Comments on: How to fix a loose hinge on an Aluminium Powerbook

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:03:28 +0000

Wow, what a great tip. It took me all of 15 minutes to complete. It’s like new, I guess I don’t need to upgrade just yet. I used a spurge tool to open the seam enough to slide a credit card in.

Thanks so much.

By: Adonis

Adonis — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 01:15:02 +0000

Aha, here you go. It’s called the “clutch cover”. Here’s how to get to it:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-PowerBook-G4-Aluminum-15-Inch-1-1-5-GHz-Display-Data-Cable/1025/13

and

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-PowerBook-G4-Aluminum-15-Inch-1-1-5-GHz-Clutch-Cover/1022/1

By: Adonis

Adonis — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 01:06:16 +0000

As someone else noted (if I read it correctly) there’s ANOTHER kind of “loose screen problem” that’s not fixed by the above method. This my case: the screws on the body of the laptop are super-tight, the screws that this article shows are also super-tight, yet there’s still “play” when you touch the screen. The problem is a set of screws (from what I can see 3 or 4) per side (left/right) that are inside the U-shaped bottom of the screen that has the inverter inside. I haven’t figured out how to get to them yet, but those tighten the axial connector/pipe/metal thing which is what pivots the screen.

By: George

George — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 01:10:52 +0000

Your local Sears carries a lot of this small tools in the Craftsman line: individually or in a set. They have torx down to T4

By: Steven Walling » Blog Archive » My Lifestream for November 24th

Steven Walling » Blog Archive » My Lifestream for November 24th — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:34:35 +0000

[...] How to fix a loose hinge on an Aluminium Powerbook | Macintosh How To [...]

By: Glynn

Glynn — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:06:40 +0000

This was so much easier than any other way that I’ve come across. The credit card was a piece of cake?? Maybe that should be an official tool for working on Macs. I used the same technique to take the front bezel of MacBooks.

The rear screws are T8 torx Fry’s electronics for $2.50 US.

Cheers

By: Buck

Buck — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:37:04 +0000

What size/type screwdriver did you use on the screws on the inside? I can’t get them to tighten at all. The credit card method worked great to removing the back — I used an expired Starbucks gift card.

By: john

john — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 04:49:25 +0000

Does anyone have any instructions on replacing the inverter on these Powerbooks? It seems like it would be right in these steps somewhere.

By: james

james — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:33:15 +0000

yea how did u get the first two screws off my phillips head wont do it …. ??? ??

By: joe

joe — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:27:42 +0000

That’s brilliant thanks very much! I was getting a bit worried about the screen actually as I know someone who had this happen to them and the screen eventually broke off! And the credit card trick is also brilliant as the outer casing looks as good as new…so thanks very much again!