Broken Powerbook G4 Screen

[robertanton]

Hi Everyone:

My wonderful trusty powerbook g4 has failed on me. After nearly 6 years of usage the screen no longer works. I've tried hooking it up to an external monitor, no image shows up. I've hooked it up to external screens thousands of time using the boot command FN + F7 or using the network setting detect monitors panel. However now that the screen is totally broken - i'm unable to connect to external screens nor is the function key boot process working. Ideally i'd like to remove the burnt out screen and use the Powerbook as a stationary computer.

Anythoughts? Do you think the video card might be damaged? The computer seems to boot with no problem. I hear its boot chime, and can see the num luck light when pressed.

Thanks for your help.

Robert

 

[nixgeek]

I've seen this happen on some older Dells as well. Considering that this happened after 6 years of use, that's not bad! Those Dells I mentioned had the screens go out after about 2-3 years. If you can still see somewhat of an image of the desktop faintly showing, it could mean that the backlight has died out.

You could get it repaired, but it will cost money. However, if you're a daring DYI-er then you could search for your PowerBook model on the following site and see about how to replace certain parts yourself:

http://www.ifixit.com/cart/catalog/

You can also check some places like MacResQ for parts or even if you want them to repair it for you.