Oh shoot, display...

[John Pariseau]

I am the (once proud) owner of a currently misbehaving PB G4 550 
Pre-combo drive.

Well, I mentioned this before, but here goes again, this time it is 
happening very very frequently, and not just in Photoshop. My display 
is going "haywire" - that is, it is flickering and jumping around. It 
does this every 10 minutes, not very frequent, but too close for 
comfort. A ghost of the screen jumps up, and thin horizontal lines move 
with this ghost.

I chose (why oh why, it was only 300 dollars) not to buy AppleCare. 
Don't ask me why, I should have bought it when I had the chance.

Anyways, how do I pinpoint where the problem is - the LCD, the 
inverter, or the motherboard (please tell me the inverter is NOT part 
of the motherboard)? Could it even be the cable? Is this part 
replaceable? I know that some LCD panels have a socket a thin ribbon 
cable attaches to.

Should I try reinstalling OSX? Or, when the problem starts to happen 
nearly every day, should I boot into 9 to see what happens?


In addition, if anyone would like to - if anyone out there pays me for 
the parts, I will document (with a Nikon 995) the whole process, from 
taking the Powerbook apart, to installing the part, to taking the part 
(lets say the LCD display) apart. You will get a CD, with all the 
images on it, and exclusive rights to use them as you see fit. I will, 
if no one steps up to the challenge, email the various magazines, as 
they may be interested in the whole procedure to repair the little 
book. However, this may go down as the worst purchase I have made in my 
life, as I really can't afford to pay the Level 4 Apple Repair cost (as 
high as 1,300)! I am assuming it is a level 4...