emac problem with display screen... please help.

[g30ffr3y]

my girlfriends emac was giving her lots of grey screen
necessary restart screens... as well as a host of other
problems that she thought were "normal" being a prior
windows user...

so i figured i would help her out and save here stuff and
do a clean install of panther... well the install went ok but
the screen is only in the middle maybe 8" of the screen...
theres like a 2-3" black boarder around the usable screen
area...

after installation the computer wouldnt even let us enter
in registration info or .mac mail stuff... you know that stuff...
it told me the resolution was unusable and to go into settings
and change it...

so i go*intø system prefs and display and i get a box that
only has a res of 640 x 480... but behind that box was another
box that only had the 1024 x 768 [i forget]... so i selected to
have the display pref up in the top bar... and i click on that
and there is a listing for a "main display" at 1024 x 768 and
"display 2" at 640 x 480...

theres no display 2... this is just an emac...

i know the screen itself works because the apple splash screen
fills the whole screen white witht he grey apple... also right before
i did the install i was transfering her data to my firewire drive and
the screen was ok...

all i did was try to install panther...

can anyone help me/her out???
thanks.

 

[jsw]

Which eMac is it - newer, older? Do you happen to know the specs? Is it still under warranty? If so, call Apple and they'll help you. If not, post back and we'll see what we can do.

 

[TID]

Take it to a dealer and get it serviced. Could be video, but it doesn't sound user fixable to me.

 

[cfd]

all i did was try to install panther...

Was this from a Panther retail disc or one that came with a different type of computer?

 

[g30ffr3y]

i think its one of the newest emacs... its
1.25 gig G4 with superdrive.

my panther disc is a real retail boxed copy

she has applecare, but we are hoping to not have
to ship this beast away... plus its her only computer...

i dont understand whats wrong because the screen DOES work...

 

[jsw]

You could probably bring it into the Apple Store at the Galleria and have a Genius fix the problem fairly quickly. Basically, if it's anything we can tell you to do, they'll do it, and if it's hardware, we can't help, so, since you have a Store nearby (and the Galleria mall is pretty nice to visit anyway), it's probably a good idea to call Apple Support and then, probably, plan on a quick trip there.

FYI, if you do go, deauthorize iTunes before you go and reauthorize it when you get back. Takes 10 seconds and is a good precaution in case they swap anything out there.

 

[g30ffr3y]

ok guys get this...

i ran the regular restore disk that came with the emac
and now the screen is fine...

does this mean you cant install new OS's into the emac???
anyone else ever hear of something like this?

 

[MP2]

Did you do an archive and install or did you format the hard drive and do a clean install?


The problems your experiencing should not happen after you reinstall the operating system.

 

[Norouzi]

Could be that the eMac shipped with a later version of the OS than was on your retail install disks. I know that can cause problems. That's the only thing I can think of unless it's a hardware issue.

 

[g30ffr3y]

i did an erase and install when i tried with the panther disks...

yes the emac install disk is newer version than the panther disk...

so i shouldnt run into this when tiger comes out???

 

[cfd]

This appears to be a known issue.
Sounds like you should reinstall from the original disks that came with the eMac, then do a OS upgrade to Panther.