Disappearing laptop display

On 10-Nov-06, at 3:26 PM, Jean Sparks wrote:

> I have a 14" 1.42 GHz G4 iBook running OS 10.4.8. Occasionally and
> with no warning the screen will go dark though if you look carefully
> you can see the documents faintly. I can save the document[s] but
> cannot get back the display. I have always shut down and rebooted. I
> have always had well over an hour left on the battery. Unlike the
> postings on the Apple site I have never moved the display before this
> happens. I see that others have just shut the lid, waited then
> reopened the lid and I will try this the next time. However I would
> prefer to prevent this rather than react while taking notes in class.

Jean,

This same issue was happening to a friend of mine, and he was able to
work around it for a while by putting his laptop to sleep and waking
it up again.. but in the end he had to take it in to a service
provider and have it repaired. I do not remember what the fix was.

If you have any warranty left, call Apple!! If not.. take it in to an
Apple Store or service place and they will give you a quote on the
repair.

Best of luck,

David

On Nov 10, 2006, at 3:26 PM, Jean Sparks wrote:

> I have a 14" 1.42 GHz G4 iBook running OS 10.4.8. Occasionally and
> with no warning the screen will go dark though if you look carefully
> you can see the documents faintly.

That's typically a telltale sign of a failing LCD inverter board.

You will probably need to bring it in for repair.


--
Chris Devers

On Nov 10, 2006, at 3:26 PM, Jean Sparks wrote:

> I have a 14" 1.42 GHz G4 iBook running OS 10.4.8. Occasionally and
> with no warning the screen will go dark though if you look carefully
> you can see the documents faintly. I can save the document[s] but
> cannot get back the display. I have always shut down and rebooted. I
> have always had well over an hour left on the battery. Unlike the
> postings on the Apple site I have never moved the display before this
> happens. I see that others have just shut the lid, waited then
> reopened the lid and I will try this the next time. However I would
> prefer to prevent this rather than react while taking notes in class.

I have had that happen many times. At first I panicked. Then I went
to the apple site and found that it is a common problem. There was a
solution that said to unplug, remove the battery, force down with the
start button, and then restart. That works but is sure a pain. When i
got home I took it to the local dealer who said he knew nothing of
it...and they could not make it happen (of course). Eventually they
replaced the motherboard and for a while that seemed to do it.
Lately, it has been happening again, however. If anyone knows of a
definite cause that could be fixed, it sure would be helpful to know.

Kathie

Try turning the brightness up. This has, on accasion, happened to me - I think that it is a light sensor glitch or similar, which turns the screen brightness way down. When you reboot it is reset to default, but you may be able to just use F2.

- christ.

Jean Sparks wrote:
> I'm hoping someone on this list will be able to give me some
> suggestions for an intermittent issue which unfortunately decides to
> happen when I can least afford it.
>
> I have a 14" 1.42 GHz G4 iBook running OS 10.4.8. Occasionally and
> with no warning the screen will go dark though if you look carefully
> you can see the documents faintly. I can save the document[s] but
> cannot get back the display. I have always shut down and rebooted. I
> have always had well over an hour left on the battery. Unlike the
> postings on the Apple site I have never moved the display before this
> happens. I see that others have just shut the lid, waited then
> reopened the lid and I will try this the next time. However I would
> prefer to prevent this rather than react while taking notes in class.
>
> I have checked on the Apple web site and added a comment to those
> also having the same issue.
>
Sounds like an issue with the back light florescent lights. If so and if
you're not under Applecare Apple will want an arm and two legs to
replace the entire display assembly. If this is the problem and you're
not under Applecare I'd look for a local shop that does low level repair
work. I have a guy in Raleigh I use for things like this and he's great.

>On Nov 10, 2006, at 3:26 PM, Jean Sparks wrote:
>
>>I have a 14" 1.42 GHz G4 iBook running OS 10.4.8. Occasionally and
>>with no warning the screen will go dark though if you look carefully
>>you can see the documents faintly.
>
>That's typically a telltale sign of a failing LCD inverter board.
>
>You will probably need to bring it in for repair

My TiBook (667 MHz, OS 10.4.8, 1 GB SDRAM) has recently displayed a
blinking screen. During the blink, the numerous icons on the desktop
skitter around rapidly. Rebooting produced a temporary fix and
rebooting becomes tiresome. Temporary isn't good enough. Today I ran
the hardware diagnostics and found no problem. Then First Aid Repair
Disc (all OK), follower by Repair Disc Permissions. So far, so good.
YMMV. Good luck.

Richard

Richard wrote:
> My TiBook (667 MHz, OS 10.4.8, 1 GB SDRAM) has recently displayed a
> blinking screen. During the blink, the numerous icons on the desktop
> skitter around rapidly. Rebooting produced a temporary fix and
> rebooting becomes tiresome. Temporary isn't good enough. Today I ran
> the hardware diagnostics and found no problem. Then First Aid Repair
> Disc (all OK), follower by Repair Disc Permissions. So far, so good.
> YMMV. Good luck.
>
Do you mean the icons move about on the screen or they "sparkle" and
stay in place? If the later your display or the display circuit is failing.

An LCD display can be thought of, in this context as two main
components:

* The LCD panel itself, which is a complicated grid of wiring that is
responsible for drawing the display. As long as it isn't physically
damaged, I'd imagine they'd generally last for a long time.

* The inverter, which is roughly a fluorescent light bulb,
responsible for illuminating the image so that you can actually see
it in normal lighting situations. Like fluorescent bulbs in your
home, they last for a long time, but do have a limited lifespan, and
should be expected to fail given enough time (typically years).

If the image is there, but you can only see it dimly, or while
shining a light on the panel, then the inverter is failing. Period.
Not the LCD, not any other component like the logic board or video card.

For some video issues, a PRAM / NVRAM reset -- [cmd]+[opt]+[p]+[r] at
boot -- can solve the problem, but under OSX that's about all it can
solve. Most other settings live in normal files these days, not PRAM.

For some power issues (won't boot, sleep issues, etc), resetting the
PMU / SMU circuit can help. How to do this is different on different
Macs, but on some of them, it is similar to what you describe: remove
the battery and power cord, hold down the power button, plug it back
in and release the power button, then press it one more time to turn
it on. This can help with some issues -- booting & sleeping, mainly
-- but it will probably never do anything about a flaky inverter.

If your computer is showing symptoms consistent with a bad inverter
-- the image is there but not illuminated -- then the remedy is a new
inverter. Replacing the logic board is usually irrelevant, and won't
solve the problem. On some computers, the easiest way to replace the
inverter is to replace the whole display, while on others it's a
separate part, but that's a call for the repair facility to make.
(Or, if it's out of warranty, a factor for you to consider in regard
to the price of the repair -- inverters tend to be cheap, LCD panels
tend to be expensive, but that's not accounting for the complexity of
getting at the parts in question, which varies wildly.)

--
Chris Devers

>Richard wrote:
>>My TiBook (667 MHz, OS 10.4.8, 1 GB SDRAM) has recently displayed a
>>blinking screen. During the blink, the numerous icons on the desktop
>>skitter around rapidly. Rebooting produced a temporary fix and
>>rebooting becomes tiresome. Temporary isn't good enough. Today I ran
>>the hardware diagnostics and found no problem. Then First Aid Repair
>>Disc (all OK), follower by Repair Disc Permissions. So far, so good.
>>YMMV. Good luck.
>>
>Do you mean the icons move about on the screen or they "sparkle" and
>stay in place? If the later your display or the display circuit is failing.

Thanks, but no they didn't stay in place.
skitter = glide or skip lightly or quickly, skip, hop, lope, spring

My G4 iBook has the left half of the display dimming, sometimes worse and sometimes fine. I guess the lamps (invertor?) will eventually need to be replaced... BUT - for as long as I have had it, it will occasionally go dark when I run the cursor by the left side of the screen (where I have the dock) and I have to move the cursor right and left and it comes back. Is this unusual or what?

Thanks,

<L>

I had this problem with my G3 iBook. It was fixed under Apple Care. The problem was with the reed switch and the inverter board, according to Apple. Before bringing my computer in for repair I would get back the screen by closing the lid (putting it to sleep) and then reopening it. Hope this helps. e. rosbooks

I know this thread is pretty old, but I wanted to reply to this post because it is incorrect. As someone who sells laptop parts for a living, I can tell you that the LCD is made up of three parts: the screen itself, the backlight (light bulb), and the inverter.

The inverter is a circuit board that increases the voltage so that the backlight can light the screen. It is much more likely that this is the problem, but it is not always the case. The inverter can be replaced by someone who knows what they're doing, while the backlight is much more difficult to replace.

Some signs of an inverter problem are a dim screen or a red/pink screen. I would always recommend someone try to replace the inverter before the backlight.