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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Water Damage, Screen Is Dead

skibum - Aug 12, 2005 - 6:23 am

I had a roof leak, dripping water on my 15" G4 Powerbook. It was closed and sleeping. I drained the water out, and shut her down. After drying for a day, I fired up. Everything on the computer works. But the screen is dark. I can actually barely see the screen, but there is no background lighting. SO I can only barely read it with a flashlight carefully placed, and magnifying glass assistance.
Plugged in to an external monitor, I can use things normallly, but now she is not useful as a portable.
Does anyone have a clue if this is easily fixed, and how?

peter_ob - Aug 12, 2005 - 9:04 am

Bring it to a service center you might cause more harm to it or worse start a fire.

skibum - Aug 12, 2005 - 10:46 pm

Why might it catch on fire ? It seems to me that there might be a power supply to light up the display that is burned out (shorted). I probably will take it to a tech, but I was hoping to get some diagnostics or insights as to if there may be a simpler solution.

I have been using the computer plugged into a monitor successfully for several weeks now. There seem to be no heat problems, and no abnotrmalities aside from the screen lighting.

The information is on the screen, but unusable except for very basic functions because of the darkness. Is there a separate backlighting of the screen which might be relatively easy to fix? I am fairly handy fixing things, just have never taken a laptop apart.

Thanks

peter_ob - Aug 13, 2005 - 1:08 am

Depending on how wet it is drying electronic equipment takes more than letting it sit for a day or two. Like Wes said, water damage is not always visible. Although the possibility is likely to deminish the longer you operate your mac you have to remember water and electricity don't mix.
Aside from curiousity or personal satisfaction what benefit would you get from opening up the mac? You may be electronics savy but do you have the equipment, and if you do where will you get replacement parts? Certainly not from Apple.
It is your computer and you know your technical competence better than I do. I'm just providing information for you to weigh your options.

Cheers,

Peter

skibum - Aug 13, 2005 - 3:15 am

Thanks Peter, I appreciate your time and advice.

peter_ob - Aug 13, 2005 - 4:06 am

Thanks. I hope things are not as bad as they seem.

Good Luck!