[pks1850]

The screen problems I posted about a month ago came back stronger then ever, and I ended up taking my new G4 iBook to the Apple store for service. Here's a picture of what my screen looked like:



The Genius behind the bar took a look at the picture, frowned, and said "probably a logic board failure." Wonderful. So we filled out the paperwork and shipped off the iBook.

Well, I'm "happy" to report that I got my iBook back in a few days, and the diagnosis was corrupted PRAM, not a logic board failure as he originally thought. Has anyone ever heard of this? The Genuis said it happens from time to time -- and the best prevention is booting from the OS X disk once a month and running the disk utility.

[typoon]

You could also every so often reset the PRAM. Command-option-P-R when you restart let it chime 3 times then let go. PRAM reset.

[Guy Kuo]

How does the DISK UTILITY fix something in the PRAM? I wouldn't have associated a parameter RAM problem with having a corrupt hard drive.

[wunderkind]

This is exactly how the screen of my iBook 700 looked like each time logic board failed (twice). Notice the striped rectangle on the right. This is cursor.

[Nerozwei]

Well, I'm "happy" to report that I got my iBook back in a few days, and the diagnosis was corrupted PRAM, not a logic board failure as he originally thought. Has anyone ever heard of this? The Genuis said it happens from time to time -- and the best prevention is booting from the OS X disk once a month and running the disk utility.

Good info, thanks

[ginoledesma]

Thanks for the info.

I noticed that my iBook G4 tends to display this behavior, although the screen fixes itself quickly enough to make me think its more of a "resolution switch" problem than corrupted PRAM. But forewarned is forearmed.