Serious Problem: No Screen Appearing on iBook

Mat

Mat

iSmell
Hi

I'm not sure whether this should go here or in 'Hardware', mainly because I don't know what the problem is.

Yesterday I went to use my iBook, which my sister had been using to update her iPod and had closed the lid to put it to sleep. I opened the lid and the screen was weird, it had all of these coloured vertical lines running through it and no mouse menu, dock or anything. I tried to click and press keys hoping it would snap out of it. In the end I just had to hold down the power button to turn it off. I left it alone and came back to it today.

I asked my sister about it, she said she did'nt do anything to it. Today a very similar thing happened. I turned it on and no screen even appeared, so I turned it off and tried again. A few times the very same thing happened. Eventually it turned on normally and the screen appeared. Unffortunately it roze in startup. I turned it off and on again. This time success, I actually got to see my desktop, my icons and everything seemed fine, for about a minute, after which I got vertical lines down the screen again and could do nothing. I tried a couple more times and the same thing happened.

I have never had any problems with my iBook before, I haven't installed anything lately and it has never been dropped or mistreated. The only thing I can think of that might cause a problem is that there is only about 450MB of free HD space, but that shouldn't affect the screen, surely.

Does anyone know what I can do? Has anyone had anything simialr happen?

Any comments extremely appreciated.

Mat
 
Yup - sounds like it to me too, and I have lost three boards to it so far. You should be able to start up in target disk mode and backup your data.

Check the serial number. If it falls in the covered range, take it to an authorised service center. The good news is they'll replace the board. I got back my machine with the hd intact, but I was glad I had the backup anyway.
 
That is a real bummer. Thanks a lot guys, at least I know what's going on now. Just wondering though, how am I going to get my stuff off it without having another Mac to use with target disk mode?

Thanks, sob sob.
 
I have often wondered if target disk mode will work with a PC, but I don't have one with firewire to try...

The Apple guy I sent my iBook to offered to back it up for $50. Otherwise the replacement is free - unless you believe that time is money, in which case it costs about 10 days.
 
pds said:
I have often wondered if target disk mode will work with a PC, but I don't have one with firewire to try...
Click to expand...
Generally speaking, it will work with a PC, if the PC runs MacDrive (mediafour.com) or the equivalent.
 
Mat said:
That is a real bummer. Thanks a lot guys, at least I know what's going on now. Just wondering though, how am I going to get my stuff off it without having another Mac to use with target disk mode?
Click to expand...
You are very welcome. You could try the "shotgun approach"--which I have never heard recommended before--probably for good reason. ~:)^) You could startup, do your best to put your cursor in the area of your volume icon, click, and then try to drag the icon to an external drive in the blind. The external drive's icon should be right below your volume icon. I may be being too creative this morning. Maybe I've had too much coffee.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top