[not so solved] ibook screen flicker and very high pitch sound
If any of you recall from my own review of the iBook 14inch that I bought, I mentioned that the screen flickers from full brightness to a slightly less bright state. Not quite energy saver dark, but a sort of half way between full bright and that.
For the last 2 weeks it seemed to have gone away, but now its back and there is also a very high pitch sound. Its not strong but if you dont have music on, it drives me mad. Ive also determined that its not coming from the speakers or other component, its coming from close to the screen area.
Does anyone know if these two symptoms are the beginning of disaster? I am backing up everything I have just in case and will bring it in to have it seen, but I reallly need to get some work done and cant think of not haveing a computer for a week or however long it may take to replace the screen or whatever component.
Anyone else ever hear of this?
[ 03-13-2002: Message edited by: ZO ]
[ 03-13-2002: Message edited by: ZO ]</p>
For the last 2 weeks it seemed to have gone away, but now its back and there is also a very high pitch sound. Its not strong but if you dont have music on, it drives me mad. Ive also determined that its not coming from the speakers or other component, its coming from close to the screen area.
Does anyone know if these two symptoms are the beginning of disaster? I am backing up everything I have just in case and will bring it in to have it seen, but I reallly need to get some work done and cant think of not haveing a computer for a week or however long it may take to replace the screen or whatever component.
Anyone else ever hear of this?
[ 03-13-2002: Message edited by: ZO ]
[ 03-13-2002: Message edited by: ZO ]</p>
Comments
personally, i would be scared to keep using it. if anything, i would guess that the backlight is going to go out and you'll be hosed.
I am currently typing this with 2 bright halogen lights aimed at the screen so I can see what the hell Im typing.
I have an oooooold 14inch screen to hook to it but OS X doesnt support 640x480 DOH!!!!! I'll boot into OS 9 and see if I can get to 640x480 there.
Damn... I hope this is easily repaired, I have my brand new cvs and stuff that I have to send out to get a new job.
I swear... its jinxed hardware month. My Pocketdrive died a few weeks ago, my girlfriends PowerBook 190cs on which she was just finishing her thesis died 2 days ago... her friends old duo she borrowed died today, my screen just died today... and my router is dying steadily since yesterday.
Obviously these things have to happen when you don't have a job
Apple Tech rules... we initially reset pram until I heard startup chime 4 times (thats alot), took out the battery and all attached peripherals including power, kept the reset button pressed for 5 seconds...
It started up ok... but then after a few minutes the screen died again. So he told me that it was without doubt the ram (installed by my store). And now I have taken out the extra 256MB ram and its been 20 minutes and all is perfect again. Now I have to go back to the damn store and have em exchange my ram. This time I want 222 ram and not that shit 322 they gave me last time.
Whew... I can take back my negative vibes against Apple for, what I thought, was bad manufacturing. Instead my store gave me defective ram. Bastards
i've never heard of bad RAM doing anything other than keeping your machine from booting. that's really weird that it can kill your backlight.
glad to hear it's fixed though. he he, glad i was wrong about the backlight going dead totally.
it wasnt the ram after all. Went to the store and asked to change the ram and they tested it and said there was nothing wrong with it. They reinstalled it and said showed me that it was working fine. No flickering or anything.
So we figured that it was the sales rep who had installed it and maybe placed it not well enough.
I got home an hour later and after an hour, poof... there goe sthe backlight.
I re-took the 256 ram out and restarted... nada... backlight still dead. SO... it aint the ram after all. It MUST be a connection somewhere.
I have reinstalled the ram again now, tightened the few cables I can see in the ram pit, and didnt tighten the screws too much, and am also running on AC adapter only (no battery installed). I then went through the 5 second reset and 4 PRAM hits.
Again, no flickering. I hope it will last a while longer for me to finish work.
Whomever has these problems should get them looked at. It must be a false connection somewhere.
PS It started flickering a bit in the beginning, and now I have also taken out the audio jack that I insert into the video/audio port. When anything, even speakers, are inserted, the monitor settings thinks its a TV and gives me 800x600 PAL/NTSC and 1024x768 PAL/NTSC if I try and click on the monitor settings. How messed up is that?
Fact is though, it flickered also when nothing was in the port, so I dont think they are very related
Now I have to wait anywhere between middle next week and 3 weeks. I called Apple Public Relations to see if I could possibly have a replacement mac until the repairs are done but they said their hands were tied. Luckily, the guy said that there is no backorder on TFT screen replacements... just keyboard and battery backlog. So, he said I could have my iBook back in a few days if all goes well.
I am seriously considering selling my iBook for as much as I can and getting a low end TiBook as soon as they are updated... 550Mhz G4 is quite skimpy imo.
Ugh... thank goodness a friend is lending me a Vaio in the meantime. Gotta say, it aint that bad. Its the small 12.1 version, ultra thin, etc... very nice.
So, let this be a lesson to everyone... if you have even the slightest malfunction, call Apple withing the first 2 weeks. I'll certainly remember it.