The Last-Ditch Effort

Longtime readers of this weblog will know the tragic tale of my laptop, its' benign and naive early days, and its quick fall from grace.

Hindsight tells me I purchased a lemon. It was an "eBay special", and I originally thought I got a good deal. I sank a fair amount of money into extra peripherals and software, though the efforts may as well have been in vain.

A little more than a year ago, I spilled my highball on the display and fried it. I was heartbroken. I had sunk well over a thousand dollars into that machine, and it barely lasted me six months. It was imperative that I repair the machine, since I could not afford a new one. Since the computer was fully operational (besides the display), it could likely be repaired, provided I could find the necessary parts on eBay.

After I consulted my computer-savvy friends, it was brought to my attention that it was likely the inverter board that blew. It is a small circuit board that provides high-voltage to power the LCD screen. My friends almost unanimously agreed that this was likely the culprit, and it could be easily replaced.

All the while, I was still using my computer. Apple was ingenious for developing the A/V port on laptops, that not only worked as a headphone jack, but also could provide video as well. Using the A/V Cable, I plugged my computer into the television set and managed to get a picture. The resolution was atrocious; it was difficult to read text without changing the resolution of the screen to 640 x 480, but I managed while I waited for my replacement part to arrive in the mail.

When my inverter board arrived, I spent more than a few hours carefully performing open-heart surgery on my precious laptop. It was a much more delicate endeavor than I had imagined. I had serviced desktop computers before, but the laptop was a challenge, since there is next to no free space within. When I finally had the machine assembled (with no leftover parts remaining), I held my breath, and pressed the power button.

I heard the start-up chime, which was a good thing, and I patiently waited to see the screen light up. All I got was a brief flicker, then a blank screen. Was I heartbroken. I had spent all this extra money on a part that didn't help my predicament. At least I could still run the computer from the television, I could listen to music or play a few of the games. I could still use the computer for the time being, though it was crippled, and I imagined another solution would eventually present itself. I still believed my machine could be repaired.

A few months had passed, while no solution had presented itself (that is to say, no cheap replacement parts were available on eBay), an act of dog sent my laptop flying five feet from the top of television to the floor. The machine had been on at the time, and I feared the worst. The A/V cable that connected the computer to the television had been severed, the jack still embedded in the computer. The display was damaged further, hinges were bent, and it was obvious that I would have to replace the entire screen if this machine was to return to its' former glory. Clouds formed overhead, and I heard the rumble of distant thunder. Zeus was not pleased.

Generally speaking, with respect to laptops, if the screen is damaged, you may as well buy a new computer, since the cost to replace the screen is likely more than the value of the laptop. This point also holds true if the logic board is damaged.

I counted my lucky stars that the computer would still boot. I still managed to run the machine via a replacement A/V cable, and I moved the setup to a corner downstairs where the dog would not likely give my laptop an aeronautics lesson.

All the while, I had been searching forums on the web searching for repair solutions for my little iBook. I soon discovered that I was not alone, and many iBook owners reported having problems with their display. Many users reported their troubles were due to a faulty logic board. In fact, the problem was so severe, that Apple implemented an iBook display replacement program as part of their warranty. Since I bought the iBook second-hand, and due to the fact that the iBook was three years old, I did not qualify for the free maintenance.

Last summer, my iBook finally died. It just happened one day, the laptop would not boot. I managed to get a startup chime, but there was no screen on the television, nor did I hear the hard drive spin up and load the operating system. In a panic, I thought the hard drive might be corrupted somewhere in the boot sector, so I tried to boot the computer from my OSX install CD, but that attempt proved fruitless. My laptop had become a very expensive paperweight.

To make things worse, I could not boot into single user mode, nor could I boot into open firmware. I had an Apple Hardware test CD that runs diagnostics on the computer hardware, but I couldn't even get that to load. All signs were pointing to a logic board failure, and that meant my laptop was beyond repair.

The hard drive on that laptop was the keeper of a great many files that were very important to me. I had a backup of my original webpage that resided at Yahoo! GeoCities. There were hundreds of emails, jpegs, and documents that I could not afford to lose. There had to be a way that I could rescue those documents and transfer them to my iMac.

My computer-geek friends had advised me that we could dissect the computer, and place the hard drive into an external firewire hard drive enclosure. This seemed like the best option, though I didn't like the idea of spending a number of hours ripping apart the laptop to disconnect the hard drive. The online iBook service schematics showed that you had to virtually disassemble the entire laptop in order to remove the hard drive. It has also been six months since I purchased my replacement computer, and my friends hadn't been able to find the necessary time to assist me in the surgery.

Last night, I could wait no longer, as I needed those files that were sitting idly on my laptop. It was a longshot, but there was one more thing I could attempt in order to rescue all my coveted files. I bought a firewire cable and directly connected the two machines. I was hoping that I might be able to boot my laptop into firewire target disk mode, and then copy the files directly to my new computer. I hit the power key on my laptop, held down the 'T' key and prayed.

I had nearly given up all hope, and then I saw a second hard drive icon appear on the desktop of my iMac. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and I proceeded to copy the files I had so missed to my iMac. I even ran disk first aid on the laptop to repair any corrupt sectors of the hard drive. I have not attempted to boot the laptop, but I imagine I will attempt this tonight, and see if the laptop will boot, or if it is indeed the logic board that is dysfunctional.

Now that I have rescued all my webpage documents from ages past, I highly anticipate that my Tour Journal from 1999 will be updated frequently.

Yesterday, the sun was shining, and Zeus was well-pleased.