Blueberry iBook G3 Clamshell LCD Backlight replacement

[AphoticD]

I decided to tackle the repair of my beautiful Blueberry Clamshell iBook which just keeps getting darker and darker as the years go by...

The backlight has been getting notably worse each time I boot it up. Over a year ago, I bought a backup "spares" Blueberry clamshell with the intention to eventually take the backlight out of it and install into my prize Blueberry. I pulled it out today to take a look, but had a change of heart and decided to instead salvage a CCFL tube from a cracked 12" PowerBook G4 display, which was otherwise destined for the trash.

I started by taking a look on iFixit for a guide to remove the LCD and came across a simple guide for removing the front bezel. I then went freestyle from there...



1. After removing the rear cover at the handle, also take the four PH1 screws holding the display rear in place.


2. Including these two.



3. Once the front bezel is removed, take out four PH1 screws holding the housing along the top and then the four screws holding the LCD panel in place. The panel then lifts forward and the inverter power connector and LVDS cables can be easily disconnected. Here is the inner frame with the LCD panel completely removed.


4. Here I've connected the original LCD panel to the backlight inverter and powered it on. The display is so dim it's hardly visible (with the camera flash on).


5. I then connected the broken PowerBook G4 12" panel to the backlight inverter and can see the backlight come on fine when I power on the iBook. I actually tested 3 different cracked 12" panels which I had on hand (2 from iBook G4s and one from the PBG4 12"). The PBG4 12" display was the winner in terms of backlight quality.


6. The first thing was to remove the backlight from the donor LCD Panel. 7 little PH000 screws from the rear and sides of the panel are removed to then gently lift and peel out the CCFL tube. Here I've connected the backlight tube directly to the inverter board and powered on the iBook to test the backlight is still working after being removed from the existing panel. The flash has drowned out the brightness of the tube here.. it's actually really bright.


7. Here I have the original Clamshell CCFL tube above and the PBG4 12" tube below, both still in their reflective channels.


8. Lining them up I can see the original tube looks slightly thicker (maybe 2.5mm?) whereas the replacement is 2mm thick.


9. I did a bit of a "dry run" by dismantling the 'spares' iBook I mentioned earlier just to get an idea of what is involved. So here I hook up the two CCFL tubes side by side after carefully removing them from their reflective channels. It's impossible to tell here, but the original is the one on the right and the replacement is on the left. They both look bright in the photo, but the different was quite obvious in the flesh.


10. Here they are side by side. The top is the thicker, original tube.


11. Now this is where things get a bit questionable.. The original, thicker tube is about 4mm longer than the PBG4 12" tube. Is it going to work?


12. I decided to continue on anyway. The first step was to re-solder the connection of the white wire here so that it is straight on instead of being at a 90 degree angle. This will mean I can make up the difference in length by re-positioning the rubber end-caps.


13. A quick test of the backlight after re-soldering and re-fitting the end caps. Looks good.


14. Here I've installed the thinner 2mm PBG4 12" CCFL tube into the original Clamshell reflective channel and positioned the black wire to run back along the channel in the white clips.


16. I've guided the black wire all the way along the channel, now out the other end (where the white cable and inverter plug are).


17. Here we are at the plug-end. I've re-attached the right-angle rubber end-cap here. I found it simpler to slice through this rubber cap to remove it from the original tube instead of removing the existing solder and re-soldering it back together. Once it is back together the cut along the rubber cap won't make a difference.


18. Now this is where a whole lot of patience and a little finesse came into play. I had to carefully position the shorter CCFL tube within the channel millimeter by millimeter until I had the ends barely visible. As with all fluorescent, the ends are never as bright as the rest of the tube.


19. I've positioned the black wire end of the tube to be precisely within the end-caps. You can see the darkening of the CCFL tube which usually happens over time creeping into the corner.



20. I then installed the tube and reflective channel into the LCD panel. Initially it wouldn't sit very flush, so I seated things down with some Kapton tape here. The high-temps shouldn't affect the tape.


21. Here is the black-wire end after applying the tape. The original copper tape running along the top, which acts as a seal would not re-stick so I just taped it down from above. At this point I should mention that unlike EVERY other LCD panel I have worked on, the Clamshell has a backlight running along the top of the panel, instead of the bottom.


22. Here is a bit of a hack. Because the replacement tube had a shorter inverter cable, I had to re-wire the inverter plug behind the display housing instead of running in a channel down the right of the panel. Not sure if this is going to fit back together yet, but we will see...


23. After fitting the CCFL tube I powered it up and the results are a bit disappointing...


24. The top is super bright and the rest is dull as before...


25. Yep, that is not going to cut it. Let's pull it all apart and do it all again. That initial resistance which I experienced from the channel when seated on top of the panel was because something was out of alignment. My guess is the reflective channel is facing forward by a few degrees instead of sitting perfectly flush with the panel.


26. After disassembling the panel again, re-seating the backlight channel and re-assembling, the results are significantly better. I know, I can see some highlights in the photo here, but the difference is night and day.


27. So, I began re-assembling the rear panel and front bezel... After getting it back together I noticed the rear housing felt loose, so I unclipped the plastic bezel and went at it again. I discovered that I had not hooked these plastic tabs in-front of the steel inner chassis so the 4 screws running along the top of the display were not connecting with anything.. Here I've hooked the plastic in front of the frame as it should be


28. We are all back together now, so I boot it up. Looking good.


29. Gorgeous! We have full brightness and contrast, with just a minor darkness in the top right corner. This would be due to the slightly shorter length CCFL tube, but is certainly 1000% better than it was.

Overall I'd give the repair a 9 / 10. It cost me nothing and has restored the Clamshell display back to full brightness. I have no idea just how many hours that replacement tube would have had on it, but at least I now know that it is possible to replace the CCFL tube in the Clamshell with a 12-inch iBook G3, iBook G4 or PowerBook G4. It is not only possible, but relatively easy.

Success!

-AphoticD

 

[TheShortTimer]

Fantastic work! Thanks for sharing the steps that led to success, not only do make make for fascinating reading but they're also bound to be incredibly helpful to others who find themselves in a similar situation. Bravo!

 

[bn326160]

Hi thanks for sharing! Would it be an option to replace the backlight with an LED alternative?

 

[B S Magnet]

I decided to tackle the repair of my beautiful Blueberry Clamshell iBook which just keeps getting darker and darker as the years go by...

The backlight has been getting notably worse each time I boot it up. Over a year ago, I bought a backup "spares" Blueberry clamshell with the intention to eventually take the backlight out of it and install into my prize Blueberry. I pulled it out today to take a look, but had a change of heart and decided to instead salvage a CCFL tube from a cracked 12" PowerBook G4 display, which was otherwise destined for the trash.

I started by taking a look on iFixit for a guide to remove the LCD and came across a simple guide for removing the front bezel. I then went freestyle from there...


View attachment 1729380
1. After removing the rear cover at the handle, also take the four PH1 screws holding the display rear in place.

View attachment 1729381
2. Including these two.

View attachment 1729382

3. Once the front bezel is removed, take out four PH1 screws holding the housing along the top and then the four screws holding the LCD panel in place. The panel then lifts forward and the inverter power connector and LVDS cables can be easily disconnected. Here is the inner frame with the LCD panel completely removed.

View attachment 1729385
4. Here I've connected the original LCD panel to the backlight inverter and powered it on. The display is so dim it's hardly visible (with the camera flash on).

View attachment 1729386
5. I then connected the broken PowerBook G4 12" panel to the backlight inverter and can see the backlight come on fine when I power on the iBook. I actually tested 3 different cracked 12" panels which I had on hand (2 from iBook G4s and one from the PBG4 12"). The PBG4 12" display was the winner in terms of backlight quality.

View attachment 1729388
6. The first thing was to remove the backlight from the donor LCD Panel. 7 little PH000 screws from the rear and sides of the panel are removed to then gently lift and peel out the CCFL tube. Here I've connected the backlight tube directly to the inverter board and powered on the iBook to test the backlight is still working after being removed from the existing panel. The flash has drowned out the brightness of the tube here.. it's actually really bright.

View attachment 1729389
7. Here I have the original Clamshell CCFL tube above and the PBG4 12" tube below, both still in their reflective channels.

View attachment 1729390
8. Lining them up I can see the original tube looks slightly thicker (maybe 2.5mm?) whereas the replacement is 2mm thick.

View attachment 1729391
9. I did a bit of a "dry run" by dismantling the 'spares' iBook I mentioned earlier just to get an idea of what is involved. So here I hook up the two CCFL tubes side by side after carefully removing them from their reflective channels. It's impossible to tell here, but the original is the one on the right and the replacement is on the left. They both look bright in the photo, but the different was quite obvious in the flesh.

View attachment 1729392
10. Here they are side by side. The top is the thicker, original tube.

View attachment 1729393
11. Now this is where things get a bit questionable.. The original, thicker tube is about 4mm longer than the PBG4 12" tube. Is it going to work?

View attachment 1729394
12. I decided to continue on anyway. The first step was to re-solder the connection of the white wire here so that it is straight on instead of being at a 90 degree angle. This will mean I can make up the difference in length by re-positioning the rubber end-caps.

View attachment 1729395
13. A quick test of the backlight after re-soldering and re-fitting the end caps. Looks good.

View attachment 1729396
14. Here I've installed the thinner 2mm PBG4 12" CCFL tube into the original Clamshell reflective channel and positioned the black wire to run back along the channel in the white clips.

View attachment 1729397
16. I've guided the black wire all the way along the channel, now out the other end (where the white cable and inverter plug are).

View attachment 1729398
17. Here we are at the plug-end. I've re-attached the right-angle rubber end-cap here. I found it simpler to slice through this rubber cap to remove it from the original tube instead of removing the existing solder and re-soldering it back together. Once it is back together the cut along the rubber cap won't make a difference.

View attachment 1729399
18. Now this is where a whole lot of patience and a little finesse came into play. I had to carefully position the shorter CCFL tube within the channel millimeter by millimeter until I had the ends barely visible. As with all fluorescent, the ends are never as bright as the rest of the tube.

View attachment 1729401
19. I've positioned the black wire end of the tube to be precisely within the end-caps. You can see the darkening of the CCFL tube which usually happens over time creeping into the corner.


View attachment 1729402
20. I then installed the tube and reflective channel into the LCD panel. Initially it wouldn't sit very flush, so I seated things down with some Kapton tape here. The high-temps shouldn't affect the tape.

View attachment 1729403
21. Here is the black-wire end after applying the tape. The original copper tape running along the top, which acts as a seal would not re-stick so I just taped it down from above. At this point I should mention that unlike EVERY other LCD panel I have worked on, the Clamshell has a backlight running along the top of the panel, instead of the bottom.

View attachment 1729406
22. Here is a bit of a hack. Because the replacement tube had a shorter inverter cable, I had to re-wire the inverter plug behind the display housing instead of running in a channel down the right of the panel. Not sure if this is going to fit back together yet, but we will see...

View attachment 1729408
23. After fitting the CCFL tube I powered it up and the results are a bit disappointing...

View attachment 1729409
24. The top is super bright and the rest is dull as before...

View attachment 1729410
25. Yep, that is not going to cut it. Let's pull it all apart and do it all again. That initial resistance which I experienced from the channel when seated on top of the panel was because something was out of alignment. My guess is the reflective channel is facing forward by a few degrees instead of sitting perfectly flush with the panel.

View attachment 1729411
26. After disassembling the panel again, re-seating the backlight channel and re-assembling, the results are significantly better. I know, I can see some highlights in the photo here, but the difference is night and day.

View attachment 1729407
27. So, I began re-assembling the rear panel and front bezel... After getting it back together I noticed the rear housing felt loose, so I unclipped the plastic bezel and went at it again. I discovered that I had not hooked these plastic tabs in-front of the steel inner chassis so the 4 screws running along the top of the display were not connecting with anything.. Here I've hooked the plastic in front of the frame as it should be

View attachment 1729415
28. We are all back together now, so I boot it up. Looking good.

View attachment 1729416
29. Gorgeous! We have full brightness and contrast, with just a minor darkness in the top right corner. This would be due to the slightly shorter length CCFL tube, but is certainly 1000% better than it was.

Overall I'd give the repair a 9 / 10. It cost me nothing and has restored the Clamshell display back to full brightness. I have no idea just how many hours that replacement tube would have had on it, but at least I now know that it is possible to replace the CCFL tube in the Clamshell with a 12-inch iBook G3, iBook G4 or PowerBook G4. It is not only possible, but relatively easy.

Success!

-AphoticD

Excellent write-up!

This is the step-by-step of nearly everything I’ve done with a clamshell backlight replacement (with the added twist of using the entire PowerBook 12" display — running the XGA mod steps created by brilliant shifuimam — then removing the CCFL tube and adding an LED strip, matching it with the paired LED board to supersede the need for the inverter board).

iBook Clamshells deserve (and need) to be used, not sitting on some trophy shelf somewhere! (I will die on this hill, fite me…)

p.s.: @AphoticD , on that last pic, I noticed the squarish, post-Aqua modal button. Which ShapeShifter theme are you using?

 

[B S Magnet]

Hi thanks for sharing! Would it be an option to replace the backlight with an LED alternative?

It can be… up and to the moment when you need to remove the OEM inverter board (anchored to the back of the display assembly, behind the LCD) and put in the LED board. Also, if you’re using a generic LED-conversion kit, you should know that brightness control will be inverted and you won’t be able to “sleep” your display with the backlight powered off.

That is to say: as you increase the brightness slider toward the right in Displays.prefPane, the backlight will get dimmer, but it will not shut off. If you slide it to the left end, what was the setting to turn off the backlight on the laptop will actually be the brightest LED setting. (This also means when the display tries to sleep, the LCD panel will go flat (dark), but the backlight will continue to run as maximum brightness, producing a dark greyish screen). Intermediate backlighting levels on the slider may have some detectable visual flickering, so this mod ends up being an all-or-nothing proposition.

 

[galgot]

Excellent reference write up ! Page saved in pdf.

 

[davidg5678]

Great work! I plan to try replacing the CCFL backlight in my Clamshell with an LED one, and I think that this information will make for a very useful guide.

I wonder how the issues with inverted LED backlight brightness and sleep can be solved. I'm not sure if it would work, but perhaps a simple transistor inverter on either the enable or PWM lines would solve the problem? Presumably, an inline microcontroller could also alter the signals to make them more suitable, but this would be extreme overkill, I think.

 

[B S Magnet]

Great work! I plan to try replacing the CCFL backlight in my Clamshell with an LED one, and I think that this information will make for a very useful guide.

I wonder how the issues with inverted LED backlight brightness and sleep can be solved. I'm not sure if it would work, but perhaps a simple transistor inverter on either the enable or PWM lines would solve the problem? Presumably, an inline microcontroller could also alter the signals to make them more suitable, but this would be extreme overkill, I think.

The fix is likely extremely simple provided one is either an electrical engineer or an electrician — or just really good with electronics and wiring. I’m about as far from any of those as one can get, so for now a fix I can devise for my clamshell iBook is elusive.

 

[davidg5678]

I just replaced the CFL backlight in my iBook with an LED one. It looks great, but (as expected) it still has the brightness control problems described above. I'll keep working to see if I can figure out a brightness solution. See this thread to read more: https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/upgrading-ibook-clamshell-display.38727/#post-423192

 

[davidg5678]

I've (mostly) resolved the brightness control issues with this LED backlight mod! Inverted backlight dimming is fixed, and so is sleep-mode under Tiger. This thread contains details of all the modifications I made to the control board: https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/upgrading-ibook-clamshell-display.38727/#post-423192

 

[B S Magnet]

I've (mostly) resolved the brightness control issues with this LED backlight mod! Inverted backlight dimming is fixed, and so is sleep-mode under Tiger. This thread contains details of all the modifications I made to the control board: https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/upgrading-ibook-clamshell-display.38727/#post-423192

Thanks for posting this update. I’ve bookmarked your post as a reference guide for when I next disassemble my iBook and tinker with its LED driver board.