PowerBook G4 Aluminum 12" 867 MHz Left Clutch Hinge Replacement

Schritt 1

Use a coin to turn the battery locking screw 90 degrees to the right.
Lift the battery out of the computer.

Schritt 2

Remove the four Phillips screws from the memory door.
Slide the memory door away from the memory compartment.

Schritt 3

Remove the long black Phillips screw next to the memory card.
Remove the small EMI finger beneath the black screw.

Schritt 4

Flip down the door on the right side of the battery compartment.

Schritt 5

Use a spudger to disconnect the Airport antenna from the card.

Schritt 6

Grasp the plastic tab and pull the card out all the way.

Schritt 7

On the keyboard, remove the F1, F2, F11, and F12 keys.
This is scary - take a deep breath before continuing. Place your index finger under the upper left corner of the key and lift up until you hear a click. Then, transfer your finger to the left edge of the key and lift up to pull the key off.
You're freeing the two tabs on the left of the key from the two small holes in the plastic scissors mechanism.
When replacing the keys in the keyboard, place the key directly over the slot where it will go and press down until you hear the key click into place.

Whenever I’ve had to remove a key cover, I’ve used a chip extraction tool. It’s ‘u’ shaped with two tabs facing inwards. It will allow the tabs to fit under the lip of the key covers and a gentle motion will allow you to pull up.

James Walker - 18/01/21

Schritt 8

Use your fingernail or a small flathead screwdriver to peel up the gray stickers covering each of the screws.

Schritt 9

Remove the two short Phillips screws.

Schritt 10

Lift the keyboard by the 'esc' and 'eject' keys and gently lift up until the keyboard is vertical.

Schritt 11

Grasp the keyboard connector ribbon near the connector and disconnect it from the logic board.

Pull straight up, not sideways. I used tweezers on the connector, rather than pulling on the ribbon cable.

vmile -

mine had foil tape over the connector

Avi Fagan -

Carefully lift edges of foil tape across logic board connector end of keyboard cable (foil is present if unit

has not been apart before).

Grasp cable near the connector and gently pull straight up (perpendicular to logic board).

John Haruguchi -

Schritt 12

Remove the three small Phillips screws from within the battery compartment.

Schritt 13

Turn the computer 90 degrees clockwise and remove the two medium-length Phillips screws from the casing.

Schritt 14

Turn the computer 90 degrees clockwise again, and remove only the bottom screw on either side of the hinge.

By bottom screw, it means the screw nearer the lid, not the screw nearer the bottom of the computer

cantoi -

Schritt 15

Turn the computer 90 degrees clockwise just one more time, and remove the two Phillips screws on the exterior wall of the battery compartment.
Remember these two screws are longer and have shoulders.

Schritt 16

Turn the computer over and open it up.
Remove the following 14 screws:
Six 2.5 mm Phillips on either side of the keyboard area.
Five 4.5 mm Phillips on the left half of the keyboard area.
One 7 mm hex in the upper left corner of the upper case (a T6 Torx driver will do the job nicely).
One 15 mm Phillips in the upper middle of the keyboard area.
One 16.5 mm hex in the upper right of the upper case (again, a T6 Torx driver will work well).

Schritt 17

Peel up the two pieces of foil tape on the left side of the keyboard area.
The connectors at the ends of the cables are attached very firmly to the sockets on the logic board. Pulling directly on the cable will either separate the cable from its connector or the socket from the logic board.
Carefully disconnect the microphone and power cables from the logic board. Using your fingernails or a dental pick, carefully pry the connectors from their sockets. Make sure you're pulling only on the connector and not on the socket.

At least on my own PowerBook G4 12” 867MHz, the microphone and power cables are long enough that I was able to do the hard drive replacement without disconnecting those connections. I basically had to flip the top case over to the left rather than removing it straight upward. I guess that makes some of the subsequent steps slightly tricky, but at least for me, the tradeoff was worth it.

Barry Nathan - 18/10/17

I was not able to unplug these cables in this step - there was not enough room in the rectangular cutouts to get my nails on the connectors. I was able to perform step 16 (remove upper case) carefully with these cables still connected. Then, after the upper case was removed, it was fairly easy to safely unplug these two connectors.

feinberj - 25/04/21

Schritt 18

Use the orange plastic loop to disconnect the trackpad cable.

Schritt 19

Starting at one of the upper corners near the screen, work around the frame, separating the upper case from the lower case.

Schritt 20

Lift the upper case off the computer.

can't lift upper case off. upper case.. it anchored on display side !!!

Fernando -

Schritt 21

Remove the single Phillips screw from the reed switch board on the right side of the computer.
Deroute the cable connecting the reed switch board to the DC-to-DC board.

Schritt 22

Disconnect the reed switch cable from the DC-to-DC board.

Schritt 23

Remove the two Phillips screws from the hard drive bracket.

Schritt 24

Use the orange plastic loop to disconnect the hard drive cable from the logic board.

Schritt 25

Use the orange cable to pull the hard drive up, then pull it and the hard drive bracket out of the computer.

Schritt 26

Remove the two Phillips screws from the corners of the modem.

Schritt 27

Pry the modem up from the trackpad side.

Schritt 28

Disconnect the modem cable from the modem.

Schritt 29

Remove the single Phillips screw fastening the inverter cable.

Schritt 30

Disconnect the Bluetooth cable and deroute it.

Schritt 31

Peeling up yellow tape as necessary, remove the following 8 screws:
One 4.5 mm Phillips on the right side of the heat sink.
Three 6 mm Phillips near the display.
Two large 7.5 mm Phillips with springs (don't forget to remove the springs). If the springs are not releasing, needle nose pliers can help get this done.
Two 13 mm screws from the left side of the heat sink and the right side of the fan.

For step 31 I had a problem where the screws with the springs just kept turning. While I did not have this problem the first time I disassembled the board, it was because I did not tighten the screws on the board (the studs on the actual logic board, not the ones you use to fasten the heat sink to the board) before reassembling. If you encounter the same problem, the screws aren't necessarily stripped but the actual piece attached to the board has become loose and just keeps turning. To get them off I used Vise grips and pulled up while turning until i got them off and it took a while. Moral of the story: tighten the pieces actually attached to the board before reassembling. Sorry, I don't know how else to describe the types of screws used but the stud is attached to the board and that is what came loose.

zerokool -

Schritt 32

Remove the yellow tape to free the cable from the left side of the heat sink.

Schritt 33

Disconnect the fan cable from the logic board.

Schritt 34

Remove the orange tape on the trackpad side of the fan to free the fan cable.

Remove the silver plate that was under the modem. Gives better access to the orange tape.

kwackman -

Schritt 35

Grasp the heat sink near the copper conductor and lift it out of the computer, freeing it from tape and cables as necessary.
If you need to mount the heat sink back into the laptop, we have a thermal paste guide that makes replacing the thermal compound easy.

Schritt 36

Remove the following five screws:
One 3 mm Phillips near the screen latch (mind the big magnet on the screen latch).
Two 3.5 mm Phillips attaching the EMI fingers to the metal framework.
One 10 mm Phillips near the optical drive.
One 14 mm long 4 mm standoff in the upper left corner. You can remove this standoff either with a 4 mm nut driver or needlenose pliers.
Lift the EMI fingers above the battery connector away from the metal framework.

Schritt 37

Lift the end of the DC-to-DC board closest to the display and pull the board out of the computer.

Schritt 38

Disconnect the multicolor connector from the upper right corner of the logic board.
Remove the following 2 screws:
One Phillips buried under the cable to the right of the fan area.
One Phillips holding down the display data cable on the left side of the computer.

Schritt 39

Disconnect the two connectors on the left side of the computer near the ports.

Schritt 40

Use the black plastic pull tab to disconnect the display data cable from the logic board.
Deroute the display data cable, pulling up the yellow tape at the RJ-11 board.

Schritt 41

Remove the single Phillips screw from the RJ-11 board.

Schritt 42

Lift up the RJ-11 board from the left side and remove the Phillips screw from the metal framework.
Remove the two Phillips screws securing the EMI fingers to the ports.
Lift away the EMI fingers.

A bit confusing here (and also in the screw guide):

Those four screws in step 41 & 42 are different lengths!

The two shortest ones secure the EMI fingers, the longest one goes under the RJ-11 board and the middle one secures the RJ-11 board.

I had some trouble putting this back together as there was no mention of this...

ablaumeise -

Zitat von ablaumeise:

A bit confusing here (and also in the screw guide):

Those four screws in step 41 & 42 are different lengths!

The two shortest ones secure the EMI fingers, the longest one goes under the RJ-11 board and the middle one secures the RJ-11 board.

I had some trouble putting this back together as there was no mention of this...

Thanks for the insight. I'm at this step taking it apart, and will note for future.

nobaboon -

Schritt 43

Remove the following 5 screws:
One 4.5 mm Phillips in the bottom left corner of the logic board.
Two 6 mm Phillips to the left of the display hinge.
One 10 mm Phillips to the upper left of the fan area.
One 13 mm Phillips to the right of the headphone jack on the metal framework.

Schritt 44

Disconnect the orange optical drive cable from the logic board.

Schritt 45

Lift the metal framework out of the computer. Be careful that the orange optical drive cable doesn't catch on the framework and be sure you haven't forgotten to disconnect any other connectors.

Schritt 46

Remove the two Phillips screws from the bottom right of the logic board.
Do not lift the logic board out without disconnecting the DC-In connector underneath the logic board.

Schritt 47

Lift the logic board partly up from the optical side.

Schritt 48

Disconnect the DC-In connector from the underside of the logic board.

Schritt 49

There may be black tape covering the screw in the following step, remove it if necessary.
Remove the single Phillips screw that attaches the DC-In board to the lower case.

Schritt 50

Pull the flat, black DC power cable up from the bottom of the case, removing tape as necessary.
Lift up the front right corner of the DC-In board and rotate it clockwise to slide the power receptacle out of the lower case.

Schritt 51

The tip of my power supply plug broke off inside the power receptacle.
Once the DC-in board has been removed.
Peal back the metal RFI shield.
At the back of the power receptacle - gently pull the top of the center tab out away from the receptacle body. Forming a gap.
From the front of the receptacle - use a screwdriver to push the broken tip out the gap.
Push the center tab back in place.
Replace the RFI shield.

Thank you so much for this last step! That's exactly what was wrong with mine. I was going to just replace it until I saw this bit.

Calion -

Schritt 52

Remove the two Phillips screws from the upper right corner of the computer.
Remove the newly-liberated small metal bracket.

Schritt 53

Remove the two recessed Phillips screws on the right side of the optical drive.

Schritt 54

Lift the optical drive up by its front left corner and pull it out of the computer.
If you have a CD or any other object jammed in your optical drive, we have an optical drive repair guide.

Schritt 55

Disconnect the multicolor connector by sliding it to the left.

Schritt 56

Disconnect the silver bluetooth cable by pulling directly up.

Schritt 57

Remove the single Phillips screw from the right side of the board.
Lift the bluetooth board out of the computer.

Schritt 58

Peel back the yellow tape from the right side of the subwoofer.
Remove the single Phillips screw from the right side of the subwoofer, under the tape you just removed.
Remove the yellow tape that secures the remaining cables to the side of the subwoofer.

Schritt 59

Slide the subwoofer away from the screen and out of the computer.

Schritt 60

Deroute the Airport Extreme antenna from the card slot and lower case, removing tape as necessary.

Schritt 61

Place a cloth between the screen and the bottom case.
Close the bottom case and turn the laptop over.
Remove the two Phillips screws from the bottom case.

Schritt 62

Remove the two Phillips screws from either side of the display hinge.

Schritt 63

Grasp the lower case and push down on the hinge side while rotating the other end of the case toward you until it pops free, then remove it entirely (leaving the display).
You have effectively removed the computer from the display.

Schritt 64

Remove the two T6 Torx screws in the lower left and lower right corners of the display securing the rear bezel to the display assembly.

The Torx screws would be more easily removed after removing the four screws of the metal bracket (step 69).

At reassembly screw-in the torx screws followed by the four screws of the metal bracket.

Raymond -

Schritt 65

Insert the spudger between the left edge of the front display bezel and the plastic strip attached to the rear bezel, with the edge of the tool angled toward the LCD.
Rotate the tool away from the LCD to pop the rear bezel off the tabs on the front display bezel.
Work along the left edge of the display until the rear bezel is evenly separated from the front bezel.

Schritt 66

Insert a spudger between the right edge of the front display bezel and the plastic strip attached to the rear bezel, with the edge of the tool angled toward the LCD.
Rotate the tool away from the LCD to pop the rear bezel off the tabs on the front display bezel.
Work along the right edge of the display until the rear bezel is evenly separated from the front bezel.

Schritt 67

Insert a spudger between the top edge of the front display bezel and the plastic strip attached to the rear bezel, with the edge of the tool angled toward the LCD.
Rotate the tool away from the LCD to pop the rear bezel off the tabs on the front display bezel.
Work along the top edge of the display until the rear bezel is evenly separated from the front bezel.

Schritt 68

Insert a spudger in the space between the front bezel and the rear display bezel near the top left corner.
Release the clip by rotating the spudger away from the screen.
Repeat this process on the top right corner of the display.
These clips are especially tough to undo, and may take some extra force to remove them.

Schritt 69

Lift the top edge of the rear display bezel slightly.
Slide the rear display bezel away from you to undo the last few clips.
Rotate the rear display bezel off, and lay it next to the display.
The rear bezel is still connected to the display via ribbon cables on the botom edge.

Schritt 70

Flip the device over and remove the two 4.5 mm Phillips screws on each side of the metal bracket (four screws in total).
Thread the display inverter, antenna, and display data cables through the bracket and remove the metal bracket.

The Phillips #00 was way too small, I used a #1.

mat -

Yes, #1 is the size to use for better leverage as these screws can be very, very tight. Care required to not strip the screws or the driver …

Raymond -

Schritt 71

Flip the device over.
Remove the 5.5 mm Phillips screw connecting the display inverter to the front display bezel.

Schritt 72

The inverter is an extremely thin circuit board that is very delicate and easily cracked. Take care when handling.
Using the pointed end of a spudger, lift the display inverter out of the clutch cover.