Powerbook G4 15-inch LCD Display "freeks out" Intermittently

Hi there!

I have the same symptoms: loosing about 1/3 of the screen (horizontally) when I move the display. It's been getting worse to the point where I could barely find a display angle that could solve the problem.
Thanks to this dicussion group I tried applying pressure to the left hand side bezel near the problem area and it seems to fix the pb. I'm so happy to be able to fully use my PB again!
People at the Apple store had told me I had to send it for repair and have the display replaced. It was too expensive and I cannot afford to be without a computer for several weeks... I have work to do!
I believe Apple should acknowledge that it is not a coincidence to have what looks like the same pb on so many PowerBooks G4 15", and initiate a recall program.

Here are the info I find when I go to
System Preferences==>Displays==>Color==>Color LCD==>Open Profile==>
Scroll down to and select - 13 `mmod' 'mmod' Apple display make and model information:

Manufacturer: 00000610
Model: 00009C20
Serial Number: 00000000
Manufacture Date: B87B9680

Similar to what was reported above.

I had the exact same problem with my powerbook when i brought my mac from iraq, the thing that fixed it for me was taking some contact cleaner to the inverter and data cables, you have to open the computer up to do this. It cleared it right up, and to think that the genius at the applestore wanted a flat 800 bucks to send it to get repaired.

I have the exact same problem, and the exact same monitor model number as previously listed. I think it's pretty clear that this is a manufacturing problem.

Hi, my name is jeff. I am from malaysia. And i am also facing the same problem as you guys. I've sent it in to 2 authorized reseller, and one of them told me that the problem is from the graphic card and another told me its the lcd. But when i use an external monitor, it all seems fine.

Have read about applying preassure to the top left of the monitor. How do i excatly do it? I am sorry i am new to this forum and not really good with the mac.

erm..have been reading other post in this forum. There are many people who have got the same problem. But some thinks its LCD, some thinks its some sort of wire and some thinks that its the graphic card.

And, I don't know, I realized that many who post experienced worst "funny display" once they have installed the latest os update.

Actually, can it be that, the mac is finally being invaded with virus?

I have the same LCD display specs and a PBG4/1.25 and it IS NOT the LCD panel or graphics card in mine. I think it's either the logic board or some very low level problem with firmware. I can actually take a screen snapshot of the messed-up display so it's below the graphics card level.

see sample below

I have the same model numbers as above and have the same problem which I would describe as horizontal lines behaving like static. Has anyone contacted apple with this problem and heard what they have to say about it?

I had the same intermittent screen frek outs. sometimes I could get rid of them by putting the computer to sleep, sometimes I have to reboot. Then the whole thing died on me. I could only backup my userdata and reinstall.
The result was a grey screen of death. I reinstalled with a prior partition change to unix and back to apple. That fixed the system for a day. Screen was still freaking once a while.

This is definitively confirmed a MBR Virus. I just went through the pain to try to get rid of it:

First of all, you need Drive Genius on a second Mac or a bootable secondary harddrive. The sector edit feature is what you want to look at after booting from the second drive.

Here is a description of stoned.angelina
The boot virus code is one sector in length with the infectious code being stored at side 0, track 0, sector 1 and the original master boot record code being stored at side 0, track 0 sector 2.
The code in sector one is half of the virus, the second half beeing written to the last sector on the disk partition.

I don't know if this is stoned.angelina, because the second part is in the last sector minus one.

Now, this code is existing in my LACie Backup disk, My IPod and my Laptop computer.
Erasing the code in the last partition creates a sound for each key pressed.

Then you have to write the second sector to the first sector again. This can only be done 8 bit at a time, but is possible to do in 5 minutes.

Well, a reboot worked. Machine is still working. But the virus is not dead. I still have minor video lines appearing and disappearing and the last sector -1 has the code magically rewritten after a reboot.

Anyone knows of a antivirus program that will catch this bug?

No current antivirus is detecting this.
Saludos
Bernhard

Message was edited by: bernhard Pfennigschmidt

As an add on to my article above, please go to http://www.cancun.net/mac-virus/ to see screen shots and proof of the virus beeing active writing content to the disk.

Saludos
Bernhard

Hardware problems like you describe can be random. Heat is not the same all the time, just as ventilation is not the same all the time. Run the hardware test that came with your machine. If it reports nothing, it is likely the RAM has failed. Here are the hardware test directions:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303081

I have seen the problem your screen shot shows on machines whose graphics processor unit has failed. Some of these failures can be intermittent if a surge manages to get in your machine and only affect some pathways and not all circuits.

It is highly unlikely that you have a virus.

I've a possible kludge for those whose displays became better when pressing downward around the touchpad.

The virus is interesting in the case those running Mac emulators or possibly just an Intel processor. On the G4 chip all the bytes would be reversed, and running corrupted data should just require a reboot; but it's possible that by pure coincidence it could create a persistent problem.

My iBook G3 had screen corruption changed by pressing near the touchpad. Apple extended its repair for the 'iBook Logic Board Repair Extension Program', which I cannot now find on the Apple website. However, a Wikipedia search for 'iBook' discusses it in its section 'Quality Issues'. It was found (in a Danish Gevernment Report) to be caused by loosening of solder on two adjacent pins of a chip that controls the power to both real memory and the graphics processor.

The Danish report (and other references on the Wikipedia) have details on how to shim this chip to press the broken solder together. This report might help you determine whether this is your problem.

http://www.forbrug.dk/presse/nyheder/pressekit/ibookg4/lab-report/

Page 11 contains a typical complaint filed by one sufferer; and there are photos.

In my case all failed in 5 minutes, not over months. I could boot only in single-user mode, and the power glitch occurred while the OS was writing a file: even after the memory board was replaced, bad sectors prevented booting. The hard disk was replaced, though it didn't have to be (IMO).

General power glitches almost always (like executing a DOS virus) just freeze a machine, and when consulting, I could often correlate these freezes with the sound of an air-conditioner or other large electrical device starting up.

Bruce

PS. Apple extended it warranty on the iBook G3 as a remedy, after being threatened by a class-action legal suit in which the above report was offered as evidence. In any case, the C-clamp on the G3's broken chip was too close to the touchpad to help. The 'kludge', which reportedly works fine, is to open the case an successfully add a shim.

Bernhard,

This is rather creepy. What file system was on the affected, or infected, drive? It sounds like a Microsoft format. How did the virus get there? (CD, mail attachment, voluntarily executed .EXE file?)

Bruce

Were I to have what I think are hardware problems, I should first check Apple Support, then check the Wikipedia for my model. I think you should.

If you live in Germany, Apple will replace a defective cable between the logic board (graphic processor) and screen; on some models, this cable is not separable from the logic board: in this case, Apple in Sweden will replace both for about $USD900.

The following websites are for companies that will repair PowerBooks out of warranty.

http://www.dttservice.com/
http://www.powerbookresq.com/
http://www.microdocusa.com/
http://www.macspecialist.com/
http://www.techrestore.com/

Bruce

Hello All
ok, I confirmed this morning that the side 0, track 0 sector 0 had some new code at the beginning. That sector was empty all other times that I checked. I understood that the partitiontable and the boot sector is side 0, track 0 sector 1.

This is on the harddrive of the infected machine, a powerbook 17" 1.67GHz.

My question is what is a boot partition information doing in the data area of my disk. Why is this partition information triplicated? It shows in the second and third sector and in the last minus one of the partition?
Please see documentation at http://www.cancun.net/mac-virus

Saludos
Bernhard

Bernhard,
Unless you are Macu64, I suggest starting a new topic thread. Your problem is one that usually happens with directory damage, covered more extensively in my FAQ*:

http://www.macmaps.com/directoryfaq.html

If that is unable to help you, please start a new topic thread here:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=758

With questions why boot sector info appears in the data sector. It is highly unlikely to be a virus since none have appeared in the wild for Mac OS X. You'll get a wider audience, and won't confuse Macu64 with solutions that don't apply to them.

- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Message was edited by: a brody