Dual USB iBook Screen Issues
Hello everyone, I hope you can help me with this. I have a 600 MHz iBook with a unique screen problem that just started a few hours ago. I can have the screen up leaning back slightly so that the screen looks a little brighter than it should and the screen works fine. If I try to push the screen further back for a better viewing angle the screen goes black on me. The really odd thing is that the sun was shining on it at an angle and I could see shadows of the screen and the icons and everything were still along the bottom like they should be. I could even see a shadow of the cursor moving so I think my new problem is related to the backlight. Another odd thing though is that even when the screen turns black the apple on the outside remains illuminated. So what do you all think is wrong, and what steps should I take to fix it. I'm in North Dakota which means that there isn't an Apple store within 8 hours of me. So it's going to be me working on this. Any help you could give would be great. Thanks.
Brian Green
Brian Green
Comments
does this occur consistently and repeatably?
does this occur at only one specific screen angle?
does returning the screen to any other angle "solve" the problem?
does sleep (close lid and/or menu) solve the problem?
if you can see the screen ghost during blackout enough to test, run some profiling or hardware test utilities.
there are some technotes at apple about bad leads on some backlight connectors, but try to troubleshoot repeatably to better quantify likely sources of problem before you jump on any bandwagons that actually describe different issues
hope this helps
The problem is that the backlight cable, which runs through the hinge of the iBook, gets pinched or cut off completely. You can't just replace that cable on its own, because it is part of the Reed switch assembly. If your iBook is still under warranty, or you got AppleCare, you can get it repaired for free. Otherwise, the Apple repair costs a $300 flat fee. That's what happened to me.
We've talked about this issue here before, so you might want to do a search. I remember several threads about this on MacNN as well. I remember one person reporting that they had gotten the correct part, either from SmallDog.com or PBResQ, and done the repair themselves. But taking apart an iBook is not for the faint of heart.
Escher