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iBook blinked out of existance

DavidLeblond

DavidLeblond

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jan 6, 2004
2,323
600
Raleigh, NC
I was working on some web consulting work on my iBook G4 when it suddenly went completely black on me! Screen went black and the machine appeared to be completely dead... the only thing I could get on it was the battery lights by hitting the little battery test button (which assured me the battery was fine.) Finally I found that if I held down the power button, the screen flashed and the machine "powered off" (as much as a dead laptop can power off.) When I booted the laptop again, it was fine... but 20 minutes worth of hard hair-pulling work was completely gone.

What gives? This is something I expect to happen at my normal job, coding Windows apps. Anyone have this problem before? I'm repairing permissions just in case...
 
mad jew

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
DavidLeblond said:
I'm repairing permissions just in case...
Click to expand...


Nice. :D

Was the machine bumped beforehand? Was it running very hot? If it gets close to overheating it puts itself to sleep (lazy bastard) however it should be able to be re-awoken once it has cooled off.

As a precaution, I'd reset some of the temperature monitor settings by resetting the PMU.

Of course, it may not necessarily be temperature-related. Was there anything plugged into the machine? Which apps were running? Have you installed anything new recently?
 
munkees

munkees

macrumors 65816
Sep 3, 2005
1,027
1
Pacific Northwest
I had this with at 2.5 years G3 iBook 700, I took it into the apple store in valley fair ca, and they replaced the HD. (upgrade to 30GB from 20GB for free).

Then when I returned home to Germany (military, I station here), the logic board died. Took that to an Apple Aurthorized Dealer who repaired it. Running great ever since (got to love apple care).

I would get very hot under the HD so at 20 mins it blacks out and freezes
 
DavidLeblond

DavidLeblond

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jan 6, 2004
2,323
600
Raleigh, NC
Well it wasn't too hot, it was on my lap and I was coding PHP in Textmate... I've definitely gotten it hotter.

I HOPE its not the hard drive, as I've just gotten it replaced! :eek:
 
GilGrissom

GilGrissom

macrumors 65816
Mar 13, 2005
1,042
1
How old is the iBook, has it got the SMS (Sudden Motion Sensors)?
Incase of a bump, as Mad Jew said.

Just another thought to narrow down...
 
skunk

skunk

macrumors G4
Jun 29, 2002
11,758
6,107
Republic of Ukistan
Mine does that occasionally. If you just shut it and open it again it usually wakes up. Of course yours might not behave the same way. If you do press the power button, try just blipping it instead of holding it down: that's sometimes enough to bring up a proper Restart/Sleep/Shutdown dialog(ue).
 
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