PowerBook Medic: Fixing your ‘Book Better than the Rest

A while ago I had the pleasure of arriving home to a PowerBook drenched in soda, that’s right, soda. I was furious, as everything was sticky from top to bottom, including the keyboard. Frantically I tried to dry it out using a hair dryer and accidentally burned a few keys to a crisp, but the damage was long done before I could do anything about it. Attempts to fix this PowerBook weren’t so successful; many companies only replaced LCDs or upgraded the hard drive. PowerBook Medic, on the other hand, does everything.

What Services They Offer

I was surprised that the only repairs offered by retailers were CD/DVD drive upgrades, LCD repairs, and hard drive upgrades. The only alternative is buying the parts separately, albeit cheaper, and performing the repair yourself. PowerBook Medic, however, incorporates both a wide selection of ‘Book parts and experienced technicians.

In addition to offering support for iBooks (Clamshells, G3 Dual USB, and G4 models) and PowerBooks (Titanium, Aluminum, Pismo, Lombard, and Wallstreet models), they also support the MacBook and MacBook Pro.

You have the option of ordering a part yourself, and in most cases you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for at a cheap price. If you’re not so tech savvy ,PowerBook Medic will give you a free estimate on how much repairs for the model will cost.

But if you’d rather take a crack at fixing your laptop yourself, PowerBook Medic offers take apart manuals for all models of ‘Books free of charge. making for a handy resource.

What Was Ordered

I ordered a new, backlit keyboard replacement for a 15-inch PowerBook G4. The cost for the keyboard itself is $99 plus a $99 labor charge for installation (if you avoid the DIY route).

As I mentioned earlier, this PowerBook’s keyboard was nuked by soda (no way am I going into detail on why this happened) and then had some keys burnt to a crisp by a hair dryer. The result was a sticky, half functional keyboard with about 5 keys missing.

I shipped out my ‘Book using Fedex plus their packing materials (don’t pay Fedex to package it for you, that’s a $15 fee just to put your laptop in an anti-static sleeve then seal up the box) and I was notified via email when they received my package. An hour later I was once again notified that the repair was successful and would be delivered once I paid for the shipping using any of the standard means of sending money, including Paypal.

Needless to say, I am thrilled with the repair and I type this from that same PowerBook right now. If you were to look at the keyboard then compare it to everything else, you’d definitely notice the improvements. My PowerBook came back in excellent condition and appeared as if it was never opened at all.

I look forward to sending back my PowerBook to replace its shattered LCD; they’re that good.