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Warning PB180C Owners!!
Posted by: techknight on 2017-04-22 16:28:51 Just pulled out my PB180c to finally get around to fixing the plastic, and recapping the display, only to find out the display now has a few horizontal lines across it. Pulled the LCD completely apart to find out that one of the flat flex ribbons which has a driver IC on it, has gotten cap-goo inside the ribbon itself, corroding the copper traces coming out of the IC to the display. Basically rendering the display completely useless, garbage (without a new ribbon which is bonded anyway), with the only replacements being in the 100+ dollar range, basically totaling the machine. This is just a warning reminder to check, clean and recap your LCDs! Because if any cap goo gets inside the flat flex ribbon and starts to delaminate and corrode its internal copper, its junk, equivalent to having a cracked LCD at that point.
Posted by: Carboy7 on 2017-04-22 17:21:06 Ahh! I thought that the ribbon cable tearing was bad...
Posted by: Rajel on 2017-04-22 17:31:26 Oh eff, I really need to take my 190cs display apart and get the caps ordered. Gonna get new caps for the mainboard too, the heat of the SSD is making them go haywire and causing it to crash.
Posted by: avadondragon on 2017-04-22 17:55:38 I had this happen on a PB160 display too. 🙁 Luckily I got to my 180c before too much cap goo damage could take place.
Posted by: Rajel on 2017-04-22 17:59:19 I had this happen on a PB160 display too. 🙁 Luckily I got to my 180c before too much cap goo damage could take place. I've done the 160 caps already, fortunately there wasn't any real damage to the board that couldn't be fixed. That smell though, uuuugh. Went ceramic the whole way, no leaks now!
Posted by: likanen on 2017-07-13 11:21:23 Hey, I pulled out my old 180c (some 15 years in storage) and after a while the screen got white. Understanding that I should recap it, I'm not sure are all the capacitors visible without removing the metal plate? I was able to open the tabs but couldn't get the plate off. Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks!
Posted by: techknight on 2017-07-13 15:29:19 because its stuck to thermal adhesive. with some care, it can be removed without trouble or damage.
Posted by: Unknown_K on 2017-07-13 20:03:05 Quite a few old laptops end up dead because of leaky CMOS and main batteries, capacitors are a smaller problem.
Posted by: likanen on 2017-07-13 21:29:34 I did test and run the laptop primary screen disconnected and it booted fine to an extended desktop.
Posted by: perez6991 on 2017-10-23 08:00:06 Would the caps leaking cause ghosting like in a passive matrix display? There are adjustment pots alongside the 180c display but my screen still looks way off.
Posted by: Rajel on 2017-10-23 08:08:02 Would the caps leaking cause ghosting like in a passive matrix display? There are adjustment pots alongside the 180c display but my screen still looks way off. It contributes quite a bit to it, yes. The caps in my 160's display were leaking badly, swapping them helped clear the image up significantly.
Posted by: 68k family on 2017-12-30 12:28:57 Makes me wonder about mine. So far my 190CS, Duo 230 & 2300c still work great. My 520c that I haven't been able to boot in years now has me worried. Can't find a damn power adaptor for that anywhere.
Posted by: OleLila on 2020-04-19 09:50:34 A better lucky than good type situation but pretty satisfying. I have a PB180c with a dim/wabbling display and a stripe that I finally got around to recap yesterday. The cap area was a mess but cleaned up well, but after recap (with hot air..easiest recap yet), the color and brightness were great but the stripe remained. Subsequently I found this thread so I knew I had to further disassemble and look. The first screen picture is after recap, the second picture is the flex cable w IC driver pre clean up, the third screen if after flex cable clean up. Then I spent about 2 and a half hours doing micro surgery on the top 3 pads/contacts of the IC middle flex cable because it looked the worse. I think I got lucky/help from the cap goo and was able to partially separate the layers of the upper portion of the flex cable...one was clearly corroded without continuity, another remained intact and I tore the upper most. I was able to expose less than a millimeter of the torn and corroded flex cable trace and "dragged" liquid solder from the pad to the area I had exposed on the ribbon cable....then gently cleaned and taped the cable down. The result was the last screen. Now have to get motivated to repair all 4 hinge mounts.
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