My iBook screen has got funky.. help

[Whistleway]

Hello,
My iBook G4 14-inch last rev, which i had since Sep 05, has suddenly got wonky. My screen is all messed up with huge white streaks and funky colors on bottom half of the screen. And top half is fine.

I think I have to call Apple Care. Any pointers? Will I be covered?

Also, I don't have my hard drive backed up and I am not sure how to do it. Could I take it to the apple store which is an hour away and ask them for help?

It has always been handled with care and no dents or drop-offs or anything.

Thanks much,

 

[baby duck monge]

I could be totally off on this, but it sounds like you have a wonky motherboard. Call Apple ASAP if you don't want to make the drive to the store!

 

[Whistleway]

And I had added 1GB non-apple memory. Should I remove them before I take it to apple store or send it to apple care?

thanks,

 

[xfiftyfour]

Also, I don't have my hard drive backed up and I am not sure how to do it. Could I take it to the apple store which is an hour away and ask them for help?

They may help you with backup, they may not (I honestly don't know). I know if you send it in, they always, always advise for you to back up your data beforehand.

Do you have an external hard drive at all? If you do, I use a little program called SuperDuper that makes a bootable clone of my hard drive (so you can just load your copy onto a new hard drive and start up where you left off).

If you don't have an external, perhaps another computer and a network that you could send the important stuff to?

As a last resort, do you have a superdrive, or an external burner? You could burn your important data to a DVD for safe keeping.

 

[baby duck monge]

And I had added 1GB non-apple memory. Should I remove them before I take it to apple store or send it to apple care?

thanks,

Usually they suggest removing all non-Apple memory before taking things in for diagnostic purposes. Other than that, you could take it or leave it. If you talk to Apple on the phone they will ask you if there is any more memory in it than when you purchased the machine, so they will know that you have extra. If you don't trust they would remember to take care of the memory, take it out; if you trust them, leave it but make sure they know it's there.

On a note related to the post above, I also recommend Carbon Copy Cloner.