Over time the hinges connecting the display to a laptop's base can become stiffened due to dust buildup or the degradation of the hinge lubricant. This can lead to all sorts of problems including reduced mobility of the screen, cracking of the plastic casing around the screen, or the destruction of the entire screen assembly.

The PowerBook G4 Titanium is notorious for it's hinge failures. The earliest models of the Titanium series (400, 500Mhz) were prone to hinge failures under normal use, which often resulted in the LCD being destroyed or the casing breaking apart. Even after manufacturing improvements in the later models, they still suffer from stiffened hinges. This makes it difficult to open and close the screen and may eventually lead to part of the assembly breaking.

I am lucky enough to own the latest 1Ghz model with an exceptional LCD, so I wanted to prolong it's life and ensure it doesn't suffer from these issues. It's one of my favourite Apple computers, mainly because it's the fastest portable machine for gaming and high intensity work under Mac OS 9 (natively), along with it's stylish form factor.

The hinges on my Ti have become stiff over time, and is made worse when the machine was hot after running for a while. When opening or closing the laptop, the hinges would stop moving and make a cracking sound before freeing themselves again. Every time I moved the screen it felt like I was going to break something. Repairing this wasn't simple since the hinges in this model are fixed to the screen casing. This meant I would need to replace the entire screen assembly to replace my hinges, without the guarantee of receiving better ones.

After searching online I was recommended several products.

The first product I tried was CRC Silicone Grease (Do not use this). This almost completely seized the hinges most likely due to it's thickness. I initially assumed it would work since the original lubricant that had leaked from the hinges appeared to be a similarly thick substance.

Next I was recommended P'Blaster Penetrating Oil. This seemed to clear out all of the silicone grease I had used earlier and the remaining grime that had accumulated inside the hinges. However, it didn't increase mobility of the hinges and as soon as most of the oil had seeped out the hinges stiffened up again, to a much more dangerous and rigid state.
If you do use P'Blaster Penetrating Oil make sure you do some test sprays beforehand. This spray has an adjustuble flow but it's still heavy (for this job) on a low setting and you only want a couple of drops getting into each hinge.

Since others had mentioned success with P'Blaster I was begininning to lose hope until I tried some Lubeco Bar & Chain Oil which I had sitting around for our hedge trimmer. This worked very well and brought back much better movement to the hinges. The hinge movement is now around 80 - 90% of what it would have been when purchased new, and there is no more cracking or stiffening issues when opening/closing the screen.

Application Steps

First you will need to remove the clutch covers at the back of the machine with a Torx screwdriver.

I found that with the bar and chain oil I needed to apply copious amounts of it in all of the openings to the hinges.

As seen in the image above my hinges had a dark and dirty grease accumulation around them. While the clutch covers were removed I also took this opportunity to tighten the lower Torx screws which had loosened over time and added a slight wobble to my screen.

After removing the covers I carefully sprayed P'Blaster in each of the hinges, and then cleaned them with paper towels. After this I used a battery air duster (multi-speeds) to blow out the remaining oil from the hinges. Place a paper towel around the back of where you're blowing the air so oil doesn't spray everywhere.

Next I used a syringe to oil the hinges with Lubeco Bar and Chain Oil 100. When the laptop is lying flat there are two openings to the hinge on the top and bottom of them, and then when you open the lid there are two at the front of the hinge (when looking at the laptop front on). I syringed oil into these multiple times while opening and closing the screen gently. I also did this and placed the laptop upside down to ensure the oil made its way throughout the hinges thoroughly.

After letting the oil make its way throughout the hinges for ~20mins I used the air duster to blow out the excess oil again. Once the excess oil had been removed I let the laptop sit upside down on paper towels for any remaining oil to make its way out.

Once there was no more oil making its way out of the hinges I cleaned them with a paper towel and reattached the clutch covers. The P'Blaster has an incredibly strong smell that remains for several days so I left the machine in a shaded spot the the backyard on a sunny day to air out which removed most of the smell. It took several more days to completely remove the smell, but after this I was very happy with the results. Now that I can rely on this machine not breaking it's time to touch up the paint job!