eMac with weird display problem

I have an eMac running under Mac OS 10.3.9.

Every time I start up my eMac the display is overly bright to such an extent that the 'grey' toolbar at the top of every programme (in Safari for instance) appears to be faded or 'whited' out, and thus difficult to discern from the white background of the screen picture. In fact the overall picture appears as if both 'Bright' and 'Contrast' are both set full on.

At the same time, if I boot a graphically rich programme such as Myst III Exile, the programme appears too dark; that is, the brightness and contrast settings are so low that the game is virtually impossible to navigate around.

The only way I have found to get around this problem is to go into 'System Preferences'/Displays and select "Detect Display' every time I boot up my eMac. I have tried going into 'System Preferences/Colors'. I find here two options 'eMac' and 'eMac Calibrated'. Selecting the latter seems to do the same as selecting "Detect Displays', but doing this is equally temporary and I need to do this again next time I boot my eMac.

I have now stuck with using the 'Detect Displays' fix. This appears to make everything work as it should; I get the rich colourful world of Myst III as I think I should be seeing it and Safari's toolbar is grey (and I now notice that there is a purple bar with the words 'Advanced Search' and more in it too).

But this is only a temporary fix as I need to do this every time I boot up the eMac. I need to fix this permanently of course.

I would be grateful for any suggestions.

PM6500/300 (603e) Mac OS 9.1.x

Posted on Nov 4, 2006 5:10 PM

20 replies

El Deanio Author

Level 3

809 points

Feb 12, 2007 2:34 PM in response to El Deanio

This is weird. I just restarted in'Safe Mode' to remind myself that the WD icon did not appear in safe mode when, lo, it did load in safe mode. Not only did it load but it was clearly the first to appear and it shifted left along the Menu bar as other items loaded up. It definitely did not display the last time I did booted in safe mode. Yesterday however I downloaded and used DiskWarrior from Alsoft so this may have something to do with it.

Feeling I was on the scent I moved that WDBMService folder mentioned earlier out of the StartupItems folder onto the Desktop and restarted the eMac. However the display still changed and, get this, the WD menu icon still loaded first.

Tomorrow I will try to get hold of CleanApp and remove it completely, see what happens. I can always elaod it if my new HDD gets screwed up.

JMVP

Level 6

16,851 points

Feb 13, 2007 3:39 AM in response to El Deanio

Moving all WDB folders from startup items onto the Desktop sounds like the right step; that restarting didn't remove the icon is extremely strange. Possiblly there are two copies, one in the System-level StartupItems folder and one in your user account's StartupItems folder. I don't recall if you've tried setting up a new test user account to see if the color glitch is limited to your normal logon account.

You could search the entire HD for the WDBServive folder (or search on all files with "WDBM" in the name) and move them all to the Trash and restart (without emptying the Trash until you see the results).

Alternatively, if you open Activity Monitor (in Applications> Utilities) and select View All Processes, you can look for "WDB" items and force-quit them.

El Deanio Author

Level 3

809 points

Mar 10, 2007 1:53 PM in response to El Deanio

Still stuck with this but I have found another clue.

If you have read all of this you will know that when I log on and go into 'System Prefs./Displays/Detect Display' from the menu at the top right of the screen, the picture displayed corrects itself.

I have found that if, after already logged on as myself, I log out, and then log on again as 'someone else', the eMac's display is now fine (i.e. not 'burned out' in the photographer's meaning of the phrase).

NOW, with the screen picture normal once more, if I then 'log out' thence log back on again, this time under my original name (which has admin. priviliges, by the way) annoyingly the display problem recurs.

However, not only is the problem back again, I have also discovered that the 'System Prefs/Displays/ Detect Display' dodge no longer fixes the problem. To go back to the previous situation before I experimented with switching Logon names, I need to restart my eMac.

Any suggestions gratefully considered.

El Deanio Author

Level 3

809 points

Mar 21, 2007 1:31 PM in response to El Deanio

I finally got to the bottom of this weird screen setting problem.

It was to do with the Universal Access prefs panel. There's a bar in it marked 'Enhance contrast'. This was set about mid way. Setting it to the 'Normal' setting (far left) fixed my display problem. God knows how it got set that way.

Thanks to all who tried to help.

PM6500/300 (603e) Mac OS 9.1.x

El Deanio Author

Level 3

809 points

Mar 21, 2007 1:35 PM in response to El Deanio

Universal Access preferences Enhance Contrast option had been set wrong. Should be set to 'Normal' but was in fact almost half way across the bar.

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eMac with weird display problem