English: Mein inzwischen 4,5 Jahre altes PowerBook G4 hat gestern kurzzeitig den Geist aufgegeben. Grund genug, einen Blick hinein zu werfen.

My trusted PowerBook G4, 4.5 years old by now, has given up the ghost yesterday. It took it as an opportunity to have a look inside. Thankfully, it works again now, even though I didn't fix anything.

The Whole Story: The day before yesterday, I noticed a hissing noise which had been present before, but not as loud. I took it to be a sound that laptops normally make, and never worried about it. It would become more prominent whenever I used the keyboard or mouse.

I also noticed a weak smell of burnt rubber or plastic from time to time, but couldn't tell for sure if it came from the computer. I got somewhat alert, but nothing more happened. (I thought that maybe one of the capacitors on the mainboard is decaying – no big surprise after over 4 years –, which would possibly explain the noise and the smell.)

Yesterday, the hissing noise was a little louder all day, until late afternoon, when the noise was suddenly followed by a short stream of louder hissing and popping noises, and then the screen displayed colorful stripes (as in the photo above) for about two seconds and then went completely dark. So I went: ok, this is it, my PowerBook just died. Of old age.

Hoping that I might find a sign of damage (and very little chance that I might be able to fix something), I opened up the machine and managed to disassemble it without breaking anything. I got to the point where I would have had to remove the mainboard next, but it didn't move even though I removed all the screws in view. I was too scared to continue (and I couldn't get instructions from iFixit due to lack of a working computer), so I put everything back together again.

I found no visible sign of damage, except for two loose screws which had been floating around in the casing after I dropped the PowerBook about two years ago :). Of course I removed them. (Now that I think of it, maybe one of the screws caused a short circuit somewhere…)

After re-assembling it, the PowerBook would start normally (*phew*), but only until just before the login screen would be displayed, and then broke down again with colorful stripes. The hissing noise was still present, but it would stop when I removed the DC in plug. Strangely, the machine would re-boot to target mode just fine. The next time I tested it – using an external monitor to check if a video signal was produced –, everything was wondrously back to normal, and no hissing.

In the meantime, I found out that the burnt rubber smell had come from the DC cable that connects the power adaptor to the Mac. Apparently it had gotten so hot that it had begun giving off vapors. (Maybe I shouldn't coil the cable when in use.)

If anybody reading this knows this problem, please drop me a line! Thanks!