Mac Shevek
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Q: Horizontal noise line across my screen

My screen shows a horizontal pixelated noise line across the width. Just started today. The pixels do change color. The line is always above everything else being displayed. It's an iBook G4 running Mac OS X 10.4.11. So far I have tried changing the screen resolution and back to force a screen refresh and I tried restarting the machine. The computer is about 6 years old. Is it a hardware issue that I am stuck with? Or is there any chance that re-installing the OS will actually help? thanks

iBook, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Sep 7, 2012 3:28 PM

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Mac Shevek

Q: Horizontal noise line across my screen

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  • by -Rotten Apple-,

    -Rotten Apple- -Rotten Apple- Sep 7, 2012 5:00 PM in response to Mac Shevek
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Sep 7, 2012 5:00 PM in response to Mac Shevek

    Sounds like graphic card issue if those pixelated lines change location, try booting in safe mode by pressing shift after the start chime.

  • by Mac Shevek,

    Mac Shevek Mac Shevek Sep 7, 2012 5:24 PM in response to -Rotten Apple-
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 7, 2012 5:24 PM in response to -Rotten Apple-

    The pixelated lines do not change location, but they do change in color.

     

    Are you saying to boot in safe mode only if there are changing location, or doesn't matter either way?

     

    What is safe mode, never heard of it.

     

    thanks

  • by Mac Shevek,

    Mac Shevek Mac Shevek Sep 7, 2012 5:45 PM in response to -Rotten Apple-
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 7, 2012 5:45 PM in response to -Rotten Apple-

    I tried booting in safe mode. Still have the problem. If it is the graphic card, is this going to get progressively worse? Right now I have one line, maybe 4 pixels high. I can live with that for a while.

  • by -Rotten Apple-,

    -Rotten Apple- -Rotten Apple- Sep 8, 2012 1:14 AM in response to Mac Shevek
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Sep 8, 2012 1:14 AM in response to Mac Shevek

    No I think that if the line stays in place it is the display panel which is faulty, I forgot to ask but if the line is present on the boot screen before Mac OSX it is definently the panel.

     

    If you get replacement from eBay and use iFixit.coms instructions you might get the machine to fully work, of course if the line does no bother you then there should be no problem using the machine.

     

    http://www.ifixit.com/Device/iBook_G4

  • by Mac Shevek,

    Mac Shevek Mac Shevek Sep 8, 2012 6:05 AM in response to -Rotten Apple-
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 8, 2012 6:05 AM in response to -Rotten Apple-

    The line does appear before OS X. I've been watching a lot of You Tube lately and the machine gets hot. I'm going to assume that had a lot to do with the problem and stop watching you tube on that computer. thanks for your help.

  • by -Rotten Apple-,

    -Rotten Apple- -Rotten Apple- Sep 8, 2012 6:19 AM in response to Mac Shevek
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Sep 8, 2012 6:19 AM in response to Mac Shevek

    I don't think watching YouTube has anything to do with it, it's just old computer and display panels don't last forever. Dispay panel does not care what's been shown on the screen, it does not get hotter when there's 3d games etc. Only thing which may affect durability is brightness settings.

     

    Display cable is the one which could in theory suffer from heat under extremely system load but in your case I still think it's the panel.