[iBook] dead display

[Todd Doerpinghaus]

--- Howard Pettigrew <howard.pettigrew at xtra.co.nz>
wrote:

> Greetings iBook listers
> A teaching colleague has just come around with her
> G4 14"iBook. She  
> was working on her school reports when her screen
> developed problems.  
> It suddenly cut out to 1 second screens of red,
> green, blue, etc.  
> When she bought it around, it fired up okay so
> thought I would repair  
> permissions and do an Open Firmware reset, not
> really believing they  
> were the problem. But then the colours struck (I've
> never seen this  
> before - nvram fault/ logic board?). After leaving
> it with the  
> battery out for 30 mins, I tried an Open Firmware
> restart, then tried  
> plugging in an external monitor (just stays black)
> and also tried  
> Target mode (doesn't show up on other machine).
> One thing I did notice was that it has no start up
> chime.
> I left it for a couple of hours and tried it again.
> When I opened it  
> up (I think it may have been left going but hard to
> tell) the fan  
> started and ran for an abnormally long time. Then I
> tried to start it  
> in Open Firmware but although I was holding down the
> kyds, it started  
> normally. Unfortunately, I didn't have the user's
> password and so I  
> had to ring her. I got this off her and started to
> drag stuff off  
> onto an external drive. I had just got the precious
> reports off and  
> was trying to grab all her other documents when it
> went into the  
> coloured screens again - red, blue, green, grey,
> black, cycling  
> through endlessly. I have now shut it again in the
> hope I can get a  
> little more off it. It seems to go for 3 mins before
> going into this  
> cycle. I'll try timing it next time. Any thoughts on
> the problem and  
> solution?
> This particular school has had an incredible run of
> problems with  
> their iBooks. This teacher is on her second after
> endless problems  
> with her first and it is only 16 weeks old. Another
> teacher had 4  
> logicboard repairs until they replaced hers and the
> Principals was  
> also replaced. I wonder about some bad practice in
> their use of their  
> laptops. I understand that there is a design fault
> in the hinging of  
> the screen putting pressure onto the logicboard. I
> have always  
> encouraged kids to either have the screen fully open
> or shut, not  
> 'play' with the catch opening and closing the lid as
> they are prone  
> to do. Any thoughts as to why they have been so
> beset with problems  
> and possible solutions. This is only a 8 teacher
> rural school and the  
> young teacher in charge of computing is tearing her
> hair out coping  
> with the number of computers she has to take in for
> repairs. These  
> are all 12" / 14" iBooks.
> Cheers
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