[P1] Which PC based laptop is comparable to the iBook ??

[Paul Bernhardt]

so, it looks like your path is this, or at least, this is what I'd do.

I'd remove the keyboard completely, unplug the ribbon cable, if easily 
done. Between each step below I'd look around on the floor where I was 
working on the machine, and to quite a distance away, because screws can 
roll a long way away. (What ever can go wrong, will. Whatever can fall 
will. Whatever falls will roll to the most inaccessible part of the 
floor. You can't fall off the floor. Therefore, I often work on the floor 
for things like this.)

1) do upside down shaking. At some point you will either recover the 
screw or give up on this process. Go longer than the initial frustration 
because success via this method is optimal. You minimize potential damage 
to the machine (virtually nil). 

2) Blow some compressed air... there is some risk here, though not much. 
I can imagine a screw propelled with some velocity from compressed air 
nicking a circuit board and causing damage.I'd start at *outside* 
crevices so as to blow the screw towards the middle where it can be 
dropped out the way it got in. Still upside down shaking between 
compressed air bursts... maybe even doing the compressed air with the 
machine upside down. If you have a table that separates to put in leaves, 
or two tables, rest the machine in the gap, supported at the edges of the 
machine, you under the table. I'd have some kind of shock absorbant 
material, just a stack of 3 or 4 folded fluffy towels on the floor to 
catch the ibook in case I drop it. Again, do this longer than your 
initial frustration because the value of recovery versus the potential 
for damage is so strongly in your favor.

3) Do the disassembly described for installing an HD. 

Whenever you find your screw, smile, and send us an email!

Paul