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slider · Jan 30, 2004, 09:27 AM

well, too am reluctant to say anything as I was one who proudly said I had no spots, yep they appeared latter. I also had the uneven lumination on my screen when I had the white spots. I mentioned this to the tech support person, and he seemed a little suprised; not surprised about the white spots though. Anyways I set it back and got a perfect display back. We'll see if it continues. Funny, I still love my PowerBook dispite the screen issue that arose, yes, for the money it should have not problems, but it was not like I was stopped dead from working. I conitnued to work on my machine until things slowed down both for me and Apple. My turn around was 3 days. They fixed my loss of BT too.

Shaughn · Jan 30, 2004, 10:26 AM

I hear you, slider. I love this machine. I hate to see it go into the shop for repair. At the same time though, one of the appeals of the PB is how beautiful the display is. Having the left side of these forums be a bright white and the right side be gray just isn't acceptable.

If you do experience this problem, I encourage you to call Apple, for two reasons really. It'll help other people with the problem get better fixes down the road, for one. And more importantly, the problem WILL get worse over time. Both of my screens started out perfect, then got slightly dim, and eventually very uneven.

RAM resets, having the screen warm up for half an hour like techs have told me do nothing permanent.

Unfortunately, it seems that any fix at this point is temporary at best.

My PB, currently on its second screen, will probably go in sometime next week. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted.

~S~

hyteckit · Mar 14, 2004, 05:58 PM

Got my 15" powerbook 1.25GHz for a month. The uneven illumination is getting worst and worst. Right now it just woke from sleep and the left side is twice as bright as the right side. After about 10 mins, the right side gotten a little brighter, but still dimmer than the left side.

Damn!

EdipisReks · Mar 14, 2004, 10:16 PM

i've had my 1.25 powerbook since the end of january. i have intermittant uneven illumination, as well as an "L" shaped white spot towards the center of the screen. right now, the illumination is ok, but last night it was quite bad. in a couple weeks, when i'm on spring break, i'm going to call apple and get this fixed. the problems appeared about 3 weeks after i got the machine. its still useable right now, but the problems have gotten worse and worse in the past week and a half. if someone will tell me how to read the serial number, i will report when the machine was made.

justinf77 · Mar 14, 2004, 10:56 PM

Originally posted by EdipisReks:
if someone will tell me how to read the serial number, i will report when the machine was made.

Serial number: V7348...

You only need the first four numbers. All the serial numbers begin with V7, I believe. The next number is the year, so 3 for 2003, 4 for 2004. The next 2 numbers show what week it was manufactured, in this case the 48th week of 2003.

Hope this helps.

EdipisReks · Mar 15, 2004, 01:14 PM

mine was apparently built the 4th week of '04, which is strange, since i picked it up at the end of the 3rd week of '04. regardless, weren't these screen problems supposed to have been fixed by then? thanks.

hyteckit · Mar 15, 2004, 02:52 PM

Mine is made in 2004 also.

arekkusu · Mar 16, 2004, 09:05 PM

My 15" AlBook (V7341..., replacement for the original book which had a totally screwed up screen) developed four white spots after about a month of use. It also has uneven illumination, much darker in the lower right corner, although this is not noticeable if the screen is kept on FULL brightness all the time (which makes the brightness auto-adjust feature completely worthless.)

After living with these problems for a few months, I'm sending the book in for repair tomorrow. Will post with the results when it returns.

wy4tt · Mar 16, 2004, 10:22 PM

i could quote previous user, aside from sending mine in. i'm going to wait. however, mine is noticeably less bright on the right side even with full illumination.

wy4tt · Mar 16, 2004, 10:41 PM

btw, maybe i missed something but, why did the poll get closed?

TheBum · May 3, 2004, 01:54 PM

The 12" PowerBook I received in March 2003 developed uneven backlighting about three months after I got it. However, it's only a problem when the display is "cold". If I work with the PB for more than 15 or 20 minutes, the backlighting evens out, eventually getting to the point where the only unevenness is at the bottom where the display is anchored into the lid. I haven't attempted to get it serviced because of Apple's stance that it's normal for an LCD to take up to an hour to warm up.

Maccelerate · May 4, 2004, 08:08 AM

My 15" shipped in September '03. It had no uneven illumination. Spots started to appear after two months. I waited for a bit, and eventually called Apple after during the third month. By this time I was starting to get random kernel panics. I hoped Apple would be able to address all the issues at once.

I got a new screen back and it was dim on the lower center and right, and the KP's became more prevalent. I swapped memory and my problem got worse (if you're having problems too, use Samsung memory only!). I ended up sending back the unit after 5 memory modules, not a one of which worked. Apple replaced my new Crucial module with a Samsung module that has worked fine for almost a month, but my 2nd screen, was not replaced. It's as if there were a window with diffused sun behind me and a curtain is drawn over the right side and the shadow falls across the lower center and right hand side. Apple told me it was within spec. It may be, but it is not within [my] tolerance.

It is always brighter on the left unless set to full brightness (or the next notch below--not comfortable in a dark room) and given 10 minutes to warm up. Often, as now, when I'm typing in a darkened room and have the brightness down, the left portion of the screen is actually a dull yellow color and will never be completely uniform even after 4 hours of use.

It is difficult to send the 'Book to Apple, as I'm certain they realize (and plan on), because most of us buy a PowerBook to use, not send back and forth to service. Mine has been three times. On one hand, I'm cognizant of the costs and issues with a repair extension program. The screen does look good in other respects. I'm just very disappointed that Apple would accept such a poorly designed run of screens for it's most popular PowerBook and give us the cold shoulder. Quality Control/Assurance at Apple today is not acceptable.