iBook - fuzzy, pixelated screen. Has anyone ever experienced this problem?

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iBook - fuzzy, pixelated screen. Has anyone ever experienced this problem?

Hello everyone

I have an iBook G4 which has worked great since i bought it. However the other day i woke up my computer and the screen was almost all black with a white line across the top. I turned it off by holding down the on button, and restarted it. When i restarted the computer it displayed the apple symbol fuzzily and it flashing. When it fully loaded the OS displayed static and vertical lines. I restarted it many times but it will not display anything but static. I unplugged it and started to look for help from another computer and it came back to normal. I took that opportunity to back everything on my iBook up. It lasted for about a week and now its having the same problem. It first happened after i installed iLife '08. Im pretty sure it’s not a problem with my LCD because it went back to normal the first time. Which i think leaves a malfunction with the graphic card, or a software issue.

Has anyone had this problem with OSX 10.4.10 or iLife '08? Any ideas how/if i can fix it?

Thanks

iBook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.10), 1.25GB RAM, 30GB HDD, 1 GHZ, 14.1"

Posted on Sep 19, 2007 3:21 AM

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Answer 1

spudnuty

Level 5

7,116 points

Sep 19, 2007 7:22 AM in response to shanesibook

Hello and welcome to the forum,
Well this sure sounds like a separated ball grid array on the graphics processor chip. You can verify this by putting pressure on the underside of the chip by putting a shim (or pressing ) up from the bottom of the logic board. The chip is on the top of the board about 1.5 " down from the option Apple key (on the 12" iBooks).
You'll probably have to take the bottom off:
http://www.lowendmac.com/macdan/05/0202.html
but I've done it with it still on. Take care with static electricity if.
If so it's easily fixed at Superior Reball in IL. Don't know about Australia.
Richard

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