schrödinger's cat wrote: > hi folks, > > newbie to this list, so please forgive me if this topic has already > been discussed. a friend asked me to help fix her imac. it is a 17" > G4/1.0 model, and here is the problem. she had either 10.2 or 10.3 > installed, she doesn't remember which. she bought 10.5 and installed > it as an upgrade instead of backing up her files, reformatting the > disc, and doing a fresh install. what happened next is kinda > strange. the machine will boot, but the screen stays black. but not > totally black, just 99.9% black. if you look at the screen at just > the right angle, and in just the right light, you can just barely make > out that the desktop is actually there. everything seems to be > working as it should, except for the dark screen. it's like someone > turned the screen's *brightness* control down to a hair above > completely black. apple told her it's a hardware problem, and > suggested she bring it to an apple store. > > but i had a very similar occurrence with a wallstreet that had a dead > PRAM battery. once it was left off for so long that the main battery > went dead, and when i charged it and fired it up, i got exactly the > same symptoms. a lister on the powerbooks list suggested that i > reboot once from OS9, and that the problem would disappear. i > followed his suggestion, and voila, he was right. the screen came > back on, and i was then able to reboot from OSX, and it has been fine > since. this makes me think that my friend's problem might not be > hardware at all, but a software problem caused by the way she upgraded > to 10.5 directly from 10.2 or 10.3, which apple says you are NOT > supposed to do.
The Wallstreet issue is a well known problem (I know it well!) but it is limited to the WS. I'd start by: Turn the brightness up using the keyboard. Try using a flashlight or desk lamp to see the screen and bring up the display preferences and crank up the brightness there. Reset PRAM Unplug the computer, wait 10 seconds, plug it back in and start up. -- Clark Martin Redwood City, CA, USA Macintosh / Internet Consulting "I'm a designated driver on the Information Super Highway" --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Low End Mac's iMac List, a group for those using G3, G4, G5, and Intel Core iMacs as well as Apple eMacs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
