Bad news: The iBook monitor is definitely dying. Discussions on the Apple support site have led me to believe that the bad design of the hinge has broken the wires connecting the display. As I’m out of warranty, it’s going to cost hundreds of dollars to fix (or the Snook and I are going to have to attempt the pretty tricky operation ourselves). Not happy, Jan.

Good news: The computer itself still works fine. I’ve got it connected up to the Snook’s mammoth monitor right now and damn it looks purty.

Annoying discovery: Apple intentionally crippled the iBook so that I can only mirror the display (i.e. I can’t turn off the laptop display or close the lid without the thing going to sleep) and I can’t get any resolution higher than 1024 x 768. Grrrr. I don’t know what I’m going to do.

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4 responses

  1. Dan

    Yeah I seem to remember hearing iBook display problems are a bit too common. Well, at least it’s just the connector and not the display itself. I think that could be a DIY project. As far as the lameo external monitor support, I think I also remember hearing about a hack to get around the artificial restrictions. I will look around and see if I can find it.

  2. Dan

    Yeah looks like there’s a hack you could do, but be careful because apparently people can screw it up.

    http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/ibook_e.html

    http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20021024062517608

  3. Kris

    Interesting. That just gives you an extended desktop though, right? I don’t need more desktop space; I just want to use the external monitor as my *sole* display (preferably being able to then shut the laptop case to save space). Although from what I’ve read, closing the lid might create some issues with heat that could damage the monitor itself.

    As for fixing the connector, I’ve read accounts of people DIY-ing it but it sounds like a major undertaking (at least four hours). You’ve also got to have lots of different tiny screwdrivers and you’ve got to be really careful about labelling where all of the screws go. I’m thinking of paying the $60 to have it examined at the service shop and see what they’ll charge me to fix it. The biggest problem there is it’ll probably take them a week to get back to me, meaning I’m computer-less at home for that whole time.

  4. Kris

    Well, not computer-less. We’ll still have the Snook’s Linux machine and the Windows box downstairs. But dammit, I like my Mac! 🙂