iBook display issue

My homeroom teacher's 14 inch G3 iBook's display has started displaying everything grainy. There are little dots everywhere on the display, and it is annoying. The head IT person at school is stumped. I am not sure of the exact verson of OS X, if it might be a software issue. Could it be a sign of logic board failure? Any help appreciated.

mkrishnan said:

1) Boot off a system install disk. If it still does it, it's not a software issue, unless perhaps it is corrupted PRAM/NVRAM (which can be fixed by "zapping"). If it doesn't do it, it's almost certainly a software issue.

2) I'm not sure what you mean by the dots... any chance of a photograph?

It does sound like it could be a logic board or connector issue to me, though.

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i'll hafta negotiate that. I'm not sure. I'll ask about it tomorrow. I may just be able to take a pic, if I ask nicely. For the logic board issue, if it's there, she will be ticked. Her school life is on that thing. If the school winds up sending it in, I will be promoting backing up to everyone.

the dots are like 8-10 pixels clumped together, displaying a certain color, and the backlight is a little dark, but it may have been turned down.

how do you zap the PRAM and NVRAM?

We'll probably try fixing it first. We are very money conscious, so for now, I think we'll try to focus on getting the problem diagnosed, and possibly fixed.

EDIT: and if she does get her computer replaced, maybe they'll give it to me, because I really want one! I could fix the logic board if I really wanted to, if that's the issue.

dang. I'll take the digicam with me, I'll try to get a pic. Let's all hope its a simple fix, and if it is the logic board, it gets fixed without too much fuss, and is under the logic board program!

Update-I got the pic, but is was kind of fuzzy(my fault, I don't have a steady hand ), and you can't tell. I didn't look as bad at 8 this morning, and didn't look bad a 2:30, either. It does look really bad, though, when displaying reds and greens. It also looks a bit worse when cycling backgrounds every 5 seconds(i showed her around System Prefs). Any help? I haven't had a chance to talk with the technology person , so I am not sure of the options for repairing. It iss now finer grain, but really very noticable. Thanks for all the help so far, it has been great.
d_and_n5000

I think, just to be safe, I'll assume its logic board failure in the works, and do all the precautions as such. However, her daughter, who goes to the same school, said that she was playing a game(presumably CD) and it looked fine, although she herself admitted she didn't have a bloody clue what I was talking about. So, until we know better, the server will be her best friend if I have a say in it!

840quadra said:

That is a good practice period, especially with portable computers such as an iBook. Who is to say when or if it will be stolen, dropped, spilled upon, and many other catastrophic issues.

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If all of the teachers backed everything up like they should, we'd probably need a bigger hard drive for the server than what we've got, that's for sure!