[Ti] TiBook Logic Board Issue, maybe ... ?

[Ardeshir Mehta]

Hi,


I am a newcomer to this list: sorry if this has been discussed before.

In July 2003 I bought a 1 GHz 15.2-inch TiBook with 512 MB RAM and  
AirPort card, loaded with Jaguar, plus an AirPort Extreme base station.

For a while everything worked like a charm, but then (after the  
warranty was over - stupid me, I did not sign up for AppleCare,  
thinking Macs were too robust to need it!) the TiBook started to lock  
up every now and then. I couldn't use the keyboard or the mouse, and  
had to shut down the computer by pressing the Power button for a full  
five seconds.

At one point I lost a lot of data on my hard drive, which had to be  
replaced. (I suspect, however, that this problem was unrelated to the  
lock-ups).

I upgraded to Tiger, installing it on a separate partition on the  
TiBook's hard drive, but the lockups continued.

Eventually I could not get back the full use of the TiBook even after  
shutting down (by holding down the Power button for a full five  
seconds) and restarting the TiBook. On occasion it would work, and on  
other occasions it would not recognise the AirPort. And at other  
times it would not even launch Spotlight after restarting. And at  
other times it would work fine till I left it for a while and it went  
to sleep, but after waking up from sleep it would lock up.

A Mac expert here in Ottawa, Canada said that maybe the hardware is  
at fault - either the RAM or the logic board. I ran the the "Apple  
Hardware Test" CD that came with the TiBook, but according to it,  
everything including the RAM and the logic board are fine. But the  
problem continues.

All the same, I bought an addition 512 MB RAM - now I have one GB RAM  
- but the problem continues. I even tried to use the TiBook with the  
new RAM chip alone. It didn't help - the problem continued.

I re-installed Tiger - first an "archive and install" and then an  
"erase and install" - but the problem still continues.

I ran Virex with the latest updates, but it did not find any infected  
files anywhere on the hard drive. So it can't be a virus. (Can it be?)

Right now the TiBook is working fine, but I am afraid if I let it go  
to sleep it will lock up, so I have set it to "Never sleep". It's not  
working too hot - at least not to the touch - so I doubt that excess  
heat is or was the culprit.

Could it be that the logic board is faulty, despite the "Apple  
Hardware Test" showing it to be working just fine? Has anyone had  
this problem? And is there a cure?

Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

Cheers.