I've NEVER seen anything like this!

pawn3dpawn3d
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
PROBLEM:

I start it up my Powerbook and I get screen activity for about 1 second (see videos) and then it goes dim. You can still (barely) see the display.



STEPS TAKEN:
  • Connected external monitor, pressed F7

  • Repairing disk from PowerMac G5 failed in Target Disk mode.

  • Reset PRAM.

  • Tried starting up from disk.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=p_FshjTI3Mk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFaFP7L4x-w

http://www.youtube.com/v/U3BayWUWGRg



The screen fickers and goes to almost nothing... What is wrong with my PB?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,337moderator
    Could be a logic board/motherboard failure. That often causes the display to go out. Randomly at first then just out completely. The g3 ibooks failed on this quite a lot.



    It might be an expensive repair if it is that so a new computer would likely be a better option. The Macbooks and MB Pros are both much faster than the powerbooks.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    kareliakarelia Posts: 525member
    That would be true if it was not displaying at all, but he mentioned it's displaying, but extremely dim. That usually points toward a failure of the display inverter, which supplies power to the backlight. The part itself is pretty inexpensive, but labor might get you. I'd expect somewhere around $200 for the whole repair. However, if you send it to Apple directly, they'll likely charge the $330 flat-rate fee, regardless of the part that needs to be installed.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,337moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Karelia View Post


    That would be true if it was not displaying at all, but he mentioned it's displaying, but extremely dim.



    Logic board problems can show graphics glitches and can randomly show the display. It also causes external displays to not work and the system usually crashes not long after booting when it gets bad. Usually the display goes off though and not just dim as you say.



    The lack of feedback from the buttons suggests that the machine is crashing. A bad display would allow the machine to boot entirely and the keys should still be audible.



    It needs to be taken for repair whatever it is. It doesn't seem like a user-repairable problem.
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