Posts:
912
From:
Québec Canada
Registered:
Dec 18, 2002
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Mother's eMac screen maybe dead: is it repairable?
Posted:
Oct 5, 2009 5:26 PM
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Hi,
My mother have an eMac 800 Mghz (if my memory is good) with DVD burner. Today she called me saying that the screen stay black. She rebooted the eMac with the power switch, and she can hear the boot sound and the scanner has reseted after a while, which make me think that the computer itself is working, but something is wrong with the display itself.
Any idea what this can be related to?
Is it a repair that is too costly to think about it?
If that is only the screen that is defective, an external display with the mini-VGA to VGA adaptor can certainly help make the computer live longer, but it sure won't be very elegant on the desk!
Thanks for your comments.
iMac 24" 3 Gb RAM+1.5Tb HD, MBP 15" 2 Gb RAM+250 HD
Mac OS X (10.6)
iLife 09, Aperture 2, iWork 09
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Posts:
912
From:
Québec Canada
Registered:
Dec 18, 2002
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Re: Mother's eMac screen maybe dead: is it repairable?
Posted:
Oct 29, 2009 7:11 PM
in response to: Steve@Mac
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We install on her eMac an external display, and now the computer is working just fine, except for a few strange things I can't figure out:
- first, now when she tried to put the computer in suspended mode, the computer shut down. Is it normal with an external display?
- second, the 17" LCD can support 1280x1024 native resolution. But the eMac is only capable of 1280x960. Is it the best an eMac can do?
Thanks
iMac 24" 3 Gb RAM+1.5Tb HD, MBP 15" 2 Gb RAM+250 HD
Mac OS X (10.6)
iLife 09, Aperture 2, iWork 09
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Posts:
47
From:
New Zealand
Registered:
Nov 15, 2008
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Re: Mother's eMac screen maybe dead: is it repairable?
Posted:
Oct 29, 2009 9:59 PM
in response to: Steve@Mac
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Helpful
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"The 17" LCD can support 1280x1024 native resolution. But the eMac is only capable of 1280x960. Is it the best an eMac can do?"
No, you can install a tool called SwitchRes X which unlocks more resolutions is OSX. http://www.madrau.com/SRX3/html/SRX/DL.shtml (Note: This works on both iMac's and eMac's with universal binary.)
Cheers,
Po-en
eMac G4 1GHz, 60GB HDD, 1GB RAM, Superdrive (Pioneer DVR 109BK), Airport Extreme
Mac OS X (10.5.8)
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Posts:
912
From:
Québec Canada
Registered:
Dec 18, 2002
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Re: Mother's eMac screen maybe dead: is it repairable?
Posted:
Nov 20, 2009 5:36 PM
in response to: pt0016
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I've tried this application, but I must say, it is not very reliable or there was something I missed... Sometimes the 1280x1024 resolution was there, some other time (reboot) it disappeared. And I also tried to change the refresh rate of the lower resolutions (example 640x480 at 122 Hz to 640x480 at 75hz) so that the resolution could be displayed on the LCD (useful for some games that require those resolutions for full screen mode), and it never worked...
And this application is not even free? with so poor results, I will not pay for it that is for sure...
Still, thanks for the hint.
iMac 24" 3 Gb RAM+1.5Tb HD, MBP 15" 2 Gb RAM+250 HD
Mac OS X (10.6)
iLife 09, Aperture 2, iWork 09
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Posts:
47
From:
New Zealand
Registered:
Nov 15, 2008
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Re: Mother's eMac screen maybe dead: is it repairable?
Posted:
Nov 20, 2009 10:19 PM
in response to: Steve@Mac
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The program is shareware, so you don't have to buy it. Also, I forgot in the last post, if your eMac is a ATI graphics revision, you can install a program called 'Screen Spanning Doctor'. This makes you able to dual display your eMac (opposite of mirroring.) http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/ibook_e.html
Please make sure your Mac is compatible first: http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/supportlist_e.html
This app has worked (and still is) for me under Leopard on my 1GHz eMac for more than a year now. The best bit is that it adds some common resolutions aswell. I'm guessing ScreenResX didn't work well, because the display was set to mirroring, and the internal CRT couldnt support 1280x1024 as a resolution.
Try it out, and tell me the result 
eMac G4 1GHz, 60GB HDD, 1GB RAM, Superdrive (Pioneer DVR 109BK), Airport Extreme
Mac OS X (10.5.8)
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Posts:
912
From:
Québec Canada
Registered:
Dec 18, 2002
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Re: Mother's eMac screen maybe dead: is it repairable?
Posted:
Nov 22, 2009 3:59 AM
in response to: pt0016
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My Mother's eMac is a 800 Mhz of the first generation with the NVIDIA graphics card. And I cannot set it to spanning mode, because the main display is dead...
SwitchResX worked partially, but not always. Boring especially when the main user is my mother and she's not a geek!
I especially hate the fact that I could not set the lower resolution to a lower refresh rate. I never was able to get this working. Resolution redirection never stayed selected after a reboot. Maybe I just did not understood the software, but I found the interface to be a bit confusing.
iMac 24" 3 Gb RAM+1.5Tb HD, MBP 15" 2 Gb RAM+250 HD
Mac OS X (10.6)
iLife 09, Aperture 2, iWork 09
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