no idea what the hell is wrong with the ibook now

try booting from a cd, or another boot drive.

it may be as simple as a software or bad HD issue.

-eric

again, how could something like that suddenly fail on me when i never touched either?

it probably shouldnt but the again its worth ruling out

other than a short, or an overheat i cant think of anything.

when it freezes, does the video scramble at all?

well this is interesting. i took out the head shield and managed to run it for a few minutes while playing a game and having itunes running visuals at once. then it froze from the gpu overheating. also, rebooting led to a blank screen which i know happens when the gpu overheats or doesn't have enough pressure against the board.

however, with the heat shield in place, the computer crashed almost as soon as it reached the desktop. it is obviously the cause, but i don't know what aobut it. a short seems likely, but i would think i would notice it as soon as i turned the computer on. the only other thing that makes sense is static, but this doesn't seem to be associated with that. regardless, the gpu needs to be cooled somehow without crashing the computer upon rebooting every time.

well this is interesting. i took out the head shield and managed to run it for a few minutes while playing a game and having itunes running visuals at once. then it froze from the gpu overheating. also, rebooting led to a blank screen which i know happens when the gpu overheats or doesn't have enough pressure against the board.

however, with the heat shield in place, the computer crashed almost as soon as it reached the desktop. it is obviously the cause, but i don't know what aobut it. a short seems likely, but i would think i would notice it as soon as i turned the computer on. the only other thing that makes sense is static, but this doesn't seem to be associated with that. regardless, the gpu needs to be cooled somehow without crashing the computer upon rebooting every time.

Yes, test it booting from your CD to rule out a software issue.
Why are you running it without the heat sink?
You may have partially cooked something,so it fails quickly with a bit of stress...
Got a spare CPU to test with?

no i don't. it's the heat shield from the bottom that protects the logic board and apparently cools the gpu. what i will do at this point is put electrical tape on any portion of the heat shield that might be exposed to the logic board, and then run it off a cd (os 9 for now) to check if its truly the system. if that doesn't do it, then i really don't know why else the heat shield could be causing trouble.

uh short and burnout can be scrapped i think. i think the gpu needs even more pressure since the heat shield is much thinner than the piece of card i placed between it and the extra plastic square.

this is almost getting to the poinit that this computer isn't worth saving with how many times i've taken off the bottom.

nevermind....

i tried a few different spacers between teh case and heat shield, then removed the heat shield again. it kept crashing the same way every time. i think the gpu is done, and thus the logic board is scrap. what a waste after 6 hours worth of work into making the case clear.....

sounds like you might have overheated some of the solder points enough for them to lose contact. or something.

like you need to go back to square one. You keep going on about the GPU overheating, but if you boot from when the machine's cold, (leave it off for an hour or so) that would eliminate that issue. I'd be willing to bet it's something else entirely, unless you live in a very hot area, as the GPUs in ibooks run relatively cool. I've worked on a lot of machines where the owners swear something is wrong with one part, and get so focused on that being the problem, that they're not open to other solutions. Case in point was an 800mhz G3 ibook. The owner took it apart and put a new hard drive in it, so when it wouldn't boot properly or run right when it did boot, he took it apart two more times and swore that was the problem. Turns out the problem was the screw he'd dropped into the airport slot. Toasted the machine, but it wasn't the hard drive.

alright, then tell me what else could make the screen go insane as soon as the computer reaches the desktop. and don't say system. it crashed midway booting my os 9 disc.

there's only two thing i notice that oculd be of any significance at this point. during startup, there is always a pop in the machine that sounds like it's somewhere aorund the speakers. another thing is if the screen fails to turn on at bootup, the drive starts spinning pointlessly (cd drive if there is a disc present). i still suspect the gpu, but i have plenty of stuff shimmed in the case to hold it agains the logic board. i'm just getting really tired of this.

cpu or memory errors? I am thinking memory, because it sounds that when you get to the desktop, it uses up enough memory that it will start to go wonkers when it accesses bad ram. have you been able to try another logic board?

no i can't. i want to put in the board from my g4 with the destroyed case. ram might be bad, but i can't tell. it's been crashing with the os 9 disc definitely. seems like when i load the startup disc panel and the hard drive gets going. drive controller?

not the ram. popped out the card in there and it was the same result.

not on the stick. That's why I asked if you could put another board in there. I will send you a PM on an alternative way of working with it to find out what the problem is

EDIT: PM Sent, Check your PM Box

i wouldnt bother.... he seems to have an answer to everything.....

we really dont know what were talking about over here, apparently.

I sent a link to it in your PM. hopefully that will get you on your way to figuring out what the problem is with the iBook, i hope we get this resolved soon, as I am pretty sure you are getting really frustrated.

it's burned. trying to figure out how to get it to boot from the cd (i'm assuming that's why a system folder is included).

...and excuse me evilrobot. you've witnissed my frustrations with this computer as is and i'm trying to bloody find out what is wrong with it. sorry i think out loud and am stuck on the idea of the gpu because it's failed already. i'm trying to find out what else could be causing the problem with coius's help.

and it seems....either way the logic board is garbage.

it does seem pretty infuriating. LOL, maybe its time to sell it as a "project" on eBay, new logic boards are $$$

yea its in parts now. that hard drive is going into my wallstreet tonight once i figure out a good way of avoiding having to reinstall all my software (gonna try a disc image and see how that goes). i'll sell everything else and probably just chuck the logic board. i figured whatever it was, it was the logic board. it went insane at the very core of the system, so there's nothing i could do nor can i do anything now with it pulled apart.