Please Help - 12' PB Display Washed out, fixed by dongle?

[asolipsist]

I have a 12' pb running 10.4.6 876mhz.

After the Tiger update I noticed all the display colors became very washed out, I tried color calibration, but this did not fix the problem at all. (the 'darkest' settings on calibration didn't make the screen any 'darker'). Think of it as the gamma permanently way too high.

I just figured out today that plugging in an external monitor, or even just the monitor rgb dongle (and then unplugging it) causes the regular display to revert back to normal gamma.

Restarting or even going to sleep reverts the PB to its washed out state. I have looked at the 'fast user switching' problem and these fixes dont work (colorsync from the UI has no effect)

Has anyone seen this before, it seems like some kind of video driver problem or? Please help

(plz note that color calib doesn't help fix this in the slightest, nor does zapping the pram or repairing permissions)

 

[asolipsist]

oops, I meant to post this in the help section, could a mod please move it? Thanks.

 

[BurtonCCC]

Where did you get a 12-foot PowerBook screen? I wanna party with you.

Daniel.

 

[mashkina]

the same problem

Hi!!
I have exactly the same problem in my PowerBook 12" 1,5 GHz. Your description is fully consistent with mine. An additional weird behavior is that the problem does not occur in all logins in my computer. I have a "guest" login, which does not experience any problem at all. And when I switch to my main login account then the screen becomes washed out. So, it has to be definitely a software problem. The question is what I did "wrong" in my regular account that I haven't done in "guest"??? I take all time the DVI-VGA converter with me to fix the problem, but that definitely makes me feel like a loser

Since you wrote this time ago, hopefully you have come up with the solution. Thanks a lot.

Luis

 

[inboulder]

Hi!!
I have exactly the same problem in my PowerBook 12" 1,5 GHz. Your description is fully consistent with mine. An additional weird behavior is that the problem does not occur in all logins in my computer. I have a "guest" login, which does not experience any problem at all. And when I switch to my main login account then the screen becomes washed out. So, it has to be definitely a software problem. The question is what I did "wrong" in my regular account that I haven't done in "guest"??? I take all time the DVI-VGA converter with me to fix the problem, but that definitely makes me feel like a loser

Since you wrote this time ago, hopefully you have come up with the solution. Thanks a lot.

Luis

Hi Luis,

I did manage to fix it, don't despair. What I did was just throw away preferences and plists until the gamma reset. I'm not sure exactly which one did the trick, but you'll get it by trial and error. Good luck.

 

[ephemeron]

Caused by Universal Access glitch

I had the same problem on two macs, both a Mac Pro and a PowerBook 12". The fix is extremely simple, just open System Preferences, go to Universal Access and drag the "Enhance contrast" slider all the way to the left ("Normal").

Fixed it entirely on both. I have no idea why that slider got messed up.

 

[cedilla]

universal access fix for washed out details on display

Thank you!!! The Universal Access fix did the trick. Why on earth doesn't Apple call out changes made in the Universal Access dialog box on the display dialog? Someone else using the mac pro I've got made this change, causing light colors on the display to be washed out, and I had no idea that you could control the setting in two completely different locations. Again, thanks for the Universal Access "fix"!

 

[katters]

Thank You!

I have been searching for literally YEARS for the fix to this problem...you have saved me much frustration (not to mention deleted profiles!).

Again, thank you.