ETA: DISCLAIMER
It seems that there are a lot of PB owners faced with similar issues. Of course, if you have AppleCare or if your PB is under warranty, then I would not suggest removing your trackpad’s temperature sensor in the manner detailed here. If you do decide to remove it, then you do so at your own risk.
Rock and Nugget bought me a 17″ PowerBook for Mother’s Day two years ago. Yesterday, it’s symptomatic narcolepsy started. I read about it on the Internet and I hoped that my PowerBook would be spared. I stopped hoping when my PowerBook started it’s narcoleptic fits during a heavy debugging session.
“Are you sure it’s not the motherboard?”*
“Positive. It’s not crashing — just going into sleep mode every five seconds.”
“What about temps?”
“It’s not running hot. Anyway, I ran an fsck and got a ‘emergency overtemp signal’ message. I did reset the PMU and I’m NOT going to mess around with the kernel source or other extensions tonight.”
“Sounds like you need a Plan B.”
“That’s not an option. I need this to work — now.”
“We could get you a MacBook.”
“No. I need to remove the trackpad’s temperature sensor.”
“What?”
“Look, it’s not under warranty anymore and I don’t have AppleCare. Only a few people on the Internet had the balls to remove it and their PowerBooks are working just fine now.”
“You got balls, then.”
“Let’s do it.”
*Rock is more of a PC guy, but I love him anyway. The only Mac-related stuff he deals with are iTunes, iPod, and QuickTime.
Rock was keen to use his soldering iron to remove the “faulty” temperature sensor, so I gave him the honors. Me? I would’ve clipped the damn thing off with cuticle nippers.
ETA: If you use either nail clippers or cuticle nippers, be sure you read Andreas’ and Sarah’s surgical advice in the comments below!
Here’s Rock going under the hood of my PowerBook and in the background you’ll see my RAM sticks, a clipboard with my PowerBook’s screws taped on the top sheet, and my trusty old iBook.
ETA: I edited the above photo and outlined the area of the trackpad’s temperature sensor which is underneath the top case. Rock is holding the top case in his hands while checking out the logic board.
Underneath the trackpad is the sensor that Rock will remove. Click here for a close-up.
Rock used his soldering iron to remove the sensor and a small screwdriver (3/32) to carefully pry it off the ribbon cable. The soldering iron is much larger than what he should be using, but it worked.
Here, the temperature sensor is removed and the area is now covered with a bit of tape (not shown).
ETA: I didn’t have orange mylar tape covering the sensor as most PB owners observed before conducting their surgery. We snipped a bit of tape from another area of the top case (see second photo from top) and used it to cover the vacant solder pads as advised by Bill.
And just for kicks, here’s the sensor on a dime for scale.
Prognosis? My beloved PowerBook is on full recovery and doing well. He sleeps only when I want him to :)
Got a sleepy PowerBook and the cojones to fix it? Here’s the skinny on the who and the how:
- Rick Cameron’s blog post, The Bug Exposed, by Bill
- Sai’s Flickr Page, Narcoleptic Powerbook
- Wolf Schweitzer’s article, Powerbook G4 narcolepsy issues – Trackpad Temperature Sensor Defective [tech rant]
Helpful links to take your PowerBook apart:
- http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/ (for help in removing the top case)
- http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Manuals/17-inch-powerbook-manual.pdf (for help in disconnecting that tiny trackpad ribbon clamp)
Links to successful surgeons:
- Molly’s Flickr Page, Curing a Narcoleptic 15″ 2005 Aluminum Powerbook G4
- Sarah’s blog post, Narcoleptic Powerbook
ETA: (20.Feb.08) If you’re wondering … I haven’t installed Leopard on my PB yet simply because (1) I didn’t want to pay the Euro rate to upgrade the OS and (2) the Red Vests (employees) and the crowd at Vogelweh’s PowerZone annoy the hell out of me. When I’m not feeling so reclusive, I’ll venture out someday.
ETA: (01.May.2008) All is well with the (PB – sensor) + Leopard! I’m quite pleased :)
