iBook displays: Apple’s other dirty little secret
Posted on November 30, 2003
Filed Under Macintosh
No, this is not about the iPod’s battery life.
It seems that if you have a white iBook, it’s not a matter of if you’ll lose the display. It’s just a matter of when.
Previously, I had a 500 Mhz 12″ iBook. I stupidly didn’t get AppleCare on it and the backlight went out after 18 months. Rather than spend $400+ on repair, I purchased a G3/800 12″ iBook, this time with AppleCare. This evening, I opened the iBook and the display was dead. I restarted, and the gray Apple came up. Before it even had time to switch to the blue startup screen, the display filled with horizontal lines, flickered a few times and went black. That was it. No matter what I do, I can’t get the display to come up again. I hear a good startup chime, I can hear the drive working as it boots but the screen is dark. Eric also had a 500 Mhz iBook with a bad display.
Tomorrow I have an 8 am meeting after I drop off the girls, and then it looks like I’m taking a drive to White Plains to put the computer in for repair. Thanks goodness for AppleCare as it’s about 12 months and 2 weeks old.
The Apple Discussion forums show that this is a very common issue. Luckily I don’t have any important files on the iBook and while inconvenient, I can live without it for a few days. I find it amazing that Apple hasn’t acknowledged this problem yet. 98% of the posts in the forum are for this very issue, it’s been going on for years, and there’s not a single technote about it. Personally, I know I’ll never purchase another iBook and I won’t recommend one to anyone else until I’m convinced Apple has dealt with this issue.
Comments
One Response to “iBook displays: Apple’s other dirty little secret”
It’s probably because of the routing of the display cables. Apple has done a poor job on this one. To replace the display you have to take the entire thing apart and then remove cables that run all the way to the front left, by the hard drive. The once you start putting it back together you have to put about a million little pieces here and there surrounding the cables themselves. The metal bottom shield has sharp enough corners to cut right through.
Anyways, I’m a tech and I just thought I’d let you know I feel your pain. And iBooks always cose the most to repair for some reason.