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G4 cursor freeze then blackout any clues?

B

bloobeem

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 18, 2008
6
0
Hey all, I'll be quick thinkin' I'm not the only one who has had this happen. Things were running fine. 4 tabs open nothing running in the background that I recall... Went to move the cursor and it froze. Let it sit a minute - fired up a smoke then went to move it again. Nothing. Hmm then for some stupid reason I pushed Esc key... at first nothing happend - then the screen went dark. So since everything was saved I simply powered off the power button. Went to sleep 6 ours later... open the lid "powered on" the music played and the screen booted up. Big smile!!! Then, I went to move the cursor and poof - black again. So, I powered off again with the power button and pulled the battery (I don't know why) and then tried later after work with the bat' and ac adapter plugged in. You can hear the fan rev' up the music play... but all dark. The screen worked great no indication of anything prior to this. Hmmmmmm "Any clues" would be greatly appreciated. Those pesky N_A guys. lol Thanks! :)

bloo':(
 
It's funny how much can "happen" at such a critical time. We are just getting ready to open in a month and the laptop is fairly important for many reasons... obviously. Unfortunately it wasn't going to be that simple to fix - Nope.... tried it. However, no go. I'm thinkin' since it (ibook G4 12 inch) was purchased in 2004 perhaps its just the "backlight". Seems to me that I've heard they simply bad after so many hours. Hows that sound? There is no one around here that fixes Mac' that I know of. This is both good and bad news. Perhaps it's simply something I can order and do myself? So, to me that sounds like the next step... change the light bulb basically - right? Could use a tutorial on that I'll bet. Anyhow, If U think thats the wrong direction to take let me know. Your speedy response was incredibly amazing! Thanks once again.

Quickie:

Just sent this and tried it one more time. Well I'll be dam... it booted right up! Then as I was setting the clock and date and all from probably the above advice you gave... it bleeped out. So. I tapped gently on the back of the lid like playin a rif with both hands and it tried to come back on a bit. Reminds me of a light bulb that you tap and it gets brite for a minute - than gone forever. So, it seems like a light to me now... especially after taping on the cover while it was open and seeing it flash on then off.
 
bloobeem said:
It's funny how much can "happen" at such a critical time. We are just getting ready to open in a month and the laptop is fairly important for many reasons... obviously. Unfortunately it wasn't going to be that simple to fix - Nope.... tried it. However, no go. I'm thinkin' since it (ibook G4 12 inch) was purchased in 2004 perhaps its just the "backlight". Seems to me that I've heard they simply bad after so many hours. Hows that sound? There is no one around here that fixes Mac' that I know of. This is both good and bad news. Perhaps it's simply something I can order and do myself? So, to me that sounds like the next step... change the light bulb basically - right? Could use a tutorial on that I'll bet. Anyhow, If U think thats the wrong direction to take let me know. Your speedy response was incredibly amazing! Thanks once again.

Quickie:

Just sent this and tried it one more time. Well I'll be dam... it booted right up! Then as I was setting the clock and date and all from probably the above advice you gave... it bleeped out. So. I tapped gently on the back of the lid like playin a rif with both hands and it tried to come back on a bit. Reminds me of a light bulb that you tap and it gets brite for a minute - than gone forever. So, it seems like a light to me now... especially after taping on the cover while it was open and seeing it flash on then off.
Click to expand...

That seems to me like it could be a loose inverter cable if the light is kind of flickering. As for guides on all issues you might try looking here at iFixIt.com
 
Hi Koolstar, Your probably on to something there. Great site huh. Very helpful. Someone put a whole lot of time and thought into that. Impressive, very impressive. Anyhoo, Let me add this to the mix. After going to the site - heck I thought.. just one more time I'll try it. So I did. Heres what happened this time. Powered up... no prob' everything looking fine. Whoa! I thought. Fascinating... its working. Great! Had to plug in Robbie Robertson ... Red boy album (on hard drive - Itunes D' loaded previously) It started playing fine. Hmm (I dunno) so I go to get up (scratching head) happy I have tunes while I do some work around the house and all of a sudden... the song starts to skip skip skip skip... on and on repeating. I then look at the screen and its. flashing from nothing to the itunes window sporadically not in sync with the music by any means. Random and broken. I failed to mention (I think) that I just put a hard drive in not all that long ago and a new ac adapter thingy (forgot what its called now). Can't recall which brand but I could figure it out if necessary it would take a bit to find the paperwork as I am packing up to move. Again... great help from U and thanks a ton.
 
connect an external VGA monitor to your laptop. You do need the mini VGA to VGA dongle. If all displays fine with no interruption or "blackouts" then it's safe to say it's the backlight. This is semi common on the 12 inch iBooks, at least for me since we have replaced a few of these out of the 120 or so we have.
 
That was going to be my next suggestion. When you do that make sure that you are only using the external monitor and not as an extended desktop.
 
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