iBook G4: Gray screen on machine; external monitor is OK

[randomdeanna]

How do most of these stories start? Well... I dropped my 12" iBook G4 (early 2004, 1.2GHz) last night and...

On boot, the screen on the machine itself goes to gray, and then nothing else happens. When I plug in an external monitor (Dell 1905FP), it shows that the machine is functioning 100% fine.

What's interesting is that plugging in the monitor makes the laptop's screen blink for a second (like it's saying, "Oh, there's a monitor being plugged in, lemme adjust"), and unplugging the monitor does the same thing.

So, info is being sent to it, but it's not displaying that info.

Since it's kind of and old-ish machine, I'd like to try and save the $350 screen replacement if possible. I'm very comfortable taking it apart and poking around... any ideas where to start? I'm really, really hoping that something just got jarred loose.

 

[randomdeanna]

OK, so here's what I figured out, and how I fixed it myself.

The gray screen is the backlight, with no data being displayed. That meant that in theory, the LCD was actually working, but it wasn't receiving the information.

What follows is not for the faint of heart! If you're not comfortable taking apart electronics and fiddling with tiny bits, just go ahead and take your iBook in for repair now. Note that doing any of what follows will completely voids every warranty in the universe.

There's two places where the LCD connects, at the back of the LCD (sorta under the glowy apple), and to the actual computer itself.

I found how to remove the plastic cover, etc., around the LCD by going here:

http://www.screentekinc.com/lcd-removal-instructions_en,apple,inst.shtml

Look at Step 4. Peeling up that foil, I saw that the data connector was no longer connected to the display. I followed through the rest of the steps, reconnected it, and put it all back together. And here I am!

If you need to look at how to remove the whole shibang, I would recommend this tutorial: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/83.18.0.html