Welcome back everyone! Hope you had a good Christmas.

Now for a Public Service Announcement.

Do you have a 2000-2001 series iBook? One with two USB ports, and imaginatively dubbed the "Dual USB" iBook?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it appears that there's a design flaw with this machine. In order for the machine to send information to the screen, there's a series of wires that pass through the hinge. Unfortunately, the wires aren't strong enough to cope with the stress of repeated opening and closing of the cover; each time the hinge is moved, you wear out a wires a little further. After a year of this (just after the warranty has expired, naturally), you may notice a weird occurrence when you put the machine to sleep. As you pull the cover down, the screen blacks out for a second when the cover is 30? from the vertical, and then reappears as you continue bringing the cover down.

Again, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your iBook is living on borrowed time. The backlight cable has a break, and you will lose the backlight completely in a short while. If you have AppleCare, that congratulations. Phone Apple, get a replacement. Hurrah!

For those of us not on AppleCare, and not caring to spend > $500 to repair a faulty cable, then there is a way to repair it yourself. It's not for the faint-hearted though, as it involves taking the iBook apart. Completely.

Okay, first you'll need a copy of the iBook Service Manual. Lots of helpful diagrams, detailed instructions, and a list of all the screws used in the computer (this will become important if you don't take care of where you put the screws when taking it apart!). In order to get at the backlight wires, you need to remove:

• Bottom Case
• Airport Card & Extra RAM </li>
• Keyboard
• Top Case
• Top Shield
• Display Module
• Display Case
• Clutch Cover

Yes, really. Keep the screws in separate groups, as this will make putting the iBook back together a less frustrating task, I assure you. When you've taken the machine apart, use a multimeter to determine which of the wires has broken if you can't tell from looking at the cables (the cable that appears to be the most common to fail is the black wire that goes to the backlight to the right-hand side of the LCD panel). Get a responsible adult to cut the wire out, and replace it with a new length of wire that he just happens to have lying around (telephone and earphone wire appear to be popular choices); it helps if the new wire is longer than the old one, as this might help the stress issue when you rebuild the machine. Huzzah! You have just fixed your iBook. Now all you have to do is put it all back together. You did keep the screws separate, didn't you? Oh dear.

(a word of advice: the clutch hinge has two plastic covers at both ends. These covers look quite small and could contribute to the stress that the cables undergo when the cover is closed. So don't bother putting them back in)

An hour or so of reassembly later, and your backlight should now be as good as new. Curse Apple's name for such a silly design error, and be on your way.

(more information can be found at Apple's discussion forums, where Mac owners are not-so-quietly fuming about this problem)