[pandabear]

Hello everybody,

I've got a problem with my Powerbook display.

Long story short: I broke the LCD panel, got myself a used one from eBay and replaced it on my own. As neither my knowledge of PB interna nor my skills or tools were optimal, I ended up with some instable contacts (it seems): The screen was showing some greyish stripes near the upper edge.

Trying to remdy that, I seem to have touched (and/or pressed on) the white tape area on the LCD panel's back. Now the screen behaves oddly:

Booting up OSX to an empty desktop is ok. Sometimes (ok, often) the menu bar area changes to inverted colors. Bringing up a window (like starting up Safari) causes the screen to flicker heavily. Also, the inverted colors disapper. Hiding away said window stops flickering and brings back inverted menu bar.

Has anyone of you guys (and gals ) had any experience with that kind of behaviour. Maybe an Apple techie around here? Please, any hint would help. I'm trying to get the notebook running to give it to my wife

Thanks a bunch!!

PS. My first post here (yay!)

[ChrisB]

What is the spec of the display panel you bought? Did it come with it's own controller board?

[romeosc]

Originally Posted by ChrisB

What is the spec of the display panel you bought? Did it come with it's own controller board?

... also which PB?

[ibook_steve]

Besides looking for answers to the questions of the previous posters, I have to say in general to everyone that if you don't have the appropriate tools and you don't really know what you're doing, don't try to fix your Powerbook. Take it to an Apple store, a service provider, or anybody else who is comfortable with repairing electronics. Heck, you could have even bought the screen on eBay and taken that to someone with your machine and had them install it for you. From your description, you could have damaged the new screen, damaged the cables, or somehow damaged your graphics chip if you weren't properly grounded. Sorry to spoil your first post and I'll help where I can, but you could have gone about this in a much better way since this may end up costing you more money than you were hoping for in the long run.

Steve

[pandabear]

The PowerBook is a Rev A 12" one (867 MHz..), which also is a bit explanatory to why I did it myself: no more Apple Care or warranty whatsoever & the notebook is hopelessly outdated (albeit really cute ). Taking it to repair would have cost quite a fortune then..

The LCD panel I bought is a Samsung one and came as a complete panel with no other parts, the model number is LTN121XJ-L01. I just fixed it with those screws and connected the power and signal cables.

Would there be any way to locate the problem? I read that the flickering might be related to problems with the panel's power supply..

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate you looking into this!

[ibook_steve]

The cables are not power and signal. The LVDS cable (flat connector) provides the signaling to the connector on the back of the panel. The inverter cable (pink and white wires) connects to the inverter board in the hinge to provide power and control to the backlight.

There's really no way to know what is wrong. There is no way to know if the panel is any good to begin with or if you damaged it somehow. I'm afraid to ask how much you paid for the panel.

Steve

[pandabear]

Around 150$. Think I'll pass by some Apple partner store after all.. :-/