[Sadrigal]

I believe I searched all I could without running across this exact problem.

What happened: I was doing some homework, with my powerbook on my couch next to me, when I looked over, not 5 minutes after I had looked before, and saw that half of my screen was darker than the other half.
I quickly moved it from the couch. It had been sitting at about a 10 degree slant. I thought it might have been the way it was sitting, but my knowledge of how LCDs work didn't allow me to know for sure. Currently, it has been about 30 minutes since it first showed up and it might be 'clearing' up.
I am not sure what to do, in this case. I was just shocked that the half of the screen dimmed so quickly.

The exact problem: The left half of the screen is gradiantly darker than the right half. In other words, starting at the left side of the screen, the white of the background appears a 2% or 3% grey. From there, it slowly moves back to a true white color and finally achieves that color half way through the screen.

It *might* be getting 'better', but it has only been a little while, so I do not know. If anyone knows of this happening and might be able to explain to me that LCDs go dark at an angle, I would love to know. I am a little scared, as I don't want to have a darker-to-lighter screen messing up my business.
Thank you in advance!

-Sadrigal

[Turnpike]

I'm by no means an expert on laptops or powerbooks, but the only thing I can think of is that it was on the couch. IIRC, heat is supposed to escape from the bottom, and leaving it on a surface that isn't hard and flat (or well-ventilated) can cause heat issues.

Why exactly a heat issue would do this to an LCD is something I do not know, but perhaps somebody with more expertise in that area will have something to say.

Were you doing anything strange with it at the time?

and just to clarify, how long after installing 10.3.6 did this happen?

you should probably also post which model PB you have.



Definitely sounds like a hardware issue to me, so I doubt 10.3.6 caused it, but I'm not sure if there is some kind of driver or something that could do something like this...



EDIT: oh yeah, and turn it off when you aren't using it until the screen clears up. This is no time to be worried about uptime!

[phantomo]

You mean like this? I don't have to look at it from the side to discover dimming from the left.

http://tinypic.com/kqc10

And this is the thread of my previous post on this issue. http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...60#post2278260

I have this dimming (uneven illumination) twice already. It is now in the hands of Apple repair center. They are replacing the LCD panel now.

From what I experienced, it is not temperature related. Just the defect from the fluorescene tube which is not lighting up properly. This effect come and goes, usually it is more noticeable after waking the display.

I suggest you bring it to Apple and have them to take a look.

[Sadrigal]

Exactly! I am experiencing exactly what you are. I have found, though, that if I restart my computer, the illumination becomes even again and slowly dims on the left side as time goes on.
I spoke with an Apple techie and he suggested I take it in to Apple [the nearest store is a an hour and a half away, so I wanted to make sure I couldn't just press a key command ].
Well, thank you guys for your help, I will be taking it in later this week. Hopefully, it will eiher miraculously fix itself or be very noticable in any condition (Unlike Turnpike's problems).
I will keep you posted as soon as something happens.

-Sadrigal

[Sadrigal]

In answering Turnpike's questions:

"Were you doing anything strange with it at the time?"

No, I was not doing anything strange at the time. I was sitting on the center cushion [out of three], my PB was on the cushion to my left. It was facing me, so it was tilted about 10 degrees. I was running SubEthaEdit, Safari, Adium X and [in the background] Fuskey and Winswitch.
I was instant messaging a friend while doing my homework. There might have been a bit of movement, as I was shifting around, but not more than there would have been if the PB was on my lap.
Again, I noticed it after a 5 minute break from looking at the screen. To my recollection, it was not getting worse over time, but being that it could have been dimming just under the 'just noticable difference' line, I could have been missing it for a very long time.

"and just to clarify, how long after installing 10.3.6 did this happen?"

I got .6 on November 5th, 2004 at 21:25:53 and this happened late Sunday night. Using my amazing math skills, that seems to be about two days [48 hours].

"you should probably also post which model PB you have."

I have included my machine specs in my signature. Thanks for the tips, Turnpike.

-Sadrigal