Uneven illumination

I do expect it will be back with Apple again when it deteriorates further, and after the previous hassles this is not something I look forward to but am prepared to pursue the problem to the end of the next two years.

Good luck with your AlBook. Alas my patience is not as good as yours. The thought of having to continually send this in for repairs is just not for me. I simply do not have, and cannot afford, the time to 'nurse' the thing all the time. My rule is that all my Macs have to pay their way, or they're out. The problem will be what to replace it with.

I never thought I'd ever say this about any Mac, but sadly this AlBook will be on its way out the moment I get an acceptable offer from anyone else prepared to put up with its unreliability.

For the record. My first PowerBook had a defective FireWire-port and needed en new mainboard: 5 weeks of waiting. It came back with a new but defective other mainboard. After that my dealer gave me a new PowerBook. After Apple has repaired the screen of this second 15" G4 1,25 Ghz PowerBook for the third time regarding this issue...

http://members.home.nl/jacenijkamp/beelden_blog/ziekepowerbook.jpg

... it came back with this issue:

http://members.home.nl/jacenijkamp/beelden_blog/kier.jpg

Now Apple has decided to send me a brand new 15" G4 1,67 Ghz PowerBook. After more than 14 months of trouble...

[ Jerry ]

My Powerbook is about 18 months old and I have enjoyed it immensely. I currently have three moderate white spots in the background of my display. The two largest ones are vertically at the midpoint but horizontally on the right and left sides of the display. One is perhaps two inches long and 1/2 inch wide the other three inches long and 1/2 inch wide. The final spot is a small one about an inch and a half from the top, in the approximate horizontal midpoint.

A few weeks ago I called Apple and told them to send me a box. They took my information but never sent the box. I have the extended warranty but the repair is also covered by the recall. I took the PB in to the Apple store a few months ago and the tech verified that my computer falls within the conditions of the recall.

The thing is that I use it every day and the spots don't bother me that much yet. If I send it in and it comes back messed up I will always regret it. On the other hand, I want to sell it and upgrade in a year or so and I have to get it fixed while it is still in Warranty.

No question. Just therapy.

Hi Marby

I had to send my PB in due to uneven illumination, rather that the white spot issue. They replaced the display, Inverter board and several other items with a turn-around of about 5 working days. Which I did not think was too bad, agreed I did miss my PB but I was glad when it came back with its new screen. All in all it was a fairly painless experience so I would get back onto Apple and get that box to return it in and get the display sorted.

Phil

marby, I had a terrible time with the Houston repair center for a uneven illumination repair. They ignored the case three times, each time returning the 15" AlBook untouched. Well, that's not quite true -- the first time they removed ALL the (dealer-installed) memory, claiming it had caused the problem ⚠, and returned my 15" AlBook broken!

The fourth time I sent it through an Apple Store instead of direct and Houston actually paid attention to the case notes for a change. Don't know if those two facts were related or random.

The folks in the UK seem to be having a much better time of it with their repair center, but your repair will have to go to Houston.

If you are indeed located in Houston yourself you may be able to bring it in somehow and actually talk to the repair people in person. I doubt they would welcome that but it might improve your chances that they will actually pay any attention to the issue.

Best of luck.

Hi

Something that was recommended to me before sending my PB in for repair was to set the desktop to white. It doesn't look like there is a button to select white but there is it's the next one along. White showed the fault up very well for me, some other people found one of the blues worked for them.

As regards the third party memory I read somewhere on these discussions that someone sent their PB back with a broken hinge. You guessed it the PB was sent back with the third party memory in a bag saying this was the problem. Why oh why do Apple always shoot themselves in the foot. Currently over hear a major daily newspaper has taken up the cause of several people who have had problems with their iPods and have had no luck with the Faceless Apple Corporation. It is a shame that a company I have grown to admire is destroying its image by being so inaccessible and unhelpful to its customers.

Phil

As regards the third party memory I read somewhere on these discussions that someone sent their PB back with a broken hinge. You guessed it the PB was sent back with the third party memory in a bag saying this was the problem.

Wow. I don't know whether to laugh or cry in total dismay. Simply incredible!

UPDATE: Uneven illumination is definitely making a slow come back on my screen. It has been making an appearance almost every day, albeit for only a few minutes each time. Unless I sell it, it looks like it will eventually have to go back to Apple yet again (sigh). I wonder if I can negotiate a replacement as it will be the fourth repair in total.

My PB has a 512 stick from apple and a 1 gb stick of third party memory. When I do take it in, it will be sans the third party stick. I don't want to give them any excuse to even raise the issue.

When I do take it in, it will be sans the third party stick.

Very wise indeed. I wouldn't send it in with anything that wasn't stock.

At the Apple Store right now and just showed my uneven illumination display to the apple genius. He confirmed / agreed that there is a problem with the display on my machine, but would not say that this was "known" among the apple crew. No big deal, atleast he confirmed that I'm not insane and that my display is, in fact, uneven.

The resolution will be to send it in to Apple for repair. I am going to wait a little longer to do this since I have so much work to do on my computer. I may just sell the laptop with the warranty and let someone else deal with it. We'll see...

I love the laptop and I am 99.9% pleased with everything. If it weren't for the display issue, everything would be grand!

Good luck to all who suffer from this problem.

Hi,

I too have uneven illumination on my 15". My question is, is this also a problem on 12" and 17" powerbooks? All the comments I've seen are related to the 15" model.

It does seem that the 15" PowerBook Aluminium rev. A (ie. 1.0GHz and 1.25GHz) models seem to be the most afflicted by this problem. Neither the 12", 17", nor later revisions of the 15" suffer from this problem in any great numbers.

Yes there are the odd case of another PowerBook model suffering from this, but no significant numbers.

BTW, for reference purposes, which 15" Aluminium do you have?

My machine is a 1.33GHz 15" combo. It's about 3 months old, and is showing the cone shaped shadow along the bottom right of the screen when I wake it from sleep. It goes away after the screen warms up. Does this problem generally get worse over time?

Generally, yes it only gets worse. However the problem doesn't usually manifest itself if the screen is at full brightness.

I would monitor it for a while by keeping your screen at half brightness and use a solid desktop background (ie. light grey or white). If it continues to be noticeable then you should get it repaired.

So if running at full brightness helps to prevent (or at least slow) the spread of the problem, should try that? Are there any other caveats to full brightness?

Also, in your collective experience, how is apple care on handling equipment? I (like most mac users) take great pride in keeping my machine in new shape. Are apple techs generally careful, and respectful of these machines? My worst thoughts are that my machine will be a coaster for someone's coffee cup until they get around to fixing it!