PowerPC :: Screen Started To Flash For About A Second And Then Went To Almost Black?
Feb 8, 2009
I have a 15" Powerbook G4 that is about 4.5 years old. Last night the screen started to flash for about a second and then went to almost black. (there is a very very faint image remaining of the screen)... from surfing some forums, it sounds like this could have something to do with the backlight or the inverter (whatever that is?).
The powerbook seems to be working fine otherwise, I was able to connect it to my 30" (which was amusing) to archive all data off of it, so nothing was lost. Techtool diagnostics all ran fine (nothing in there to repair a display).
I suppose the basic question is if anyone knows much about what the problem is - and if its worth investigating repair vs just diving in and buying a new one...some additional info found on Apples boards, but still curious if anyone has opinions/insight towards the cost and trouble of this repair:My screen looks black, but I can see very faint graphics on it
Symptoms of this are a dark screen, but everything else seems to be running. If you get in close with a flashlight, you can usually see the image faintly.
Backlight
If your backlight isn't working, the inverter may be bad. Other parts that may be bad are the display or the logic board. If your backlight fails intermittently while moving the display, the problem is with the inverter cables. Otherwise it is impossible to test for damaged parts without replacing them one by one. If you are comfortable taking apart the display assembly, replace the display inverter first, then replace the LCD. If you are not comfortable with this, you can replace both parts at once by replacing the display assembly (which contains both components). If this still doesn't solve your problem, you need a new logic board.
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May 19, 2012
Screen has started to black out
Info:
MacBookPro, iOS 4.3
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Jan 20, 2008
This may have been posted earlier, so sorry is this is a repeat. I've had this PowerBook since the first 17" versions came out in early 2003 and it has worked wonderfully. It even came adrift on a bicycle one day (strap broke with a brand new sleeve bag) it skidded down the road and bashed into the curb... still kept working.... other than a couple of dents and a lid that never closed again quite so well, it has been a fab machine.
Anyway, a few months ago the screen started occasionally going a green/blue tinge, almost like very fine stripes down the screen. A wriggle of the screen seemed to fix it, but it has now become quite bad, and stays like that for most of the time. I figure it must be the connection to the screen from the system, as when using the laptop for presentations (connected to a projector) all is good.
So my question is, does anyone know a easy fix? I heard that the wiring is built in, and needs the screen replacing, which doesn't make sense given it's nearly 5 years old.
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Nov 9, 2010
A few times a day the top and bottom of my screen flash black quickly - not even a full second. what it could be, or if I can figure what it is? I ran the Apple Care TechT tool and nothing came up wrong - I have the 2.4Ghz 15" (unibody)
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Jul 19, 2010
My Macbook is brand new! (Barely 4 months old) Just recently my laptop will flash a black screen. It starts from the bottom and quickly flashes up the screen higher and higher each flash! i have read on some other pages it is a bad inverter on the inner core of the Macbook. Other than that I do not know what to do!
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Feb 4, 2008
I am looking at purchasing an Ibook G4 but the description of the item includes this:"When you switch it on it begins to load up i.e. the blue screen with the Apple logo, but then the screen goes black or flickers. Said friend has kindly wiped the hard drive for me so now when you switch it on it makes the �opening� noise then you get a blue screen with alternating �?� and the Finder logo."
I have a feeling this may have been a temporary fault with the screen connector being loose and possibly damaged.But i assume the alternating "?" and the "finder logo" is simply a lack of OS?
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Apr 30, 2007
My iBook will not display anything on its screen. Rather, it just remains black. One time, the screen did come on, but then shortly after booting, it flickered a lot and then went black again. A year ago, something similiar happened and when I took it to be serviced (when I had AppleCare), they had to send it away and have a new logic board installed. Now this machine is out of warrenty and and I am not sure what to do, or even if it is the same problem. Any suggestions?? Thanks!
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Oct 28, 2006
I recently have been having start up problems, when I would hit the power button I would sometimes hear a healthy startup and everything would boot up and then I just get a black screen and you can still tell it has power. I would start and restart untill it would boot. Now the only way the machine will start is if I unplug the moniter cord and plug it back in then it will start.
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Dec 21, 2006
I've got an older 15" powerbook running Mac OS X 10.3.9 (i think). Lately my computer screen randomly turns itself off, the whole think going black, like it was asleep or off, but the computer keeps running just fine. Like i might have itunes playing or be burning a disc and that goes on just fine. The computer itself stays running. What I've been doing is putting the computer to sleep by closing the notebook, letting it rest for a few seconds and turning it back on by opening it back out. This fixes the problem for anywhere from 5 seconds to indefinitely, until it happens again. Lately its been happening more. The computer is 4 years old, but the model itself, probably 5.
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Jun 28, 2010
I just bought a PowerBook G4 off of craigslist today. 1.67GHz G4 processor, 15" screen, etc etc. The battery shows 99%, and when I unplug it I can count one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four.. oops, it's dead. In the menu bar I can see it recognizing that it's switched to battery a split second before the screen goes black.
An excerpt from System Profiler, leading me to believe the battery is fine:
Battery Installed: Yes
First low level warning: No
Full Charge Capacity (mWh): 3615
Remaining Capacity (mWh): 3587
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 12494
Cycle Count: 274
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Sep 10, 2010
It's a PowerBook G4, 15" model A1046, and this is what's going on.
Powers on, checks combo drive, gongs, no flickering or lighting on screen, period.
Tried a PRAM reset several times but it NEVER gongs a second time. I tried booting to Open Firmware and typing mac-boot, blind, but nothing. The keyboard clearly works, as the caps lock light works.
The hard drive spins up, the fans run at normal speeds, so everything else is clearly functional.
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Nov 27, 2006
My wife has a three-year old iBook G4 and yesterday while she was doing some work, the screen just went black. By the time she brought it to me the machine was shut down. I hit the power button and it started to boot up, but about five seconds later it shut itself down again.
I kept playing with it and I was able to get back in to OS X and I played with it for a few minutes and all seemed fine. I then shut the screen and put it to sleep, then when I tried to wake it back up it shut itself down once again.
After a few more tries of getting it back in to the OS I was able to get all her files off the hard drive, but the problem is still there.
My guess is that it's the logic board, but that's just a guess.
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Jun 5, 2008
Just bought a used ibook G4 from ebay for my sister and was giving it the once-over. did a software update and installed 10.5.3 (no backup first!). It installed ok, but after restarting it just sits on a black screen and goes nowhere. It plays the on chimes and churns the DVD drive, but then nothing. BTW, the computer didn't come with any installation discs
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Jul 24, 2008
I was using my ibook just now, when suddenly, the screen went black, as if it were sleeping. I don't know if it was sleeping, but it would not wake up. I turned it off, and tried to turn it back on. But when it comes on, I just hear the fan. The apple logo does not light up. I'm not sure what's wrong.
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Oct 17, 2009
My powerbook started having trouble playing videos or loading websites with flash content. Then it started flickering like a strobe light whenever the screen was predominately white or similar light color. Within several days my screen went black! I assumed my screen had gone out on me. I hooked it up to a HP monitor which I am using right now. It displays fine on there. But I cannot stand being mobilized! I am going to buy a new Macbook or Macbook Pro. When they update. However, it would be amazing if I could use my Powerbook as a laptop, until then. That is when I discovered if I hold down the F2 key to make the screen light up it will light up for..... 2-3 seconds before flickering and fading to black. The fact its able to light up at all, leads me to believe the screen is not completely gone. Does this sound like the videocard to anyone else. I really don't want to buy one and find out its not it. And anything else to try and fix wouldn't be worth the money.
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Aug 19, 2008
recently my powerbook g4 has been doing some funny things. ..--Sometimes it won't turn on when pressing the button but eventually it will. --The computer would not book up earlier and would just stay on a white screen, like the white screen you normally get when booting but without the apple logo.--When my computer eventually booted it worked for a couple of mins and then the screen went a tinted black colour and a box came up in the middle of the screen saying i need to reboot (the box had a power logo for the background)--Then i rebooted and as i was rebooting a black screen came up with lots of writing in white. A bit like on a windows pc.
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Jan 3, 2009
I have an rev. A iMac G5 that was purchased in January of 2005. The applecare has long expired. However, in May of 2008 due to factory defect Apple replaced the logic board, power supply and super drive [URL]. In December 2008 after experiencing problems with my hard drive I took my computer to the apple store. There they said it was dying and it would be cheaper to replace it myself. After purchasing a seagate hdd [URL] my computer won't recognize it. It stays at the black screen while the power light glows. After a few minutes the fans kick in at full force. I tested the hdd in another iMac G5 rev. B and it works fine. Any ideas on what the problem is or how to resolve it?
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Feb 21, 2009
A friend of mine has an ibook clamshell with black marks on the screen. He sent me a picture but I really can't tell if it is a broken screen or pixels or something else.
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Jun 15, 2010
I have this powerbook from 2005 and no problems up to now..ohhh no!
A couple of days ago started to occasionally make a clank clank noise and getting stacked on the spinning colour circle, only manual restart would do it.
Thought it might be the hard disk as it is a bit old and i never replaced anything on it, shacked it and a noise of something loose would happen, so i thought of opening it up and see if i could reattach anything loose....anyway i started unscrewing following instructions, couldn't get memory out...every screw seems different and so i gave up, put it all back together, praying that the screws are all in their right places and hey, now it wont even start, not a loose sound when shaken though, but not a bip not a light, black screen, nothing...only sign of life is the green light under the num block key and the capitals arrow also starts light
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Jul 21, 2008
This happened literally overnight a few months ago, and I'm finally getting around to assessing the problem.
This is a 15" Powerbook G4 Model # A1095
I turned it on one morning, and a black screen appears with the following message:
Apr 1 03:19:57 launchd: can't exec /bin/sh for single user: No such file or directory
I have the Software Install Restore Discs 1 & 2.
When I insert Disc 1, I hold down the C key, and the info pops up beautifully. I get really happy at this point. The steps it shows me are as follows:
Introduction
Read Me
License
Select Destination
Installation
I am able to get up to the "Select Destination" portion, where it asks me to "Select a destination volume to install the Mac OS X software"
However, there is nothing listed, so I cannot move on to the next step.
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Everytime I turn it on I get a black box asking to shut down or restart the mac. I have managed to get it to turn on to powersave and managed to update the software. Thought it might help but just made it worse - it won't boot up at all now past an apple symbol with a little swirly thingy underneath (I apologise now for my lack of intelligence when it comes to computers/knowledge/names of things!) The first time I managed to boot the computer up it came up with the grey screen and a little folder flashing between a face and a question mark which I assume meant it couldn't find anything but that appears to have gone away now. I bought this computer new from Apple about 2 - 3 years ago and no disks were provided with it.
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May 28, 2009
Continues to run but screen is off. Will sometimes come back on after a few minutes. Works fine after unplugging and letting sit for a while.
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Jul 26, 2009
bought old 12-in. ibook A1005/2002 (I assume G3) at yard sale today. screen is black, but hard drive mounts in target disk mode on my eMac, working well! how can i get system info for the ibook in target disk mode? all i see is the it's running 10.4.11, hard drive size and used/free space. i'd like to know RAM, CPU speed, etc. secondly, what could be wrong? boots up with chime, no fan/other noise, stays on and keyboard lights work, but screen is black.
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Aug 31, 2009
I was just using my powerbook G4 12" when it "clicked", the screen went black and it will not respond. the power cable light is on, and I've tried another battery, but it does not turn on! the little light on the latch button that glows usually, is not on. What has happened to my Powerbook????! I don't have applecare but I imagine I will be calling Apple this morning unless someone can help here
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Oct 27, 2009
I am currently experiencing problems booting up my imac 17-inch, 1.6GHz (2004 model I think). When I hit the power button the machine starts but the screen rmains black and after about 3 mins of this, the fan goes into overdrive! The only way I can turn the computer on at the moment is to remove the casing and use the on switch located inside the the machine, although this is no guarantee it will work, sometimes it does but the majority of times it will be the same black screen as before. All I am waiting to hear is the part in the top corner (hard drive~?) to click into gear and then it's fine, and the machine seems to work perfectly. But this is not a solution and I fear it is only a matter of time before the machine just explodes altogether
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Apr 6, 2012
Google Earth plugin in Safari started to keep crashing after I installed Adobe Flash Player 11.2. The plugin works fine in other browsers (Firefox, Opera, and Google Chrome).The same occurs at home,too.I use Mac Pro at work and iMac at home. Both are on OSX10.7.3, Lion.
Info:
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Apr 5, 2007
My brother's iBook G4 (I think it's a 2003 model) has a problem with the screen. When the computer is turned on, the screen stays black, although the backlight is on (the apple glows). Sometimes, on start up, the screen works normally for a random amount of time before going fuzzy and then black again.
Any ideas on how to fix this? Is it likely to be a problem with the hardware in the actual computer, or just the screen? Or is it a software thing?
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Jan 18, 2010
A friend of mine is having trouble playing flash videos on his 1.33 GHz PowerBook G4 (256MB of RAM). He has version 7 of flash player and is unable to upgrade to a newer version.
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Feb 5, 2008
I looked into my issue a little but recently my IMac G5 started randomly shutting down when left unused for a bit but that seems to have stopped as far as I have noted. Now occasionally when it goes into sleep mode it will freeze on the black screen and the fan will go crazy. I plan on buying a MBP, if the update ever comes out, and then ill just completely wipe the IMac and give it to my parents, who still use the original I mac, G3 or something. I read a certain series of I Macs were having motherboard problems, W950 or something, but mine wasn't that serial code.
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Feb 3, 2012
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