I think my iBook is screwed...

rainbow kirby

I've got a 4 month old iBook G4 12", 1.2GHZ, 512MB RAM, 30GB HDD, 10.4.2... which I'm very happy with. Until this weekend. Pretty much every time I wake it from sleep the screen is messing up for a while. The top 1/3 of the screen looks like a faded version of the normal background, and the lower 2/3 of the screen is just blue with irregularly-spaced white lines. After anything up to about 30 seconds it resumes normal operation, but this is incredibly annoying.
Has anyone got any ideas?
It tends to be worse when I've recently moved the laptop, and I carry it around a lot (I bring it to college every day because I'm a CS student. It's in a Quiksilver laptop backpack when I'm not using it in college). It hasn't ever been dropped.

monkeyfudge

Sounds like a problem with the logic board.

A large number of certain iBooks shipped with faulty logic boards... but I thought it was only with the older G3 iBooks... but it sounds like exactly the same problem that you are describing.

rainbow kirby

I'm taking it to get checked either tomorrow or Friday. This is wrecking my head, it's only 4 months old and it's my first laptop!

babypink

honestly i wouldn't take it anywhere....just ring apple...for something like that they won't dick you about. they'll get UPS out to you to take the machine either to the uk or holland. More than likely the UK. I've had machines turned around in 3/4 days.

Wibbs

Sounds like the inverter or the inverter cable. A very common problem. As others said, ring Apple about it.

monkeyfudge

They'll fedex you out an empty box which you stick the iBook in and then fedex come and pick the box up.

I've got about 9 little iBooks to take care of in the office here and the last time this happened to one of them I had it back within 2 days. I believe Apple tend to use a company called Mactivate in Blanchardstown for repairs, so the turnaround can be pretty quick.

rainbow kirby

Do they charge you for phone support when you ring them up to get something like this sorted? Just looking on the site, and they seem to want to charge you 47 euro for phone support when you've had the laptop for more than 90 days... :eek:

monkeyfudge

Yeah... That is a stupid policy actually.

They really want you to take up their Apple Care packages..

I find their customer support to be very poor... once you ring customer support all the nice friendly Cork accents dissappear and are replaced with some guy in India, and you can't understand him and he can't understand you.

What you should do is get in touch with Mactivate directly. They can carry out warrenty repairs for you.

http://www.mactivate.ie/

deRanged

rainbow kirby wrote:

Do they charge you for phone support when you ring them up to get something like this sorted? Just looking on the site, and they seem to want to charge you 47 euro for phone support when you've had the laptop for more than 90 days... :eek:

I ran into this problem the other day with my ibook - had a hardware failure and rang Apple to get it sorted. The guy on the phone confirmed that I was within my hardware support period, but because I was outside the 90 days he wanted me to pay before he'd sort the hardware issue!
There's some sort of chicken and egg thing that I never got to the bottom of - I just hung up after 3 rounds of being told I was covered but had to pay.
I think you can pay and send it in, and if they confirm that it's a hardware issue they repay the 47 euro telephone fee.

I took it to a certified apple repair place in Cork and they were great.
I just landed in with the ibook, gave them the serial number, they confirmed that it was within hardware warranty and handed me a new airport card.

I strongly recommend an apple repair centre - not Apple tech support.

rainbow kirby

E-mailed Mactivate now, just waiting to hear back.
I like the look of their free courier service... I live in Tallaght and taking my iBook to Blanchardstown would be an almighty trek!

monkeyfudge

ohhh... that is a nice service with the free laptop pick up...

I've got a dead iBook and a dead Powerbook sitting in front of me... I think I'll give them a call... alas I think the poor powerbook is beyond help... it had a nasty run in with an ex-girlfriend...

irlrobins

monkeyfudge wrote:

it had a nasty run in with an ex-girlfriend...

you didn't throw it at her did u????

monkeyfudge

irlrobins wrote:

you didn't throw it at her did u????

No of course not... I'd never treat my powerbook like that.

It was actually an unpleasant Baileys spilling incident...

irlrobins

monkeyfudge wrote:

It was actually an unpleasant Baileys spilling incident...

mmm.....sticky....