gordonhamachi

I found a simple fix that works great for me. Much to my surprise, removing the black plastic rails allows my Apple Magic Mouse to properly track motion when I slide it around. The black plastic rails have been problematic for years, as they kept falling off. These rails are not really necessary, as long as you use the mouse on top of a cloth mouse pad (otherwise you’ll hear annoying scratching sounds as your mouse slides over your table top. I am not certain why removing the rails is beneficial, but I have two guesses: (1) The optical tracking system may have become myopic in its old age, to the point where the Magic Mouse can no longer detect motion unless it is slightly closer to the desk surface. (2) After falling off of the mouse and being put back on again for many years, the black plastic rails have become warped and now hold the Magic Mouse too high above the table top so that the mouse can no longer detect motion. In any event, removing the black plastic rails solves the problem. I am delighted to...

The black plastic rails are not needed. Mine kept falling off my Apple Magic Mouse, so I eventually just left the rails off. Surprisingly, the aluminum bottom of them mouse slides fine over a cloth mouse pad and works fine. The rail-free mouse also works okay on my table; however, it makes a light scratching sound when I use it on a hard surface without the mouse pad.

The two gold prongs are just below the leftmost of the circled screw heads.

You can currently purchase a replacement earphone socket on eBay for $4.99. Search for something like "ipod nano 2nd generation ribbon cable". The earphone socket is attached to the replacement click wheel cable. Instructions for replacement are here: How do I replace the wheel assembly?

I had a white screen problem also. A close inspection with a magnifying glass revealed that I tore the rightmost edge (the image is upside down) of the display ribbon cable, and this is why the display turned white. The ribbon cable is fragile, tiny, really impossible to repair by soldering. I thought about using this Nano without a screen (somewhat like my iPod Shuffle) but ended up putting in a different screen that I happened to have on hand. It seems to be fully functional!

Before committing to the expense of a new screen, I would disassemble the stepped-upon part (presumably the screen) to inspect for damage. You might learn something useful. Maybe it is just the cable. Maybe some additional parts are also damaged and need to be replaced.

Your battery is not the problem. I tested my Toshiba Tecra M3 laptop and with the power adapter plugged in it will boot up with a flat battery or even with no battery at all. Because your laptop showed signs of life only with the new power brick, the old one is probably bad. Rather than throwing out the old power brick, you should troubleshoot it and see if you can repair it. When you power on your laptop, listen closely. You should hear the hard drive spin up almost immediately. If your laptop has been without power for a long time, it will beep and prompt you to press F1 to reset the date and time. If your laptop is completely unresponsive, disassemble and check the power button. While it is disassembled, you can inspect for signs of the spill you suspect that your kids committed. You can find a link to the Tecra M3 manual here: https://support.toshiba.com/support/mode... On page 209 it says this: The computer will not start. Make sure you attached the AC adapter and power cord/cable properly or...

Troubleshoot this by typing with an external USB keyboard to see if the problem goes away. If it still happens, then try reloading Windows. If the problem goes away with an external keyboard, then consider operator error. Undesired cursor movement could be caused by inadvertently touching the trackpad while you are typing, with your fingers or the heels of your hands. If you are sure operator error isn't the problem, then a bad connection in the trackpad could be causing the problem. Troubleshoot this by opening the laptop and disconnecting the trackpad ribbon cable. Test to see if the problem goes away. If I recall correctly, the trackpad ribbon cable can be tricky to reattach if you go from the bottom (I had this problem with one of my Toshiba laptops). If this is the case, do some obvious disassembly and you will easily be able to reattach it by working from the top.

Yes, an SSD will work. There’s even a repair guide (authored by someone else) explaining how to install a new hard drive or SSD. iMac Intel 20" EMC 2105 and 2118 Hard Drive Replacement

My only experience is with EMC2105, not EMC2118 (I inherited EMC2118 from an existing guide that I leveraged). I wonder what would happen if you downgraded your firmware to an iMac 4,1 and then performed the CPU upgrade procedure. That might work if the firmware installer detects the CPU and does some CPU-specific setup. On the other hand, that would be risky as it might brick your system. I’d probably just live with the slightly slower original iMac 5,1 CPU (T7400 at 2.16 GHz) unless you feel lucky or want to contribute to the collective knowledge.

A hair dryer will work as well as a heat gun. Both blow hot air, which will melt solder at between 200F and 350F, depending on the type of solder used.

Mine also has a 4-pin cable on the side that also has to be detached

As I said at the start of this guide, as far as I can tell the T7600 is the fastest compatible processor for this Socket M laptop. In your particular case, the T7800 processor is not electrically compatible because it is Socket P.

I’m not sure why it is necessary to remove the RAM. As far as I can tell, it can remain in place during this procedure.

I can confirm that it is possible to remove the front glass using fingernails rather than suction cups. It isn’t easy, but if you try you should be able to pry off the glass.

I did this twice: once at the beginning of the procedure and once again at the end, when I realized that a big pice of lint was trapped under the glass.

There are two small plastic positioning pin holes on the right of the optical drive. When you replace the drive, make sure to align the pins with the holes as you slide the drive back into place.

There are two positioning pins stick up from the back of the computer. When you replace the fan, make sure that the pins slide into the corresponding holes in the back of the fan. The pins are at approximately 10:00 and 7:00 positions (where the center of the fan rotor is the center of a clock face).

Not having braid, I tried my solder sucker. It still took a very long time to clear the holes.

I had success with a different technique. Leave the existing wires in place. Unsolder them from the old battery, and solder them onto the new battery. On my battery the wires were attached with a solder ball and no other mechanical connection (e.g. wrapping) so they came off easily. The wires are tiny and closely spaced, so take care not to short the battery.

If you go this route, I recommend unsoldering the outside wires first and then do the inside one. When installing the new battery, it should be easier to connect the middle wire first, and then do the outer wires. Again, take care not to short out the battery connections!

Although they are close, the danger is no worse than in soldering directly to the motherboard.