Dim Display

I as well am having this problem. I can open the lid about 5 inches and I can see the screen fine. After that its very dim and you can not see anything. I ahve hooked it up to external monitor and its fine. I took it to the computer shop here at WMU and they are authorized by Apple, so they said. They have ordered parts and put them in with no luck in fixing the problem. the ordered an *Inverter board 992-5019, cable 922-6899 and lvds cable 922-6831*.

From what I have read on here it should have fixed the problem, right? The tech told me that it could be the logic board. If that were the case wouldn't other stuff be going haywire as well? (works fine when plugged into external monitor)

I would love to know what the next step should be or if i should just buy a new one?

Jay

JE,

I can open the lid about 5 inches and I can see the screen fine

So does it just blink off at some angle of opening? If so that's probably the inverter cable.

Tin,

Yeah, I'd assume that if it were the logic board it wouldn't have the view that it does, and it wouldn't work on an external..

That could be more a PMU problem. It isn't completely dark right? Just dim?
If it's completely dark then it's the inverter cable as above. I've seen some of these iBooks with blown up super capacitors. That cap is there to hold settings on the PMU not sure what failure would mean to the operation of the PMU.

The PMU is CMOS and as such is also very sensitive to static, which could kill it.

Richard

JE,

I can open the lid about 5 inches and I can see the screen fine

So it dims down at a certain angle? Try opening the back and taking off the shield and see if that makes a difference. Also try pressure on the GPU.

Tin,

Yeah, I'd assume that if it were the logic board it wouldn't have the view that it does, and it wouldn't work on an external..

That could be more a PMU problem. It isn't completely dark right? Just dim?
If it's completely dark then it's the inverter cable as above. I've seen some of these iBooks with blown up super capacitors. That cap is there to hold settings on the PMU not sure what failure would mean to the operation of the PMU.

The PMU is CMOS and as such is also very sensitive to static, which could kill it.

Also try pressure on the GPU.

Richard

Tinieblas,
If you can see something on the screen then the GPU ( Graphics Processor Unit ) is probably OK.
It's probably the inverter cable (most), inverter (less) or backlight ( least ).
Look in this same area at a post with a similar problem.
"LCD, reed switch, invertor board?"
and run the continuity checks on the cable.
Richard

I took it to a place here at WMU and the replaced the inverter cable, inverter board and some other cable. Nothing worked. They made me pay $97 bucks for nothing. I then took it to an Apple store and a tech looked at it and said it was the backlight. How much does this cost to get fixed. They have some service and you set it up and they will fix everything that is wrong with your computer for $290. I want to know if this is around the price of a backlight problem or should I look around here (kalamazoo) for some place cheaper.

I also tried the logic board shim fix, it did nothing at all. I guess the upside would be they could find a few other things wrong with it and fix it for that $290 price.

Let me know what you guys think.

JPE

JE,

I as well am having this problem. I can open the lid about 5 inches and I can see the screen fine. After that its very dim and you can not see anything.

Now that still sounds like the inverter cable. Is that still going on?

..authorized by Apple, so they said. They have ordered parts and put them in with no luck in fixing the problem. the ordered an Inverter board 992-5019, cable 922-6899 and lvds cable 922-6831.

This sounds like a shotgun approach. The first thing to have done based on the first symptom (above) was a continuity test on the inverter cable.
I don't see how a positional problem with the screen angle would be a symptom of a bad back light.
Richard

Richard

I took it to the guys he said what he thought it was, ordered those parts I listed, put them in and it still doesn't work at all. Now the screen is dark all the time. If I put a flash light on the screen I can see the stuff. My guess was that the backlight was going bad and is now has fully crapped out. One interesting thing was that one of the cords the tech gave me back had a date on it and it was 4-12-2007. Odd considering I got the laptop in October 2005. Any ideas why there is a date on there.

What could be some other problems that might cause this. I may just stick with using the external considering I am almost done with grad. school and don't need the mobility right now and buy a new one sometime this summer.

Thanks for the help.

JPE

Richard

Is it possible they didn't do anything at all? I read one of your posts from a different thread and it says something about how changing out an inverter board would fix it because it supplys the power to the backlight. Do backlights just burn out? Should I rip these guys a new one and try to get my money back?

Jay

Jay,

One interesting thing was that one of the cords the tech gave me back had a date on it and it was 4-12-2007.

Wait! You're right that doesn't make sense. Is that on the LVDS or the inverter/reed cable? Does it look used? especially at the hinge point?

I read one of your posts from a different thread and it says something about how changing out an inverter board would fix it because it supplys the power to the backlight.

Well inverters do fail but mostly the cables fail.

Do backlights just burn out?

Dunno never seen one but it's sure possible.
It's also possible that the driver on the logic board got burned out but if it was working at a shallow angle that doesn't sound right.
Those guys that worked on your iBook shouldn't have charged you for putting in parts that didn't fix the problem. Especially if they were replacing good parts.
Richard

My daughter's ibook G4 has developed a similar problem. The backlight works (Apple lights on the reverse side of the lid), but the screen is very dark (not completely dark) and doesn't display the desktop. Even when the ibook is in this condition, it will still drive an external display just fine. The angle of the lid seems to be irrelevant to the problem in our case. At best the screen flickers enough to be annoying, at worst, it goes dark. Since you can see or not see the screen on any given day, I'm guessing that whatever is wrong is in some stage of getting worse?? Why else would the problem be intermittent?

The intermittent nature of this suggests hardware to me more than software, but I'm asking anyone who might know what to do.

Hi Stanton,
Would you repost this as a seperate post. Then it can get the groups full attention.
Off hand it sounds like a GPU problem. Try any of the shim fixes mentioned all over this board.
I can give you a more precise location for the GPU when I know the CPU speed and screen size.
Richard