Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

schk · May 26, 2003, 09:39 PM

I've decided to purchase an iBook relatively soon, but one thing bothers me when reading message boards regarding iBook problems. Granted, I do know people with no problems rarely will post that things are great, but the number of display problems with iBooks seem disturbingly high (especially on apple's forums). On top of that, it's not only old models, but the new models that people have owned for a few months that develop the flickering display, lines, or screen going completely dead.

The problems seem to stem from the display cable being worn down by opening and closing the lid of the iBook. I've seen some people mention this has been "fixed" in new revisions, but people with iBook 800 mhz systems have been reporting problems as well. I will be buying an iBook 900 12" and was wondering if I should be worried about eventually having a problem with the screen. I will be purchasing AppleCare as I believe in service plans on all laptops, but I would like to avoid having to deal with sending the laptop to be serviced. I want the iBook since it supposed to be a somewhat rugged laptop, but if the screen is going to give me problems, I'm very hesistant to make my purchase.

dampeoples · May 26, 2003, 09:51 PM

As with everything, you never see the happy people post about their problems. You also get bad one's in every bunch. I've got a 500MHz iBook that's not had any screen problems at all, or any problems other than needing a replacement battery.

x user · May 27, 2003, 01:28 AM

I've had a Clamshell, 500mhz, & 800mhz 12" with no problems other than battery life, which will be rectified with the warrenty.

bernt · May 27, 2003, 04:27 AM

I've had an iBook 600 (late 2001) and currentlyt have an iBook 800 (bought last december). One thing is for certain: I'll never buy an iBook again! The iBook 600 was sent to service two times with screen (and other) problems, and now on my 800, I've gotten the problem you described with the screen cable. Additionally, I have problems with slow cd-burner and very bad airport-reception.

So my advice is to go with the 12" PowerBook, or maybe wait for rev 2 of it. You get what you pay for IMO. There's no use of bullet-proof plastics on the iBook when its bulid quality is like sh*t...

Erlend

Peter · May 27, 2003, 05:56 AM

iBook? Problems?
I've never had any...

lemondrop · May 27, 2003, 07:37 AM

iBook 600 here and no problems. Just remember out of the hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) sold, we only hear about the bad ones. I would feel comfortable assuming apple fixed the cable thing. The iBook is an well used by many for a long time machine. You can bet most of the problems on the earlier revisions have been fixed. It's cheaper to fix the cable than deal with thousands of repairs. The iBook is about as solid as I would think a machine could be right now.

mark2 · May 27, 2003, 09:29 AM

There do seem to be more people having problems with their displays on iBooks than I would like to see, and I hope Apple has taken steps to eliminate the problem. As stated earlier, the problem seems to be brought about by the way the display wiring runs through the hinge.

On the other hand, I have owned my iBook 500 for just over a year and have had zero problems. I use this laptop many hours every single day and it's an incredible little machine. I use the ibook at home and at work.

The PCs at work (running XP) crap out every time you look at them, but the iBook keeps getting the job done. It's the best computer in the place.

I bought Apple Care because I figured there would be some kinds on problems that would come up with a laptop. If the display goes bad I'll just send it in. From what I've seen Apple's service is extremely fast and trouble-free. That's why I have Apple Care.

Would I buy another iBook? Absolutely. It's the best laptop out ther, IMO.

schk · May 27, 2003, 09:34 AM

For those of you who haven't had problems, how long have you owned those iBooks?

To bernt, I don't think a 12" Powerbook would solve the hinge wearing out the cable, as the hinge design is now similar to the iBook. So only time will tell if people start having the same problems with the display going bad. I'm just wondering if they have made any changes to the 900 model, or just changed the processor.

ewiser · May 27, 2003, 10:56 AM

Well I had the problem with my daughters 500ibook and after fixing it myself with help from Small Dog electronics. I can say that the cause was pinching of the cable. In the old cable you could see the crease in the wires and after testing with a multimeter I found a wire that was pinched and if you moved it you could get it to connect again.
The wires are tightly routed through the hinge area. An it is easy to have the problem.Those that do not have the problem are lucky and their wiring may have been routed well enough to avoid the problem. But this is an issue and is not just a small issue.

radarbob · May 27, 2003, 01:12 PM

For those of you who haven't had problems, how long have you owned those iBooks?

Got my iBook new-in-the-box in December 1999. My first 2-3 months I had a few pixels go bad / blank / non-illuminating / whatever. I performed "pixel massage" and that fixed the problem. No kidding. No problems since then.

I agree w/ the general sentiments in the thread. As I've said before if you go to a Porsche repair shop you'd think lot's of Porsches were having lots of problems.

macwayne · May 27, 2003, 11:07 PM

No problem with mine, the screen is )great '

'

-Q- · May 27, 2003, 11:21 PM

No trouble at all with my 500 iBook but I had my 800 for five or six months and developed the screen problem and had to send it in to be repaired.

Would I get another iBook? Definitely. It's been a solid machine for many years now. And I do love the form factor. While there does seem to be an inordinately high amount of people positng with screen problems, I really do think it's still a small percentage of the iBooks sold. It's still a great machine.

flojoe · May 28, 2003, 12:38 AM

Just got my new iBook 900 12'' on friday and I damn love it!!!! Been playing a bunch of warcraft 3 campaing and doing some photoshop. Going from the 466mhz Clamshell SE to this is REALLY eye opening. No screen problems yet. The trackpad is AWESOME on this laptop. I wasn't happy when I first tried it out but since then, I've done the whole human campaign on the iBook's trackpad. Is it my extreme skill or just the iBook's eL17e-ness? You decide.

pat++ · May 28, 2003, 01:50 AM

Originally posted by schk:
For those of you who haven't had problems, how long have you owned those iBooks?

500mhz iBook here. I've been using it every day for 2 years.

Tally-Ho · May 28, 2003, 11:03 AM

Same here. As soon as they hit the stores 2 years ago I went straight out and got one. It's been on for most days since then (gets very hot in the summer months) and has been abroad a few times. Very robust, very cute.

The screen is fine - only one dead pixel from new - and it's as bright as ever. None of the glitches originally mentioned. I too have heard of cables wearing out but I think the weak spot of all the early white iBooks is the HINGE. Oh my God, that HINGE and its dreadful creaking when you adjust it after half an hour of being on. I know there have been countless threads devoted to a cure. I've tried oiling, silicon sprays, loosening various bolts but all to no avail. It may be that that has something to do with premature wearing out of cables? Either way, some people either have the creak or they don't.

You will notice that the latest 12" PowerBooks (based on the iBook case) have significantly larger hinges. Hopefully they won't suffer the same 'creak' factor or potential cable wear-outs.

T-H

-------------------------

iBook 500MHz, G4 800 Quicksilver, 22" Cinema,
dyed-in-the-wool OS 6, 7, 8, 9 user.

schk · May 28, 2003, 11:12 AM

Thanks for all the feedback, I will go ahead and purchase a 12" 900 iBook after WWDC (just in case something cool is announced). I really want a portable laptop, and that only leaves me with the 12" PowerBook and iBook. Since my fears of a dead screen will happen on either of the two laptops since they share the similar hinge design, I will just hope I don't run into any serious problems. But since most of you have been using your iBook's for some years with no problems, I should be alright.

NYCFarmboy · May 28, 2003, 11:22 AM

For what its worth:

my ibook 500 purchased in November of 2001 has performed very well.

The screen is flawless and has worked perfectly.

I upgraded the hard drive from a 10 gig to a 40 gig. The 40 gig when it gets really hot just dies, but that only happened when I was running a Nikon CoolScan external slide scanner off of the ibook 24 hours a day.

It finally would just crash and not reboot until it cooled down for 12 hours...then it would work just fine. That may be the problem of the hard drive I had installed, and not apple's fault. I just don't know.

I've dropped it once on a wood floor about 5 feet. The CD tray came out almost the entire way, but I gently put it back in and it works just fine.

All and all, I'm very very very happy with it. The screen is very nice though and have never had one problem with it ever.

fhoubi · May 28, 2003, 11:29 AM

Today my 51 weeks old iBook (12" 700 combo) screen went dead...
That is first flickering, now completely dead...

She-it happens...

klinux · May 30, 2003, 03:04 PM

Dude... today I rebooted my iBook for the first time in seemingly ages (maybe not that long ago - exaggerating a little) and the screen is drawing seemingly random gibberish upon start up in the GUI mode.

It is fine in the single user mode (I am not sure if this is the correct term - the Command-option-s start up) and fsck runs fine, I can mount the disk etc. It is also fine in the grey screen stage but as soon as it moves into the Aqua screen stage the screen becomes unusable!

I have a 700 combo also approx 51 weeks old. It had the 10.2.4 battery problem which Apple replaced. Grrr.

Any ideas?

jtc · May 30, 2003, 04:25 PM

Originally posted by klinux:
Dude... today I rebooted my iBook for the first time in seemingly ages (maybe not that long ago - exaggerating a little) and the screen is drawing seemingly random gibberish upon start up in the GUI mode.

It is fine in the single user mode (I am not sure if this is the correct term - the Command-option-s start up) and fsck runs fine, I can mount the disk etc. It is also fine in the grey screen stage but as soon as it moves into the Aqua screen stage the screen becomes unusable!

I have a 700 combo also approx 51 weeks old. It had the 10.2.4 battery problem which Apple replaced. Grrr.

Any ideas?

Sounds like a video driver problem. Try booting from a CD or external drive to see if you still have the problem.

fhoubi · May 30, 2003, 04:56 PM

I doubt it. Klinux, take a good look at it. Otherwise send it to repair asap. Or buy Applecare, remember: one standard Apple repair costs more than 2 additional years of Apple-care.

My screen does al kinds of things: vertical lines, completely black, glibberishing.

Apple(care) is going to pickup my iBook next Monday.

foamy · May 31, 2003, 01:28 PM

Klinux,

Take that in for repair ASAP. Back up your data while you still can. It will die....very soon would be my guess.

x user · Jun 1, 2003, 12:09 AM

I had the 500 (And overclocked it) for about 8 months, then sold it, I kept in contact with the guy that purchased it, and know it was doing fine for a couple months after that. I've had my iBook 800 for about 3 months now.

Like I said, no real screen or Mobo probelms. And DON'T get the 12" PB yet, wait at least one rev.

zappy · Jun 1, 2003, 07:36 AM

The screen of my first generation iBook 500 still works fine. But I think my Airport signal strength seems to vary depending on how far I open the screen. I just hope that the cable from Airport card to Airport antenna, which is also routed through the hinge, is not damaged. Has anyone experienced a problem like this?

villalobos · Jun 1, 2003, 04:16 PM

Originally posted by zappy:
The screen of my first generation iBook 500 still works fine. But I think my Airport signal strength seems to vary depending on how far I open the screen. I just hope that the cable from Airport card to Airport antenna, which is also routed through the hinge, is not damaged. Has anyone experienced a problem like this?

Yeah I have the same issue with my 700 MHz combo. I know that the airport antenna goes around the screen, so there must be some wire running through the screen toward the airport card. I always wondered if that was related to the screen issue.... The funny thing is that it does not always happen. Sometimes the opening angle of the screen does not affect the airport reception. Sometimes it does right when the screen opening angle is above 90�. It's dead at around 100�, even when the Ibook is next to the wireless router.

I probably should bring it to the Apple Store before it's one year old...

villa

ThisGuy · Jun 1, 2003, 05:46 PM

i had a 500 with no screen problems, but it had the hinge problem. sold that one and got an 800 with no problems until about 1 month ago when my screen went blank. i had it fixed and apple replaced a sleep switch. it returned and two weeks later in the middle of using it the screen froze with horizontal lines all over it. i restarted to a black screen and apple is now fixing it again.

ewiser · Jun 4, 2003, 01:39 PM

Both airport and screen problems are related in that the antenna and balcklight wires are wraped together and go thru the same side hinge. So some one with airport problems that seem to come and go are having the airport antenna wire pinched. You can have mother board problems and video problems when the cable on the left side of the keyboard is pinched. There are several postings on the formum now with motherboard problems.