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PowerBook G4 graphics went the way of the do-do?

W

wjlafrance

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 23, 2009
359
1
Madison, WI
When I boot up my machine, sometimes it'll work fine indefinitely, and sometimes it'll crap out at any point. I opened Safari, in this picture:
http://wjlafrance.net/images/g4graphics1.jpg

Given a few minutes, the distortion is more severe:
http://wjlafrance.net/images/g4graphics2.jpg

A few more minutes, we get that pretty screen you see at the beginning of VHS movies:
http://wjlafrance.net/images/g4graphics3.jpg

I can't find any rhyme or reason to what's causing this, but the same machine can't run off a battery. It can charge it up just fine, says that the battery is full, and when I unplug.. one mississippi, two mississippi, bye bye Mac.

Has anyone seen this before?
 
PowerGamerX

PowerGamerX

macrumors 6502a
Aug 9, 2009
673
1
Your battery is dead. Thats why it says full but only lasts 2 seconds. It can't hold a charge anymore.

Either the graphics card is dying, or the LCD cable is loose. It looks like the former.

-Ryan
 
S

Serenity64

macrumors newbie
Sep 18, 2010
24
0
Sweden
I have to disagree with PowerGamerX regarding the lcd issue.

Seeing that it gets worse after a couple of minutes leads me to believe it is somehow the gfx card getting overheated. The problem would not intensify like that every time if the lcd cable was the problem.

Just my 5 cents.
 
PowerGamerX

PowerGamerX

macrumors 6502a
Aug 9, 2009
673
1
Serenity64 said:
I have to disagree with PowerGamerX regarding the lcd issue.

Seeing that it gets worse after a couple of minutes leads me to believe it is somehow the gfx card getting overheated. The problem would not intensify like that every time if the lcd cable was the problem.

Just my 5 cents.
Click to expand...

Reread my post, we aren't disagreeing on this.

Your battery is dead. Thats why it says full but only lasts 2 seconds. It can't hold a charge anymore.

Either the graphics card is dying, or the LCD cable is loose. It looks like the former.

-Ryan
Click to expand...
 
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