Q: Powerbook Titanium VGA broken display

The monitor should go active when you start the computer but the monitor must be turned on first for the Mac to recognize it. If you have an image less menubar on the external, try pressing F7. On later Mac notebooks that toggles between "mirrored" mode (what you want) and "extended desktop" mode (what it sounds like you are getting now).

Forgot to mention: Some Titanium Powerbooks cannot run 10.5 because theye are slower than the required 867mHz minimum processor for installing 10.5. Although there are some hacks out there to circumvent this, Leopard would run very poorly on a TiPB considering that many can hold less than 1GB of RAM and have limited video hardware.

As there are several TiPB variants., I think the best action at this point is for you to help us find out exactly which one you have. Do "About this Mac" from your Apple menu and, in the resulting window, click the "More Info..." button. That will launch System Profiler.

Profiler's opening screen looks like this:

except yours won't say "MacBook Pro" as in the example. Note the line I've indicated with the red arrow; yours will probably say Machine Model instead of Model Identifier, but the data is the same. What code is in that line? Yours should be in the format "PowerBookX.X" where the Xs are numbers. Post that code along with the amount of RAM (from the "Memory" line) and we can better advise you on potential upgrade options, if any.

To narrow down the possibilities based on identification, the PowerBook3.2

could be one of these two that share a model identification number... Have

different processsor (400/500), different sales number, & same model EMC.

Appears both share similar 2nd display support in dual/mirror with VGA

to 1280x960 at millions of colors. Doubt it'd work with closed lid; may be

possible to tweak the system in Tiger via command line. Or not. There was

a third-party patch to try & make some of these do Extended mode.

Both support up to Mac OS X 10.4.11 Tiger,  (OS X + dual-boot w/ Mac OS9.1)

This was the first G4 model PowerBook series, replaced PowerBookG3/400 FW.

•PowerBook G4 400MHz (original Ti) Specs: M7952LL/A, PowerBook3.2, M5884, 1854)

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/specs/powerbook_g4_400.html

•PowerBook G4 500MHz (original Ti) Specs: M7710LL/A, PowerBook3.2, M5884, 1854)

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/specs/powerbook_g4_500.html

Not sure about some keyboard command on startup; the first post by Allan seems

most likely to try to get the external to work on start. The F7? key won't work w/ it.

Good luck!

"the first post by Allan seems most likely to try to get the external to work on start"

Do a little more research to confirm your position.

This topic has been answered - several times

in these ASC forum discussions - since 2002.

adios amigo

PS: timed out -- here's a few pages of shortcuts.

Didn't read through them, you need vintage ones

-- if there are any that may apply. Good luck.

Magical Macintosh Key Sequences:

http://davespicks.com/writing/programming/mackeys.html

http://www.tuaw.com/2006/03/27/tuaw-tip-keyboard-shortcuts-during-mac-os-x-start up/

You have the old PowerBook, say?

I actually had to figure out the same thing - as I also have a 550MHz powerbook with a broken screen.

You need to try:

Command+F2 - force mirroring active

Command+F1 - force detect displays

This should work, it did for me!