Video card problems?
So I have had my computer for about two years now... will be two years this january. I have had more problems with it lately than i honestly should. most of them up to this point have been due to me. This one, however doesn't seem to be. It all started one night when I was playing wolfenstein (the new one) and the monitor started flickering. I figured it was something wrong with the game so I shut the game off. It seemed fine until I went and used the dock, and the screen kept flickering.
So then I decide to restart the computer and all is fine. dock is fine, so i stop worrying. then I wonder if it's an isolated incident so i start up wolfenstein again. Same thing happens, except much sooner (one minute of play as opposed to about 30).
So I shut it off, restart the computer and become worried. I decide not to play the game anymore, as i figure it's the game that's doing it to my computer. Later I decide to watch a movie on it with my roomies and the same thing happens. So I figure that the video card must be going out on it. So I restart again (which seems to fix the problem) and let my dad know about the failing computer since it was finals week and all.
The next day, the computer just does it on it's own... I used the dock and it started flickering. I turned it off and left it alone for a while. Then it wouldnt turn on at all. rather, the computer would turn on, and the backlight would turn on, but no image would appear. So I forced it off and left it alone for an hour or so and it started up (So I could email some important files to myself). It worked just long enough to do that and now it wont work at all anymore. I get to go pay the greedy people at simutek a minimum of 65 bucks just to look at it on tuesday and tell me that my video card is shot. My question is, how much would a new one cost and how would I go about getting it? I have a feeling it would be much cheaper to do on my own, but I dont know where to order things.... I've put PCs together for years, but have no idea what is on the inside of an iBook. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
-Forrest
So then I decide to restart the computer and all is fine. dock is fine, so i stop worrying. then I wonder if it's an isolated incident so i start up wolfenstein again. Same thing happens, except much sooner (one minute of play as opposed to about 30).
So I shut it off, restart the computer and become worried. I decide not to play the game anymore, as i figure it's the game that's doing it to my computer. Later I decide to watch a movie on it with my roomies and the same thing happens. So I figure that the video card must be going out on it. So I restart again (which seems to fix the problem) and let my dad know about the failing computer since it was finals week and all.
The next day, the computer just does it on it's own... I used the dock and it started flickering. I turned it off and left it alone for a while. Then it wouldnt turn on at all. rather, the computer would turn on, and the backlight would turn on, but no image would appear. So I forced it off and left it alone for an hour or so and it started up (So I could email some important files to myself). It worked just long enough to do that and now it wont work at all anymore. I get to go pay the greedy people at simutek a minimum of 65 bucks just to look at it on tuesday and tell me that my video card is shot. My question is, how much would a new one cost and how would I go about getting it? I have a feeling it would be much cheaper to do on my own, but I dont know where to order things.... I've put PCs together for years, but have no idea what is on the inside of an iBook. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
-Forrest
Comments
Just my $0.02.
You should be able to 1) plug a display in, 2) Power up. If the LCD doesn't work and the second monitor does, you have a bad LCD or connection. If nothing works, try booting off the CD. If nothing still works, you have a hardware issue. If it magically comes to life from the CD, you have a software issue so backup, reformat and reinstall.
This should give you a good idea of what is happening.