I'm feeling very pleased with myself, thanks to the web and the free-flowing advice on almost any subject that one can tap. My three year old Macbook was down for the count. The screen would go dead whenever I opened the lid. After some trawling through forums I came to the conclusion that the inverter cable was the most probable suspect (cable gets pinched by the hinge and then one of the strands breaks). My local Apple store wouldn't quote for a repair until they had done a diagnostic but I would be looking at a probable €200 minimum. I searched on-line vendors for a replacement cable, having pinpointed precisely my particular version of the Macbook - older and newer models do not have compatible inverter cables. The UK prices varied between £45 - £65. US prices were around $105 but shipping - where the vendor would ship to Europe - was around $35. On Ebay, however, I found a vendor who was a front man for a Hong Kong based supplier selling the cable for my model for $18 plus reasonable postage. It took 3 weeks to arrive.
In the meanwhile, fed up with trying to install all the programs I needed on my daughter's XP netbook, I bought a mini DV to HDMI converter for the Macbook at a specialist computer parts shop who charged half the AppleStore price along with a male-male HDMI cable and set up a small flat panel TV on my desk to use as a monitor. I connected the Macbook to the TV HDMI slot, lifted the lid the one inch that would still show the image on the LCD screen and peering at that tiny angle, went into Preferences and selected Displays. I clicked on Detect Displays and two windows come up - one for your LCD screen which you should leave alone, and one for the TV. I selected the parameters for the TV display that most closely related to the LCD resolution (1280 x 800 probably). I didn't see anything until I clicked on Mirror and then then the screen's image appeared on the TV. So I was back to working with a screen. It is not ideal by any means. The TV screen is nothing like as sharp as the LCD given that the image is blown up to fit the larger screen, but at least I could work.
When the cable arrived I went into www.ifixit.com and printed off their guide for how to replace a Macbook's screen or inverter, and set to work with my Phillips screwdriver, an old credit card, a magnetised continuity screwdriver and an old file with a flat blade-like plastic handle. Be warned. Those darn screws are tiny, fiddley and all different sizes. When I got the cover off, I drew a rough map of the innards full size on a sheet of paper and stuck with tape each screw I undid on the plan at it's location. Even so, I ended up losing one screw somewhere (still haven't found it). This was in case I got interrupted half-way through and forget where every screw came from and how each wire was placed. Someone on a forum recommended egg boxes in which to keep the screws, but I defend my method as being more sure to recover if you have to stop half-way through.
To anyone who wants to attempt such a job, I would definitely encourage him or her to do it. The guide was confidence building and very clear, but still left a few things to experience: like the tiny shaped white plastic pieces that fly off when you lever the hinges away from the body. Beware here! Never use too much force, and take your time. Remember, every piece is designed to connect. If something doesn't click in, STOP, and reconsider.
The whole point, though is that such a repair is perfectly feasible and, in a political way, a necessary response to the problem. Learning to fix one's stuff; being in control of what you have, is a political act. Thanks to all those at Ifixit.com and the others who scouted ahead and who left their knowledge for the rest to use.
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