It’d been annoying me for a while – when I opened the lid past a certain angle my iBook’s screen would go black. I could still barely see the screen image, but the lamp was off. Wiggling the lid back would usually bring it to life, but eventually the angle where it would work crept back to where my neck was hurting from bending down to see it.
This is apparently a well-known flaw with the routing of he cables running through/past the hinge to the screen. There are two bundles of cables, one on each side. If the backlight fails (but the screen image is still there) the problem is probably the reed switch cable, but if the screen image gets corrupted but the light’s still on then it’s probably the video data cable. I’ve collected the sites and pages that helped me diagnose and fix the problem in my iBook section at del.icio.us.
Small Dog Electronics had the reed switch cable for about half the price of anywhere else. I think some of the others did include the Airport antenna, but I didn’t need that since my wireless seemed to be working just fine. The package included a replacement plastic fan cover, which I thought strange until I compared it to the old one. On the replacement, the side where the reed switch cable runs has a little more space. I’m hoping that means it’ll be a while before I need to take it apart again.
It took me about 2 hours to take it all apart and put it back together. I did have one leftover screw and two spots where I didn’t have a screw that would fit (take note if I ever try to sell you an iBook…). But it works now!
