AAM: One Fried LogicBoard to Go

It’s a sad story for everyone this week, folks. After 5 years of iBook bliss, one user, known as scrappunk, installed an Airport Extreme card, only to find that afterwards his LogicBoard was completely fried—a coincidence, faulty hardware, or incompatible hardware purchased through the advice of a department store, who’s to say?

This question came in a bit late in the week but I felt it was important to mention and hopefully we can find a solution to scrappunk’s problem. My argument against the incompatible hardware is that I can’t possibly see Apple selling hardware that could cause a “pop” with their own line of computers, regardless of whether that piece of hardware was meant for that computer or not. There is a strong chance that the hardware sold was faulty, which could have caused a problem with the LogicBoard, but the department store that sold this Airport Extreme card to scrappunk is adamant that it’s simply a coincidence.

Unfortunately this doesn’t solve his problem, so here’s to hoping the readers of Apple Matters can come up with their own solution as to what can be done. I’ve done my best to answer this week’s question but hopefully others can add to it.

Check out the thread and leave a post with your answer or suggestion or feel free to leave a comment in the form below—comments require you to be a registered user, but registration is free, of course.

Until next week!

Question of the Week

iBook (Dual USB) dead after installation of Airport Extreme card

By: scrappunk

Hiya dear experts,

My iBook worked the last 5 years smoothly without any troubles. Until I installed an airport extreme card 6 weeks ago. Now it doesn’t start up anymore. Neither with any fancy key combination pressed while pushing the on-button. Later I discovered that the department store (a posh one in UK) sold me the wrong airport card. The correct one is actually not even produced by Apple any more.

After many long discussions with the department store I got them to send in my iBook to Apple. Since they guaranteed me that it was the correct card that they sold me, I think that is the least that they could do for me.

Now I got a call from the store, telling me that the logic board of my iBook is fried and this has absolutely nothing to do with installing the wrong card. Apple doesn’t repair Dual USB iBooks any more and the store is not willing to compensate me, they say it’s a coincidence. (Which I do not believe…)

Now my question: Does anybody have a clue what happened!? If only somebody could explain to me, why the installation of that card killed my iBook, I might have a chance to persuade the store to give me some sort of compensation.

(Probably needless to say, that I can’t afford a new Mac…)

Many thanks!

Scrap

Answer of the Week

By: Aaron Wright

Hi Scrap,

Sorry to hear about your iBook, I think anyone would be absolutely fuming if this had happened to them. I honestly can’t see Apple selling a product that would fry their own line of computers (even if it wasn’t meant for that specific computer) to customers, unless that particular Airport Extreme card you purchased was faulty, in which case I suppose it’s possible it short circuited something on the motherboard (although I’m no expert at this)—that would then put Apple at blame, not the department store that sold it to you.

If Apple doesn’t repair then I guess you have no other alternative but to check out an Apple reseller or somewhere like that. Unfortunately they may have a policy that they cannot repair Apple products but it’s definitely worth a shot, especially considering your computer is practically dead now and out of warranty.

Back to trying to get compensation: I don’t know that you’d be successful based on the lines I’ve already mentioned, that I can’t see Apple producing products that would damage their own line of computers—it may cause a fault but to fry the logic board is a bit much. However, they did sell you the wrong product in the first place, so if anything you should expect a refund (which goes without saying).

Let us know how you get on and the best of the luck to you.

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