Horizontal Lines in a fritz

Good news everyone!!!

I seem to have fixed my fritz.

No more crazyness...
I even ran an External Monitor and OpenGL (i.e. Madden NFL) for 2 hours and still no sign of fritz.
Before, it would have been not 10 mintues and I would have barely been able to see the screen.

Here was the secret: Replacing the screen.
Which of course, included the "hinge" wires, and connections.
And for good measure, I used electrical tape on the LCD connection (to the motherboard) to protect it from the case from pinching and to (hopefully) discourage movement.

Thanks for the help everyone!
If you need more details, feel free to ask.

When I first encountered screen fritz, the conventional wisdom was to replace the logic board. I shopped a 500Mhz to upgrade while hopefully curing the fritz. Following a battle getting the 8 month stored PB to boot at all I booted by using a (internal, not the main) battery "defib." Things ran swimmingly for about 15minutes when, Swish, the video dissolved in the same manner as before. Bummed! The claimed logic board fix failed. I might blame the used 500Mhz board as having the same problem but the characteristic of the video loss was exactly the same as with the 400 board and I would have expected some variation. I then trolled the Apple boards and found this extensive thread on horizontal lines and bad video and concluded that Apple fixes primarily 2 things when video washout occurrs. Logic boards and new LCD's. I also believe that I have ruled out the logic board because while the machine was running and fritzed, I pulled the video display cable off of the logic board connecter and then reseated it. Briefly! for 3-5 seconds, all the video was there in normal clarity, then poof, fritz. The LCD would cool? slightly and regain display and because the display came back uncorrupted, one could state that the display drive from the logic board was good. I am going to try one last fix before heading down the LCD/cable replacement path. The fine lime colored wires that pass through the hinge are a bit frayed and are perhaps shorting. This may be why some people get some relief flexing, tilting and tapping on the upper left top. So, I will apint on some liquid insulation and see if that helps.
I shopped LCDs and found refurbished for approx $500-700 and new over $1000. Obviously not reasonable. Now, any ideas on how to fix an LCD? What does Apple and or other repair shops do to the LCD to refurbish it?

G4 Titianium PB Mac OS X (10.3.6)

Wow, glad to see I'm not alone. My TiBook just started having this issue last week and I was looking to try and avoid buying a new Mac until Leopard. I know mine's not heat related and I looked at the video cable in the hinge, but I didn't check with a magnifying glass so that will be my next step. Just wanted to add another name to the list.

My titanium Powerbook 800 has recently contracted the same fritz disease. Just wanted to get on the list so that Jobs & Co. would see what a big problem it is. Let me ask, is the concensus that the problem is the LCD itself, or, rather, that it is the wiring between the logic board and the LCD. If it's just the wiring (being worn or loose connections), it might be a less expensive repair that replacing the entire LCD. Does anyone know if the problem can be solved with just a wiring repair? David

My 3 1/2 yr old 1ghz Ti PB deveoloped this problem several times. Both times the logic board was replaced with Applecare. I'm convinced it's due to the case flexing when you pick it up or open the screen, putting pressure on the back of the board... either cracking the board or stressing the connector to the screen. I'm very careful now to always pick up my PB near the hinges and not in the middle of the case ( like you would if you're grabbing it with your left hand, thumb on top and finges extended towards center on bottom). You can feel it flex if you pick it up that way. A previous poster commented that he had a "sweet spot" that he could tap or press and get the screen to go bezerk. Mine had the same thing.... near the left center.

Of course Apple said that I'd get a new PB if the problem reappeared a third time... but now my Applecare has expired. Go figure. So far, with careful handling the problem has not come back (knock wood).

Has anyone gotten a sure-fire fix for the fritz problem -- other than the overly expensive and apparently useless "replace the logic board and/or display"? I don't want to buy another laptop and I dont want to waste money with a repair that looks unlikely to work. Any successful experience is appreciated. Thanks. David

Besides checking your cable to make sure it looks good, checking the connection to make sure its secure, and making sure it's not pinched etc...
You might need either a logic board or a LCD.
Unless you want to take it apart and try and just replace the cable... hard to say... there is NO sure-fire way.

My G4 (1 Gh) PB started making the same lines about a month ago. My machine is almost 4 years old and has only had the superdrive replaced (twice). I notice that I have the problem when I wake my machine from sleep, especially if I have AOL running. The lines stop in about 3 to 8 seconds and the machine does NOT freeze up (knock wood) except when the lines are up (note only 3 to 8 seconds). Could be heat but it seems to happen on wake-up. I never turn my machine off but just put it to sleep. Note that I have to PUT it to sleep. If I just close the lid I will sometimes get the foreign screen of death when I open it up and have trouble restarting it.

Powerbook G4 (1 Gh, 1 GB) Mac OS X (10.2.x)

I read your response and that seems to be the problem with my 3.8 year old Ti PB 1 GH also. Just when I open it. Like you my Applecare has run out although I did not have that problem when I had Applecare. I will be careful when opening the computer. Thanks.

As to whether its the logic board or the LCD or just the wiring, for me it happens even on an attached external monitor so it must be the logic board.

It's quite sad to come here and see that the issue is still unresolved. I posted about this problem occurring on my PowerBook G4 667 DVI exactly two years ago.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1144118#1144118

It was never solved. I've had to live with it and ended up buying an external monitor, which sort of solved the problem. My PowerBook gradually got old and I had to change it. In a way, it's surprising that I stuck with Apple...

I wish you all good luck. It's now quite obvious that it's a widespread conception problem and that Apple should acknowledge it. In the meantime, I've shown my problem to everyone who saw my computer for the last two years...

MacBook Pro C2D 2.33, 2G RAM, 160G HD, matte Mac OS X (10.4.8) 23" Apple Cinema Display