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Powerbook Woes
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Saramin
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Join Date: May 2004
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Mar 20, 2005, 06:22 PM
 
In the theme of clueless pebcak-prone people being hopelessly confused by tech problems beyond their understanding, I submit to you guys an issue my 12" Rev C PB ran into a few hours ago. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I was partaking in my vice of choice (World of Warcraft) when for no apparent reason that I could discern the screen fragmented into these strange pastels of gray and the computer froze up. It wasn't responding to my commands so I did a cold restart. Everything worked fine for about ten minutes or so, then again the same thing happened. I restarted. This time I got the blocky gray lines again at the startup screen. I could just make out the twisting circle animation that tells me the computer is booting. About five seconds in, the circle freezes and i get the standard screen telling me there was a critical error and I must restart. I do so, exact same thing happenens. Five more times the same procedure repeats.

I'm kind of at a loss at the moment. I've no idea what could have caused this and with finals looming this isn't the best of times for my to be computer-deprived. Any tips on fixing my powerbook?

Many thanks.
     
Pierre B.
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Mar 20, 2005, 08:00 PM
 
That's bad! It looks like you just fried your graphics chip. Can you boot from the system DVD to do the hardware test?
     
Saramin  (op)
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Mar 20, 2005, 10:17 PM
 
Originally posted by Pierre B.:
That's bad! It looks like you just fried your graphics chip. Can you boot from the system DVD to do the hardware test?
I lack both the system DVD (lost to fire) and the technical knowledge to know how to perform a hardware test.

I'd be willing to try whatever it takes though if someone could outline the procedure
     
Pierre B.
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Mar 21, 2005, 02:32 AM
 
Originally posted by Saramin:
I'd be willing to try whatever it takes though if someone could outline the procedure
Do you have in reasonable distance from you an Apple Store? Perhaps in Genious Bar they have the Hardware Test disk and can help you in diagnostics.
     
Saramin  (op)
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Mar 21, 2005, 02:07 PM
 
Alright, I finally got the bloody thing running in safe mode. It booted up to the desktop properly, but again everything on the display was fragmented. It's rather hard to describe. Every icon had these half in half mirror images floating around itself. Aside from that, they seemed to operate normally when I opened them. So it definetely seems to be a graphic chip issue. Is this covered by the default 1-year warranty? And is there anything I can do to fix it without sending it in?

Many thanks.
     
Pierre B.
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Mar 21, 2005, 02:31 PM
 
Originally posted by Saramin:
So it definetely seems to be a graphic chip issue. Is this covered by the default 1-year warranty?
Absolutely.


And is there anything I can do to fix it without sending it in?
I am afraid that if it is indeed a hardware problem, then there is no other way to get it fixed than sending it to Apple.
     
jamil5454
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Join Date: Oct 2004
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Mar 21, 2005, 05:23 PM
 
I say your VRAM went bad.

But, if you were using your laptop in a high temperature climate with little ventilation and high CPU usage, then that could cause the GPU itself to overheat, although usually this can be fixed by better cooling and a reboot.

A less severe reason could be that the GPU heatsink/fan is unseated.
     
Saramin  (op)
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Mar 21, 2005, 05:37 PM
 
Originally posted by jamil5454:
I say your VRAM went bad.

But, if you were using your laptop in a high temperature climate with little ventilation and high CPU usage, then that could cause the GPU itself to overheat, although usually this can be fixed by better cooling and a reboot.

A less severe reason could be that the GPU heatsink/fan is unseated.
It was operating under standard room temperature, as it had under similar conditions for months. I did not notice particularly intense heat radiating from the chassis.

In any case, I'm just shipping the thing to apple and having them deal with it. They're welcome to it. I assume cases like this warrant a simple replacement of the video adaptor and won't result in me recieving a new refurbished PB? I've backed up my data either way, just wondering.
     
   
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