iMac screen is dead. Tech says the LCD burned out. He said that I could connect it to a tv, via mini DVI to VGA; VGA to tv. I get the Leopard screen on the tv, but no tool bars, top or bottom. Can't turn extended screen mode off, due to black screen on computer. Tried F7, Command F7 and Command F1, none work. Any new suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!
Do you know if the LCD screen has a bad backlight, or is the screen data drive bad? If it's just the backlight, shine a strong light on the screen, you should be able to see everything, just dim. I can estimate clicking on the Apple menu, then with a strong flashlight, I can easily see the dropdown menu to pick the System Preferences, and then to Displays and mirroring.
Perhaps you can tell us the exact model of iMac you have. We can devine that it's likely an Intel iMac with mini-DVi, but often folks are wrong about their details. Details can make all the difference in figuring out something you can do.
You can try this but without a working internal display it's going to be difficult at best:
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/apple-osx-move-bottom-dock-top-menu-bar-second-moni tor/
You can also try the SecondBar (Google it) and that will solve your problem too.
Thanks for the info and that might work, but I can't get anything but the background picture on the tv screen, hence I can't get my safari or any other app to show up on the tv monitor. I can't download something if I can't get on to the internet, because my computer screen is black. I need to find a way to get the "extended monitor" turned off and turn it to mirroring, I guess. I don't know how. Like I said, I've tried f7, f1 and command f7, command f1 and none work. I can't get any of my apps or icons to come on to the tv screen in order to access them.
Louie!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! It was difficult at first, seeing where my mouse was, but I was able to see my system preferences and yay! I'm so grateful to you and all who tried to help!
Again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart! I'm on a very strict limited income and couldn't afford to get it fixed or buy a new one, so you have no idea how much getting this to work means to me!
Gratefully,
Tj
Glad to hear. BTW, a major cause of a bad backlight is failure of the backlight inverter circuit board, which is relatively easy to replace. A good technician should be able to say if this is the case. Just saying it's burned out doesn't say much.
Yes, the tech at Apple originally thought it was the backlight, but when they took it apart, the decided the LCD screen had burned out and it would cost over $400 to fix. But thanks to your fix of shining the flashlight on it, I was able to see the screen, so thank you!
I think you're pretty much out of luck, it's time to either get the machine fixed or replaced.
Louie has a point, if you want to try doing some surgery here is an article that may help out.
LCD displays common problems
iMac screen dead. LCD burned out.
