boxes. Hopefully he can plug in to my WS and figure out what is wrong... I think I will get the new hinges soon too.

If all else goes wrong, at least the one advantage of cracking open the case was being able to clean everything (the IR ports on the left were REALLY dusty, probably unusably so but I don't use them anyway so it doesn't matter in my case).

By the way, it may be too late but when you are opening the hinge bezel thing (it covers the sleep light, has the power button in it, etc) or taking the screen apart be careful not to break off the snap tab things (kinda hard to explain what I mean) that keep both pieces of plastic bound together. YOu can use a nonscratching prying tool like a plastic knife (I used a pen cap) and see which way to pry it apart.
And to remember which screws go where, I used a tackle box and labeled each screw with a post-it note. VERY helpful when you put things down for a week and come back.

By the way, can I ask where you got your Torx-8 from? I have been looking for a good magnetic one (the screw sticks to the tip of the screwdriver) to replace my chunky old one.
 
I actually did Google search for T8, torx and found This website. The tool I ordered was the smaller 36396. It came pretty quickly. I don't think its magnetized though. Another website I came across was this one.

Yeah, I know what you're talking about with the plastic jobs and all. The trickiest thing for me was plugging and unplugging the screen cables.
 
This will be very much of interest to you, MDLarson:
I just happened :D (heh heh) to be cruising the MacAddict Forums the other day... and to my wonderful surprise found this handy pdf file...
http://homepage.mac.com/dfxdesign/.cv/dfxdesign/Public/powerbook_g3_series.pdf-binhex.hqx

Of course, I think you are only supposed to download it if you are an official Apple Authorized Money Sucking don't-give-a-d*mn-about-repairs-cause-Baywatch-is-on-TV-soon Repair Layabout.

Which of course we all are, right? ;)

Seriously, it's really useful because it shows exactly where each screw goes, how to take it out, etc.
AND, thanks to it, I managed to fix everything again! When I resoldered my power/sound card earlier and reassembled everything, I hadn't pushed the processor card all the way into the I/O board (the board underneath everything), because I somhow find it uncomfortable pushing really hard on electronics. But it turns out (as they say in the document) you really have to push to get it in all the way. Poor laptop, didn't get too far without a processor... :)

Anyway I'm really happy that my WallStreet works now because I saved not 100, not 200, but $300 dollars!
Now, onto the hinges...
 
Wow, thanks! That really is a HUGE help! Man, to tell you the truth, those images on the websites were OK, but compared to the real deal…

Yeah, I'm in the same boat as you I think. Most everything back to normal, with the exception of the hinges. My batteries seem to be working better now that I scraped at the contacts a little.

Thanks again for the link! I'm thinking about printing out all 236 pages! :D
 
I finally got around to taking my PB apart again to get pictures of the hinges.

Here's my left hing, the one that is obviously damaged…
 

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Glad to help out with the PDF. :) You're right, it is much better having the real deal.

Your poor left hinge has definitely seen better days, but look at the bright side: the video ribbon cable around it didn't tear when the hinge popped! Now that would have been a real problem to repair.

My right hinge broke in just the same way as your left one; that little flat chunk of metal broke off. My video cables were OK as well, but I've heard horror stories of hinges breaking and the tension from the spring slamming the hinge around and through the ribbon cable.


--Side Story--
I went to a MUG last Tuesday and after an Apple Authorized Repair person gave his presentation to us, I talked to him. He basically told me what's really happening with the WallStreets: In Apple's view, hinges are considered part of the screen. The only "official" way to repair these screens is to ship the whole computer back to Apple in Calif. to have the whole screen replaced, costing about $900 (plus shipping of course), with most of that money going towards the new LCD. For reasons unbeknownst to me, it is against Apple's policy to let Apple Authorized repair people fix only a hinge or even do this quite costly screen repair in-store.

Fortunately, though, not all Apple Authorized repair guys do things...erm...officially (heh heh). The one I talked to knows someone who somehow got a box of 500 new WallStreet hinges some time ago and sells them out to his Mac-repairing friends. (This box probably fell out the back of a truck, if you get my meaning...)

So, if I understand right, this Apple Authorized repair guy can get me some of these official hinges for MUCH less than the $80 or $160 pbparts.com sells them for.
The best part is that the reason he is willing to sell me just the hinge and not require the repair job as well is that he thinks I am a repair idiot, and will break something expensive and end up coming back to him anyway. BUT little does he know we have the exact same PDF file he does...:) good stuff, eh?
--------
Anyway, good luck with your repairs and let me know if you want to get hinges through this guy :).
 
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