iBook sleep LED

[point665]

I have a 2002? iBook G3, 800 32vram... Awesome machine, Its my main comp. Anyways I never... I mean never, maybe once every six months, put it to sleep... But this week I wasnt using the machine so I figured Id put it to sleep, so for 2 nights It worked fine, and I noticed the LED was real bright in a dark room... (I thought someone was shining in a spot light at first)... So anyways last nite I noticed that the LED was barely visible in a completely dark room, I mean I had to focus real hard on it to see it, it was as if you had take a few sheets of paper and put it in front of it, so you could barely make out the glow... And now the LED doesnt work at all when the machine is put to sleep (lid closed).. I know some people are gonna say "man I wish I had that" but it just pisses me off...

Could this be the logic board failing? Or could it be OSX (Since the OS controls the led to some degree..) Or is it just that it somehow burnt out even thought it was almost NEVER used... And I have no where found anything else about a iBook LED failing, and LEDs arent supposed to fail for a LONG time.

I dont have Apple Care btw.

 

[Daveway]

Isn't it ironic that many people want to take it off and you want it on?
Try reseting pram or nvram. It does sound software related because leds are very hard to break.

 

[jsw]

It does sound software related because leds are very hard to break.

Agreed - they're usually fine or completely broken. They don't just dim over two days. Of course, it might be a HW problem elsewhere....

 

[ocellnuri]

I have a very simmilar problem on my 12" Powerbook G4. When I close my lid, the unit will go to sleep but the LED rarely comes on. If I put pressure on lid by sqeezing the unit where the latch is, and then let off pressure, the light will sometimes come on brighter. By squeezing I can get varrying degrees of brightness from the LED. It seems to be a loose connection or something. I posted about it once here and no one seemed to know what was going on, so I plan on mentioning it at the Apple Store in the near future.

 

[Daveway]

I have a very simmilar problem on my 12" Powerbook G4. When I close my lid, the unit will go to sleep but the LED rarely comes on. If I put pressure on lid by sqeezing the unit where the latch is, and then let off pressure, the light will sometimes come on brighter. By squeezing I can get varrying degrees of brightness from the LED. It seems to be a loose connection or something. I posted about it once here and no one seemed to know what was going on, so I plan on mentioning it at the Apple Store in the near future.

This is odd because usually connections are hard to come undone in an inclosure as tight as the 'books. I still hold the belief that it's software related.

 

[ocellnuri]

I can't speak for point665's situation, but I'm pretty positive that my problem is a hardware problem, and is not related to software.

Here's a video of my problem: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~cmowens/latchlight.mov

point665, you can use my video to see if we are having the same issue or not. If we are, I'll be able to share the diagnosis from the Apple store with you after I get my Powerbook checked out there.

 

[Poeben]

I have a very simmilar problem on my 12" Powerbook G4. When I close my lid, the unit will go to sleep but the LED rarely comes on. If I put pressure on lid by sqeezing the unit where the latch is, and then let off pressure, the light will sometimes come on brighter. By squeezing I can get varrying degrees of brightness from the LED. It seems to be a loose connection or something. I posted about it once here and no one seemed to know what was going on, so I plan on mentioning it at the Apple Store in the near future.

This happens on my iBook G3, 900. Unlike Point, I never, ever shut down my iBook. It always just sleeps when not in use. I definitely attribute the anomaly to some physical connection problem, as applying pressure to the area will correct the problem, albeit only temporary.

 

[diamond geezer]

Both the 12" PB and the iBook use a magnet to sense when the top is closed. If the magnet is weak you sometimes have to move them closer together to make it work.

 

[point665]

I never said I shut down my iBook, at least I dont believe I did, because I never do... I still havent updated to 10.3.7 update, and when I upgraded to 10.3.6 10.3.7 came out too soon... I never restart or shutdown, well never as in I like to keep the iBook on as much as possible... I just never put it to sleep.

I tried to squeeze the iBook from different places and nothing happened... Im gonna try to see if I can rotate the iBook to make the magnets to get closer.

 

[point665]

Update...

I left the iBook shutdown for the weekend, as I was gone. I came back, used it for a few hours, then put it to sleep. The sleep led started working, but within a few minutes it faded away, first becoming really hard to see and then just gone. I tried to play with putting pressure on the lid and such but nothing... This is a really weird problem.

Also, the iBook has been REALLY f'n slow to boot lately, takes like 7-10 minutes. This is not normal, and it might just be 10.3.6.