Early model Snow iBooks are extremely reliable, later ones much less so. Said later models (mainly those with Radeon 7500 graphics) have high logic board failure rates due to GPU failure. This failure was largely a result of the switch to lead-free solder that was happening at the time. Early lead-free solder was often problematic, and these iBooks were far from the only computers to suffer from chronic failure problems due to this same root-cause.
iBooks with failed graphics can be revived by desoldering, reballing, and reinstalling the GPU chip. This should in theory fix the problem for good, but it does take specialized skills and equipment.
Avoiding these problems is as simple as buying one of the earlier revisions without the Radeon 7500 graphics. Still, it's a trade-off. Those unreliable models had the fastest G3s Apple ever put in a computer.
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