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Upgrading iBook Clamshell Display?
Posted by: LaPorta on 2021-12-26 20:20:08 Excellent write up. I’ll use this someday.
Posted by: AEChadwick on 2022-01-20 18:48:56 thank you for this write-up! i just installed a strip with the modifications, and it already looks fantastic. In lieu of toothpicks, i modeled a LED-strip holder based on the existing brass piece. It uses the existing screws & holes, and slides right into the channel. It holds the LED strip slightly to the back, to keep it edge-on to the glass (just like the CCFL-holder). i wrapped a piece of foil tape along the top edge to seal it in.
Posted by: davidg5678 on 2022-01-21 04:17:10 thank you for this write-up! i just installed a strip with the modifications, and it already looks fantastic. In lieu of toothpicks, i modeled a LED-strip holder based on the existing brass piece. It uses the existing screws & holes, and slides right into the channel. It holds the LED strip slightly to the back, to keep it edge-on to the glass (just like the CCFL-holder). i wrapped a piece of foil tape along the top edge to seal it in. I'm glad this information was useful! Thank for the 3D model --that looks like a very nice solution (I bet that it's much more repeatable for others compared to toothpicks). I've discovered a minor flickering problem with the backlight controller modifications I detailed in the previous post, but I think that the solution may be to make a wider cut between the sides of the enable trace. I'm also going to try pulling it low somehow, as it almost behaves it's floating, but I'm still working on this fix. Please let me know if the display brightness works for you once the computer is back together -I'd love to hear if the mods I made are repeatable.
Posted by: AEChadwick on 2022-01-21 09:12:44 with that tip in hand, i dremyl’d away a little more of the trace before sealing it up; will update with results. related, here is a quick diagram of the wiring inside a tangerine iBook (slightly different colors than the Blueberry at “Brian’s Retreat”)
Posted by: davidg5678 on 2022-02-03 15:30:26 I recently overclocked my Clamshell's CPU to run at 400MHz (and the bus at 100MHz), and the ~20% speed boost means it's now barely fast enough to use on a few parts of the internet. I had to take a picture of it displaying this same thread on the 68kMLA forum. 🙂 The backlight modifications I made seem to be holding up well so far, albeit with the quirks described above. I decided to remove the transistor I added to the LED controller board, but there has been no negative change in functionality. The laptop has been running for many hours without issues. I did need to replace the supercapacitor on the logic board, as I was having some PMU-related problems, but this was more of a general maintenance task than an LED mod-related one. Next up: finish the battery pack rebuild project I started a few years ago (this time with greater safety and functionality.)
Posted by: Stubbertville on 2023-03-14 17:19:47 does this fix a yellowed screen?
Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2023-03-14 17:35:04 Yes
Posted by: Stubbertville on 2023-03-15 17:37:27 Yes would this also work with the ibook g3 768 screen? im going to upgrade to it and hope it works
Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2023-03-15 17:51:44 CCFL replacement? Yes if it’s the right size and type. You need a special cable or an adapter to perform an XGA mod though. Also, 768MHz? There was no such model as far as I know.
Posted by: lazd on 2023-10-17 16:16:07 Success! I just did the LED backlight mod on the IBM panel in this Tangerine iBook, and wow, it’s bright! WAY brighter than my XGA-modded Indigo, and as bright as my M2 MacBook! I did not need to shim the backlight, I simply used the rubber that previously held the CFL and it fit perfectly. The backlighting is even and did I mention it’s bright?! As expected, brightness control was backwards out of the gate, so I did the trace cuts with a nice wide cut and added the wire bodge. I have the same quirks, using the brightness buttons in Mac OS X results in: 1-4 are dim but brightness does increase slightly 5 is medium brightness, but the screen is flickery 6-8 are almost full brightness 9 is dim 10-11 are very dim 12 is almost full brightness 13-16 are full brightness I do see flickering sometimes after waking from sleep at anything but 13-16, so that’s interesting. I did notice that touching the board tweaks the brightness a little. I wonder if we can put a resistor on the signal wire or something to make it behave as expected… In the meantime, this looks amazing, thanks documenting your efforts and the fix for inverted brightness!
Posted by: AEChadwick on 2023-12-05 20:21:31 hey team, i spent a while really digging though the DF6113 and figured out another idea for a mod. I have used it in several powerbooks that had the "inverted output" problem, and so far it works great. I am not smart enough to explain it... i just kept pushing around data sheet, dismantled a couple controller boards, used google translate to dig through a russian guy's website, and then just started pulling off caps and bodging parts around. This mod is purely to the board, no other wiring tricks or anything; i have tried it with the blue boards, too, the components have different IDs but their location is almost identical. here is the mod i devised, plus a movie showing the success. (the iphone auto-adjusts the brightness, but i think its still apparent.) let me know if you try it yourself: good luck and godspeed.
Posted by: davidg5678 on 2023-12-06 13:57:40 Great work! I'll have to play around with this at some point! Two questions: Does this version of the mod fix the issue where the brightness gets sort of "jumpy" as you go between the levels? I remember my mod idea from 2021 wasn't perfect because the brightness would sometimes increase even when the decrease brightness key was pressed. The only catch is that the dimming adjustment is not constant for some reason: halfway through adjusting the dimming slider, the screen gets brighter again, but by the end, it goes dim. Also, does this fix the issue that @lazd described where touching the board would make the brightness twitch? I remember having that issue myself as well.
Posted by: AEChadwick on 2023-12-06 14:00:37 Two questions: Does this version of the mod fix the issue where the brightness gets sort of "jumpy" as you go between the levels? Also, does this fix the issue that @lazd described where touching the board would make the brightness twitch? I remember having that issue myself as well. the brightness goes smooth up and down, with no jumps or regressions, just up-down brighter-darker. i manhandled the boards vigorously (wire, start iBook, good, shutdown, mount board, start iBook, good, shutdown) and never encountered any twitchiness.
Posted by: davidg5678 on 2023-12-06 14:05:56 the brightness goes smooth up and down, with no jumps or regressions, just up-down brighter-darker. i manhandled the boards vigorously (wire, start iBook, good, shutdown, mount board, start iBook, good, shutdown) and never encountered any twitchiness. Fantastic! I look forward to trying this out!
Posted by: lazd on 2024-01-12 20:48:47 I gave this mod a try today on a board with blue PCB and am happy to report it works perfectly! Brightness steps smoothly in the correct direction between dark and light with no jumps or dark spots like before. Bravo for figuring it out, @AEChadwick, thank you for sharing! @davidg5678 I didn't try poking it while it was connected this time, but once it's all nicely mounted into the lid with double sided tape, I haven't noticed any flickering.
Posted by: davidg5678 on 2024-01-13 11:56:49 I gave this mod a try today on a board with blue PCB and am happy to report it works perfectly! Brightness steps smoothly in the correct direction between dark and light with no jumps or dark spots like before. Bravo for figuring it out, @AEChadwick, thank you for sharing! @davidg5678 I didn't try poking it while it was connected this time, but once it's all nicely mounted into the lid with double sided tape, I haven't noticed any flickering. This is excellent! I haven't given this new version of the mod a shot yet because my iBook is still recovering from a partially finished XGA mod. BTW, I saw your post on another forum about the fully upgraded iBook you've built and I'm very impressed! I hope to get my clamshell to a similar place eventually! (I'm trying to get a Blueberry iBook to do XGA, but I haven't gotten it to work yet. I'm still on the lookout for a spare Indigo/FireWire iBook logic board to swap in, as I'm trying to figure out what makes the later revisions of iBooks XGA capable. The dream for me is an XGA modded iBook Clamshell with a G4 CPU upgrade. Perhaps also a transplant of the FireWire hardware as well and maybe an upgraded Ethernet controller IC swap too!)
Posted by: davidg5678 on 2024-01-18 13:30:00 I just took my old LED driver board mod apart and reconfigured it to match the plans posted by @AEChadwick. So far, so good! It all seems to be working perfectly --much better than the previous mod revision, with seemingly none of the old drawbacks. A big thank you to @AEChadwick for sharing all of the LED backlight experiments they have been working on this past year! My iBook is still in a state of semi-disrepair from XGA modding experiments that are still in progress. If I find out anything useful about this new mod, I'll be sure to report back though.
Posted by: Pilgrim33 on 2025-06-07 07:12:13 I'm very interested in this modification--has this been stable in your iBooks? I have a Tangerine clamshell and would like to perform this modification. I purchased from eBay replacement LED backlights that have the same PCB and the diode is on order, so I'm ready to make this upgrade at the same time that I recap my iBook. For those who did this modification; has it been stable and do you recommend it? Thank you!
Posted by: davidg5678 on 2025-06-08 17:04:41 I'm very interested in this modification--has this been stable in your iBooks? I have a Tangerine clamshell and would like to perform this modification. I purchased from eBay replacement LED backlights that have the same PCB and the diode is on order, so I'm ready to make this upgrade at the same time that I recap my iBook. For those who did this modification; has it been stable and do you recommend it? Thank you! These days, I have been considering possible advantages of sticking a new old stock CCFL bulb back into the LCD panel. The required work is about the same, but the CCFLs might be easier to install neatly if you can manage to source the exact part. If the LEDs are not shimmed in place really neatly, it is possible to have uneven light spread. That's not to say doing this mod well is impossible! Several people have had very good results over the years. I have yet to try a brand-new CCFL tube and compare things like brightness and color balance against the LEDs. I haven't had stability issues once switching to the latest revision of this mod described by @AEChadwick. I believe @lazd has also had good results as well, but hopefully he can describe his long-term experiences as well. Whether you go with LEDs or fluorescent tubes, I think doing something is worthwhile, especially as the original CCFL tubes wear out and make the iBook LCD really difficult to read.
Posted by: AEChadwick on 2025-06-08 17:57:54 For those who did this modification; has it been stable and do you recommend it? Thank you! i have done (5) iBooks of a couple different generations; i don't use them everyday, but every time i use them they are solid and bright: no drift, no flicker. It's been a great mod for my interests. I cannot report how they run off a battery, and i would be interested to hear about that. Whether you go with LEDs or fluorescent tubes, I think doing something is worthwhile it's totally a matter of preference—I fully understand the desire to keep it "more original hardware"—but for real as long as people do SOMEthing. Those old parts fade, terribly, and it's an injustice to let people see the original iBook as anything less-than-awesome.
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