iBook has died

[mrjamin]

Dear all,

I'm hoping that someone will be able to shed some light on my problem before i get back in touch with Apple.

My 12" G3 800MHz iBook (combo) is suffering a bit at the moment. About a week ago, i turned it on, while OS X was booting (grey screen with the apple in the middle and weird swirly thing), the display started flickering, blaci 1px high lines jutted in from the right hand side of the screen and from the left side of the apple, then it froze (swirly thing stopped swirling). I ctrl+apple+power'd it to restart it and the same thing happened. Since then, the display doesn't even come on - the OS loads (the only way i know this is that the volume buttons make the 'pip' sound when you change it). I've tried resetting the PRAM, resetting the power managment and even tried plugging in an external display and there's no change, even my external display has no picture.

I'm thinking that my mainboard has died (again!) - anyone else had any similar problems? My main concern is backing up my data - filesharing is off and obviously i cant navigate system prefs to turn it on. Are there any keyboard shortcuts? I'd like to get my stuff backed up before i send it off to apple for obvious reasons and without being able to see the display this is somewhat challenging.

Thanks in advance,

Ben Lanc

 

[CrackedButter]

Can't you use the iBook and a firewire drive, something called target disk mode, i dunno, i'm new to macs but i know you can do this with a firewire cable and the laptop.

 

[Gus]

Firewire Target Disk mode is your best bet, but of course, that assumes that you have another Mac to connect to. This scares me, because I recently started having very similar little problems. I definitely have the screen flicker, but fortunately, mine comes back to normal. I just ordered an external FW Hard drive last week to back everything up before I take it to my Apple Tech. Oh, by the way, I have the iBook 800 also, and a friend who has the 700 model has had 3 logic boards replaced. Sigh.

Regards,
Gus

 

[IJ Reilly]

Have you tried starting up on a CD yet?

If that doesn't work, I'd guess your video subsystem plotzed.

 

[iJon]

since it is your display or logic board, apple probably will not touch your hard drive. hard drive will stay the same and they will not erase it. but backing up is a good idea anyways. try to find another mac, get a 6-6 pin firewire cable. start up your ibook and hold the t key down. then on the other mac y our ibook will how up as a external firewire hard drive. back up your stuff and take it to apple. its under warranty isnt it?

iJon

 

[hvfsl]

When I had my powerbok G3 3 years ago, I had the same kind of problem. But it was the screen that had gone, not the motherboard. Can you plug the iBook into another monitor or TV to check?

 

[Kwyjibo]

i've had the exact same problem twice. See my thread about it many months ago. I bet your screen looked exactly like my pic too.

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20327&ibook+lemon

 

[mrjamin]

oh sh*t

 

[Eniregnat]

If you can't back up your HD, Apple will offer a HD back up option. Your only charged (last time I used it) if it is used and it is viable. If they don't have to restore your data, then your not charged, but they only back up you HD if you request it and are willing to prepay for the service.

Good luck.

 

[mrjamin]

Originally posted by CrackedButter
Can't you use the iBook and a firewire drive, something called target disk mode, i dunno, i'm new to macs but i know you can do this with a firewire cable and the laptop.

went for that option in the end, couriers are picking it up tomorrow, being sent to some apple center in Holland to have the outer casing, the screen and the logic board replaced!

 

[mrjamin]

hey all - a quick update:

logic board is being replaced, getting a new screen too! should be back tomorrow

 

[lmalave]

Dang! All these iBook problems. My iBook's been going strong for 6 months (knock on wood). After how much time do these problems usually start appearing?

 

[mrjamin]

Originally posted by lmalave
Dang! All these iBook problems. My iBook's been going strong for 6 months (knock on wood). After how much time do these problems usually start appearing?

My iBook went wrong within 4 days (logic board - ethernet stopped working) - also had some cosmetic damage when it arrived which they have finally agreed to sort out! This time round it was just about 6 months after i bought it. Don't worry though, i know loads of people with iBooks and they've never gone wrong. I think its just that the same problem has cropped up in a few cases - but not much more.

 

[toughboy]

flickering displays and black pixels seem like a hardware problem... I guess you need a supervisor about this... you should see them before your ibook is doomed...

 

[mrjamin]

Originally posted by toughboy
flickering displays and black pixels seem like a hardware problem... I guess you need a supervisor about this... you should see them before your ibook is doomed...

yeah, thats why its been away for repair for the last week! I guess you must have glossed over most of the messages - easily done.