h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does anyone know anything about this situation? Appearantly there has been a problem with "logic boards"? I think my i book is in the generation that has been having problems. The screen goes blank when the unit gets bumped(like when I sit down with it on my lap in bed) The only way to get it to come back up is to close it till it goes to sleep and open it to wake it up again. It is still under warranty but do you think I can get it to do this when I take it in? The child who was called from the back to help me was distinctly un-helpful.

The websites noted below have some information but really don't answer my questions about whether the problem I am having is the one that the lawsuit is supposed to address. Does anyone know anything else about this. Or have any personal experiences. I do like my iBook and don't see being able to afford to buy another computer maybe ever so I was hoping this one would last a few years anyways.

http://ibdf.mine.nu/
http://www.macintouch.com/ibook2001pt12.html#dec23
http://www.searchrochester.com/blackcider/index.html

Although I haven't encountered this problem specifically, I was a computer engineer for seventeen years or so, and have a strong techie background...


From the technical descriptions in your first link, I can be better than 90% certain that you *are not* experiencing the same issue. The real giveaway is that you can get it back by entering and exiting sleep mode.

When you say it "goes blank", does the screen clear, or is the backlight just switching off? If you have a Mac external monitor that works with your iBook, or know someone else who does, bump the iBook till the fault manifests and then plug the monitor in. If the monitor display is fine, there's a strong chance it's a backlight problem.

My guess in that case would be that the wires (or more likely flexible tracks ) leading to the backlight have developed an intermittent connection that can be resolved by firmly closing the lid...? That would make it a fairly cheap fix (in Apple terms, anyway) as long as you can find an engineer willing to patch it with a dab of silver paint as opposed to charging you for a whole new backlight assembly.


Rest a small AM radio tuned "between stations" on the keyboard when it's working properly, and note the noise you hear. Bump the machine till the fault appears and put the radio back in the same place. Has the noise changed? This is a way to tell if the high-frequency "dot clock" is still getting information through to the screen. You can sometimes hear the mouse pointer move through the radio - if you can still hear this when the screen has gone blank then it's definitely the backlight that has failed, and the pixels are still being drawn.

I just watched a video of the "class action" fault over at Black Cider... It's no help to you, but I suspect I know what might be happening...

I saw almost exactly the same symptoms on an Acer laptop about 8 years ago. It was a really irritating problem, because whenever the machine was opened up for servicing the fault went away. One of my colleagues spent a day bending and flexing the laptop's boards looking for a bad joint or a cracked track, but to no avail. When it was reassembled, the fault came back.

I noticed that the fault manifested itself sooner in the afternoon than first thing in the morning... This led to the realisation that it wwas temperature related (our workshop was in a concrete-floored basement, and took hours to warm up in the morning!) - when the video RAM got warm, it couldn't keep up with the access speeds required! I was able to prove this by squirting "freezer spray" through a hole in the side of the case when the fault developed, bringing the display back to functionality!

The video RAM was surface-mounted, so it couldn't be replaced, and positioned under the power regulator which got quite toasty under normal working conditions. It was a combination of a slight design fault and a batch of substandard RAM. Given the fault descriptions and the video of the symptoms in the iBook class action, I wouldn't be at all surprised if these iBooks are in a similar situation.

Thanks, I hope you're right. I don't think the screen clears. It is just the backlight that goes off. I can sort of see what was on the screen but very, very dark. Some of the descriptions of the problem I saw said it happened when the laptop was bumped which is when it happens here. Oddly (I am afraid to say this for fear of the consequenses...) the problem hasn't happened here at all for a couple of weeks. When it did happen it was always in the first few minutes after the unit had been turned on or woken up. It didn't happen after it had been on for a while. Now i can't get it to do it at all. It used to be I could get it to do it by bumping it slightly. So silver paint if it goes back to doing it again.

Is yours one of the clamshell style iBooks or the newer, slimeline, square generation?

(Just as a matter of interest...I'm on a 3yo clamshell that's been thrashed to bits )

Its a newer square one. I'm pretty hard on them too.

Does it have keyboard controls for brightness levels like mine? ([F1] & [F2])

The minimum setting is backlight off - so I don't know if you're problem could be related to that

It sounds like it's a slightly intermittent connection that only breaks when the lid has been closed for a little while; it's the sort of thing that'll either get much worse quite quickly, or occasionally settle down till it's "fixed itself"... From your last posting it looks like it's doing the latter.

From a techie point of view, it often happens when the person assembling a flat flexible ribbon cable into a surface mount connector succeeded in getting a greasy thumbprint on the conductive carbon coating at the end; the ribbon may move ever so slightly every time the lid is opened and closed until it has wiped a clean spot, at which point the trouble will only reappear if the machine is dismantled and reassembled causing the ribbon to connect at a different spot. The moral: if it's working now, leave well alone. Investigating will just bring the problem back.

Interesting... I do have the same brightness controls. And the backlight does go off if I make it go all the way down. I'll have to remember that if it goes off again and see if I can get it to come back on with those buttons. Thanks.

Thanks man! I'll probably do that. I have about a month left on the warranty(purchased used). I suppose the problem will reappear after the warranty runs out.

Always the way, sod's law