iMac screen wont go completely dark

Won't go completely dark when you do what? When you turn it off, lower the brightness?

I'm not sure what you are doing that would make it go completely dark. Certainly, shutting it down should make the screen go completely dark.

Do you still have the Apple keyboard? If so, try using this and seeing if the screen does what you expect it to do.

BTW This forum (although badly labelled) is specifically for the new intel based iMacs. To ask questions about G5 iMacs go to this discussion:

http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=134

Powerbook G4 550, Powermac G3 400 B&W Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Ah, wakarimashita (I understand)

Yes, on my powerbook the lowest brightness setting makes the screen go completely dark too.

On your iMac, have you tried lowering the brightness using the slider in the Displays pref pane?

Definitely worth posting in the iMac G5 forum as you will find more experienced iMac users there.

Powerbook G4 550, Powermac G3 400 B&W Mac OS X (10.3.9)

The screen is not supposed to go completely dark - this is a feature of the laptops only. The most probable reasons for this is to conserve battery life, and for when the output is desired on an external screen only, which is much more likely with a laptop. Don't be concerned - this behaviour is completely normal.

..k

Yes, this is aggravating, but the way the G5 imacs are set up. You can get a tad darker with the calibrator in system prefs, but not much. Otherwise you need a hardware calibrator like the GretagMacbeth Eye One or a Spyder, or you can download a freebie utility like Gamma Control from macupdate or versiontracker.

It's tiresome, but the new imacs do not allow the full range of brightness control from the keyboard that the G4 imacs did.

Same thing here with a PowerMac and an Apple Cinema Display 20".

"The screen is not supposed to go completely dark"

Can you elaborate on this because I'm afraid on this occasion your information is distinctly incorrect.

Any screen needs to go completely blank, i.e. black to be able to show the full colour range that it is able to show. If it does not goto black then it may indicate a problem.

Mark

Can you elaborate on this because I'm afraid on this occasion your information is distinctly incorrect.
Any screen needs to go completely blank, i.e. black to be able to show the full colour range that it is able to show. If it does not goto black then it may indicate a problem.

The topic is somewhat ambiguous - I was referring to the ability to turn the LCD backlight off completely with the brightness keys. Obviously yes - when in operation the LCD should have the ability to go blank.

..k

It is unfortunately "normal", but nontheless quiet annoying. One must fancy a homeentertaining system that is especially desinged to play music should be able to dark out the screen.
First of all this does enhance the lifespan of the backlight, and second one could listen to music in the late evenig or night, without an annoying light.

BTW you can set the dislay to shut of within a minute of "no use" on the preference panel / Energy, if this might help you. Whatsoever, i like to do this manualy tough like on my powerbook.

If the screen will not go completely dark then there could be something wrong with the inverter.

Also shutting the display off is the best option because the tubes in the display will turn off, hence increasing the lifespan of the display. Activating a screensaver which displays black does not extend the lifespan of the display, because the tubes are still on full, but the inverter is simply just cutting off all signal. i.e. switched on.

I am a PC user of 6 years and hopefully this year (2006),will be getting an iMac.With my present PC, if I wanted the monitor off, I just click on the power button and that`s that.Now,with the iMac,everything is on the "monitor", as opposed to a regular desktop setup,where the monitor sits appart from the "tower".

From the posts I`ve seen here thus far, it seems darkening the monitor is not that easy.My PC is in my bedroom, in front of my bed,and is on 24/7,hence my interest in turning off the monitor at bedtime.

Can someone here give me a definite answer as to how I should proceed to turn off the display in an iMac,without shutting it down?

Dell Dimension L600CX Windows XP A New iMac in 2006!!!!

You can set the Energy Saver preferences to turn off the display (and set a whole lot of other options) after the system has been idle for 'x' minutes. This article should help give you a better idea of what it does. Don't worry, you can turn the display off.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25801