Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

[Toasty]

Just got this in via eBay. Guy either flat out lied about system condition or failed to disclose what had been done to the system:
"This is my daughters computer she said she used it the day before and when she went to turn it back on it would not come on, no power."

I love when they hide behind statements like this: "I don't know anything about this computer".

It's not worth the hassle with eBay and PayPal to fight about it for less than $100.

On the up side, it did come with the mouse and the long keyboard with numeric keypad, so there's easily $30 of value there. Also has a 750GB Seagate "Certified Repaired" Barracuda 7200.11 drive, 512Mb RAM stick, and the Airport/Bluetooth A1126 card.

Another plus is that it has the Delta DPS-180QB-1A, 614-0327 PSU. This is the first one of these that's come across my bench, so there is value in the analysis and dissection of it. It appears to be working, so another plus.

If this thing ever ran, it would be a miracle. The caps are actually loose and rock back and forth. There are fake Rubycons everywhere.

I can -probably- fix it unless this bobo FUBAR'd the vias.

Someone also knocked an SMD IC off its pads. U3301 down by the ALS plug, just right of the PSU plug. Marking is B38 in an SOT23-5 package. If anyone knows what this part is, your input is requested. I can probably pick one off of another dead board (graphics blown) I have around.

Pics attached. Sensitive folks may want to avert their eyes.....
The rest of you sick puppies, be my guest...

Toast

[seanc]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

BLARGH!!
I know they're hard to work on, but that's slaughter!

If THAT works when you're done, I'd be amazed.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

Umm, there is also a bunch of loose SMD components seen in PICT0718
Ask the seller what type of Volvo Excavator was used to remove the original caps.
And after that what sort of Volvo Bulldozer was used for putting the new caps in place!

[Rob Northen]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

It looks like his daughter tried replacing the caps.

[Toasty]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

Good eyes there Mr. Moose

A cap and a diode.

Fortunately I believe I can "adjust" them back into place as the leads nor the foil ends were torn off.

[Toasty]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

Update:

Cap and diode back in place. Managed to get the IC back in too. Not sure as to one leg though because it was broken off just outside the body. I think I caught enough of it to work. If not, back to Plan A - salvage from a dead board...

8 caps out and so far no via damage found....

Fingers crossed
Toes crossed
Cojones crossed

Toast

[retiredcaps]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

Pics attached. Sensitive folks may want to avert their eyes.....

Wow and I thought I was bad with a soldering iron. All that effort for fake Rubycon!!

[lti]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

It looks like that was the previous owner's first attempt at soldering. My old Compaq's motherboard looks like that, but it still works and was a pain to work on with my POS soldering iron. At least it isn't as bad as this.

[Toasty]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

Well, it runs.

But, the display has thin vertical colored lines in it. Graphics section or display?

I also have a flashing folder/question mark in the center. Unformatted hard drive or no OS?

Toast

[lti]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

Back in the OS 7 days, the flashing question mark meant that it couldn't find the OS. If that didn't change, it could be either a bad hard drive or no OS is installed (blank/unformatted drive).

[Toasty]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

Sort of figured one of the 2. Just grabbed a copy of DW to check and/or fix the disk. Right in the middle of a TORRENTial downpour....

Have determined that it is a panel fault, not the onboard graphics. Hotwired another panel and 1/2 inverter to it and the display was fine.

Good to see the days efforts were not in vain. 29 HZ's now have a permanent home.

Progress.

Toast

[ratdude747]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

i wonder if the fakes, the failed originals, or the shoddy soldering (by bobo, not you) took the panel?

possible?

[yyonline]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

i wonder if the fakes, the failed originals, or the shoddy soldering (by bobo, not you) took the panel?

possible?

I'd highly doubt it. LCD lines are usually breaks in the joints of the kapton ribbons that connect the panel itself to the control board. You can't really solder them as they don't appear to be held on with solder but with some other method. Even if you could solder them, they're so small it'd be incredibly difficult to do so...

[kc8adu]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

what a mess!i could have done better than that.....when i was 10!

[c_hegge]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

And I thought my soldering was bad....

[Colt45ws]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

That is horribad. Still isnt as bad as that other board that had the torch taken to it.
Im sure that was probably this guy's next idea.

[Toasty]

Re: Butchery! on iMac G5 ALS midplane (mobo)

He actually saved me a lot of time and effort by doing such a bad job. All those caps came out easier than if it was a 'factory' board. He did all the hard work with the lead free solder (and fortunately didn't damage the vias). All I had to do, for the most part, was get his solder blobs off the leads, nip them close, and the caps nearly fell off and out of the board.