Please help- PB G4 display prob

[Rend It]

Help! I don't know what's happening, but my Al PB G4 started doing this intermittent thing with the screen, and I don't know what I should do. It appears to me to be a hardware issue- I've rebooted several times, tried adjusting the graphics settings, etc.

I notice the pink rectangles usually go away after tapping directly above the trackpad, only to come back later at random. The warranty just expired in October. Should I bother trying to plea my case to Apple? Could it be something simple like a loose connection or bad cable? Or is it indicative of a bad logic board? Any advice/help is greatly appreciated.

rendit

 

[2nyRiggz]

I would suggest trying your hand at calling apple(Looks like a screen issue). Have you tried to reset the PMU?

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449


Bless

 

[benthewraith]

Help! I don't know what's happening, but my Al PB G4 started doing this intermittent thing with the screen, and I don't know what I should do. It appears to me to be a hardware issue- I've rebooted several times, tried adjusting the graphics settings, etc.

I notice the pink rectangles usually go away after tapping directly above the trackpad, only to come back later at random. The warranty just expired in October. Should I bother trying to plea my case to Apple? Could it be something simple like a loose connection or bad cable? Or is it indicative of a bad logic board? Any advice/help is greatly appreciated.

rendit

View attachment 64309

There was someone else around here who had a problem like that way back, but I can't remember who it was...

 

[Rend It]

I would suggest trying your hand at calling apple(Looks like a screen issue). Have you tried to reset the PMU?

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449


Bless

I have not yet tried that, but I don't see why resetting the Power Management Unit would affect the video. I will give it a go anyhow. Since my original post, I have checked the Apple discussion boards, and it seems that the consensus there is that my video memory has tanked. FYI, I plugged in an external monitor, and the pink lines appear on it, too.

The only straightforward fix is to replace the entire logic board, which will set me back about $600. I think this is crazy, so I will be calling Apple this week, in hopes that they will help me out out somehow. I will keep you posted.

rendit

 

[techster85]

man, 600 bucks is steep considering you could get into a low end mac book for just a couple hundred more...does anyone know if this is a common occurance in the AL PB's? and if so, is there any way to avoid this happening? Hopefully apple will show mercy and help you out though...

 

[aquajet]

Do you have your original restore disks? If you do, try running the Apple Hardware Test. That will test your VRAM, among other things.

It definitely looks like the problem could be a result of faulty VRAM.

 

[Rend It]

update- temperature dependent issue?

Just wanted to update the thread.

I did the following (in order):
1) Reset PMU: no change
2) Reset PRAM: no change
3) "Quick" Apple Hardware Test: AHT reports no HW issues
4) "Extended" Apple Hardware Test: AHT reports no HW issues

Since doing all of these things (including several re-boots), I've noticed the problem is slowly becoming more difficult to reproduce. Before, I could just tap the case here and there, and the pink stripes would come and go. Now, the problem has vanished, no matter what sort of handling, short of abuse or dropping it. The one thing that has changed since I began the tests is that the computer has warmed up significantly. My next plan is to let the computer cool down quite a bit, and then try to re-run the AHT. I'll let you know soon.

rendit