Yesterday my good friend Micah Black came in with his iBook looking for help. When his computer booted, there was no chime and it would just show a red screen, then a blue screen, then a green screen. I Googled pretty much those words and found out that something with the graphics card was loose, and the official fix from Apple was to replace the logic board. The unofficial fix from various websites was to put constant pressure on the logic board at a certain point. So I opened up the case, put my thumb over a certain chip on the board, and fired up the computer. It worked. So I took a Qtip and folded it over a few times, wrapped it in electrical tape, then taped it over that certain spot on the logic board, hoping the laptop case would then put enough pressure on the board to keep it running. I put the whole computer back together and it booted. I wouldn’t call this a permanent fix, that would be a new logic board, but this should last Micah long enough until he can get a new laptop. I should have taken a picture, but I didn’t think of that until I got the case back together and I wasn’t about to take that damn case apart again. Well, I guess sometimes all you need is a Qtip and some electrical tape…
UPDATE: Micah told me the other day that the computer lasted about 6 hours. So it wasn’t long enough to get a new computer, but it was long enough for him to get files off of it that he needed.