IBook G4 Display Removal

I recently bought a 2005 iBook G4 running Tiger. The display on the iBook was not working when I purchased it and I thought I could either replace the inverter or display and make a quick buck, however it is apparently a mainboard problem instead. I really do not want to bother with changing the mainboard, and the iBook works fine with an external display, so I was wondering if there was any way I could remove the lid of the iBook (screen, frame, etc.) and use only the bottom base connected to an external display (basically as a desktop). I thank you in advance for helping me with this issue!

Some ideas on the complexity of disassembly to remove the display
from the bottom section can be seen among the iFixit.com guides.
If the computer is considered an iBook G4 Mid-2005:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Device/iBook_G4_12%22_1.33_GHz
Some ideas from a troubleshooting part of their site:
http://www.ifixit.com/Wiki/iBook_G4_12%22_Troubleshooting
iBook G4 14" LCD removal instructions:
http://www.screentekinc.com/lcd-removal-instructions_en,apple.shtml
While physically removing the lid, LCD and cold fluorescent backlight
may seem appealing, there may be less trouble in an actual repair.
A takeapart could be problematic, but may be an adventure.
Good luck & happy computing!

Similar Messages

Main display removed - desktop

With the main LCD display removed, will the OS automatically make an external display the default? or will it still try and display the tool bar on the non existent LCD?

If it does, you can press the F7 key to turn on mirroring.

My ibook G4 display greys out after a few seconds, clicking on the screen returns it to normal.

My ibook G4 display greys out after a few seconds, clicking on the screen returns it to normal functioning. I have adjusted the delay times before the computer goes to sleep to no avail, so I'm thinking this issue stems from something else.

Have you tried resetting the PMU? The PMU (Power Management Unit) has control over the sleep function, so resetting it may help if the iBook is sleeping unexpectedly.

I received a new iBook G4 display but it does not fit in the board?

I ordered an iBook G4 display for an iBook G4 and set out to install it but the display has a 6-pin inverter cable while the logic board looks like it only receives a 4-pin cable.
Is there any way around this? Why do the displays have different pins?

No, I got the right display, Apple designed it wrong.
I have all the parts to an iBook G4 and they're all stupidly incompatible. I have a G3 screen with a completely different connector. I ordered a A1055 logic board and got a 14" board (for a 12"). Because Apple gives boards the same part number (whether they are 12" or 14").
I have two G4 logic boards with 4 pin inverter cable ports and 2 displays with 6 pin inverter cable input.
You can put a 4 pin inverter cable into a 6-pin inverter port. I'm going to cut 2 pins off of the inverter connector with an exactoknife and see if it works because this is ridiculous. I have all these parts and cannot even make 1 working laptop.

IBook G3 Display breaks into four panes

Our granddaughter's G3 iBook dual 12" has started acting strange. Every now and then the display will break into 4 separate identical green panes. This only lasts about one or two seconds then returns to the correct display. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks

If it comes to need the shim fix, there are simpler instructions suggested by John Sawyer in the Apple Discussions iBook G3 (Dual USB) Displays Forum:
[Y]ou can often fix this yourself by removing the iBook's bottom housing, and placing a shim of any sort, about 1mm to 1.5mm thick, onto the raised square on the bottom shield. I use a Scotch mounting square--you can get them in hardware stores and many grocery stores. When you reinstall the bottom case, it will press against this shim, which will press against the graphics chip, and may allow the chip to come into better contact with the logic board.
John Sawyer
CJS Macintosh Repair
Instructions for removing the lower case:
iFixit.com

Ibook g4 display screen going haywire

My Ibook G4 screen is seemingly deteriorating fast. When i boot up, I can baarely see the apple symbol and the spinning boot cycle. I have to place the screen at a very odd angle to see anything at all and even then it is faint. Once fully booted I can barely make out images, they are all faded, washed out and nearly monochrome. Only faint washed out colors appear.
I imagine my display is dying and needs replacing. Or perhaps it is a wiring issue. At any rate, if there is a simple solution, i would appreciate hearing any and all advice as i am overseas and far away from any authorized apple repair outlet.

To begin with, you may want to try a Power Management Unit reset.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT1431
If still no startup, any change if another attempt is made with the battery removed?
Also, if nothing else works, you could remove the hard drive (instructions at a web site like ifixit.com may be of help) and then connect it externally to a USB-to-ATA adapter (one example at http://www.newertech.com/products/usb3_universaldriveadap.php; similar devices can often be found in local computer stores). With the adapter connected to another Mac, it may be possible to retrieve files.
Jan

10.3.9 booting classic 9.2.2 on ibook G3 display srinks

I posted the following as a reply to someone with similar problem in" ibook dual usb display" discussions board,-to no avail except being told i may have installed the wrong OS- but thought that i may get a better response if i post it to OSX board - sorry if the duplication is not appropriate - classic works fine in osx
In OS 10.9.3 i boot to OS 9 directly the display screen starts out full size 1024x768 but than reverts to a half size 800x600 - i do not have the original cd's that came with the ibook - i have original 0sx 10.3 cd's but they do not include classic system - have been told that there was an extra install disk that had os9 classic system, but i do not have it and can not find it anywhere- 9.2.2 runs fine from osx (10.3.9) classic, but i have one proprietary software package that will not boot from classic and i have to boot into 9 directly to get that software to run, which it does - BUT - only having a half size screen is a pain. Is there a workaround to get the system to recognise the full screen display? The monitor control panel indicates i have two displays one 640x480 one 1024x768 - somewhere read that by plugging in external monitor jack and reinstalling 9 solved the problem - do not have cable any discussion on this would be helpful!
I just plugged a rgb monitor into the rgb port and the ibook boots using 9.2.2 and the screen is full size on both the RGB and the LCD - monitor control panel shows both lcd and rgb at 1024x768 when i disconnect the rgb plug the screen stays full size - BUT upon reboot with the RGB plug out it boots to the half screen again - boot with the RGB monitor plugged in , but not powered up it boots to a full screen - i am stumped - id like to use this ibook with a full screen without having to plug in a RGB monitor to have it work correctly - is it a OS problem? or what any ideas??????
I am currently reinstalling 9.2.2 on the ibook with a full screen after starting up with the RGB monitor plugged in but do not have much hope that it will reboot full screen - That did NOT work
thanks in advance for any assistance - you all have been nothing but wonderful in getting to the bottom of problems. thanks!
Message was edited by: TetonArtGallery

I posted the following as a reply to someone with similar problem in" ibook dual usb display" discussions board,-to no avail except being told i may have installed the wrong OS- but thought that i may get a better response if i post it to OSX board - sorry if the duplication is not appropriate - classic works fine in osx
In OS 10.9.3 i boot to OS 9 directly the display screen starts out full size 1024x768 but than reverts to a half size 800x600 - i do not have the original cd's that came with the ibook - i have original 0sx 10.3 cd's but they do not include classic system - have been told that there was an extra install disk that had os9 classic system, but i do not have it and can not find it anywhere- 9.2.2 runs fine from osx (10.3.9) classic, but i have one proprietary software package that will not boot from classic and i have to boot into 9 directly to get that software to run, which it does - BUT - only having a half size screen is a pain. Is there a workaround to get the system to recognise the full screen display? The monitor control panel indicates i have two displays one 640x480 one 1024x768 - somewhere read that by plugging in external monitor jack and reinstalling 9 solved the problem - do not have cable any discussion on this would be helpful!
I just plugged a rgb monitor into the rgb port and the ibook boots using 9.2.2 and the screen is full size on both the RGB and the LCD - monitor control panel shows both lcd and rgb at 1024x768 when i disconnect the rgb plug the screen stays full size - BUT upon reboot with the RGB plug out it boots to the half screen again - boot with the RGB monitor plugged in , but not powered up it boots to a full screen - i am stumped - id like to use this ibook with a full screen without having to plug in a RGB monitor to have it work correctly - is it a OS problem? or what any ideas??????
I am currently reinstalling 9.2.2 on the ibook with a full screen after starting up with the RGB monitor plugged in but do not have much hope that it will reboot full screen - That did NOT work
thanks in advance for any assistance - you all have been nothing but wonderful in getting to the bottom of problems. thanks!
Message was edited by: TetonArtGallery

Password protected PDF in iBooks not displaying

I loaded a password protected PDF into my iTunes library and then synced it with iPad (4th gen iOS 6.1.3). I see the PDF in iBooks on the iPad and when I click on it, it prompts for the password. I input the password and PDF "opens" but it's just the blank grey screen showing page 1/1 (it's supposed to be a 79 page document). Any ideas? I took the password off the document and loaded that one into iTunes then my iPad and it displays just fine. I did this same sequence with a different document and with the password it didn't display and without the password it did display.
If there is an issue with iBooks, any way to sideload this into Adobe Reader, or somehow "Open in" Adobe Reader from iBooks?
Thanks
Dan

It looks like this issue may be limited to files that have been set to restrict the user's ability to print or edit the document (even after a password has been entered for viewing). I found that a password-protected PDF could be viewed in iBooks, but after I added the print restriction, I had the same problem you reported.

Ibook G4 display defaults to 800x600 VGA display after 10.4.6 update

Hi Folks:
I just updated (my brand new) ibook G4 from 10.4.5 to 10.4.6 and now the display is recognized as a VGA display only, defaults to 800x600, and lost its brightness controls.
This is very strange, since the machine is brand new and the only third party software I have installed is Office 2004, Virtual PC with XP home edition, and Firefox.
Any insights or help would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
lhh
PS: I considered reinstalling the the 10.4.4 OS that came with the system, to my dismay I found that as the machine rebooted from the recovery disk it still thought that it was connected to a 800x600 VGA display. I assume something fundamental in the ROM got jiggled around during the update from 10.4.5 to 10.4.6 -L
ibook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6)
mac mini, ibook Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Thanks for the recommendations...I tried them but they didn't work.
However, I made some progress in describing the situation a bit better:
(1) I don't get the grey startup screen with the apple logo and the spinning thingy
(2) I assume that this means that the firmware for my default display is somehow broken
(3) this also implies that when I try to go into hardware checking mode I cannot see the prompt for the target drive because at that point the system is trying to write to the broken display driver.
I assume the reason why I wind up with a vga display is that OSX panics when it realizes that there is no proper monitor and installs a vga driver.
Any suggestions how I can restore the firmware back to the original display driver. I tried resetting pram, to no avail. I also tried to reset nvram, but I cannot see the prompt
Thanks,
lhh
mac mini, ibook Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Ibook - External Display problem

Hi,
I have ibook G3 running on Mac OS 10.1.3
Its screen starts flickering and hence I connected new external monitor using VGA adopter.
It worked fine for a month. Now I am facing a strange problem... red colour is missing from external monitor.
ibook display though it is flickering, shows red colour
Monitor is new and I don’t think it is monitor problem.
Any idea what's happening!!
Regards,
-Manoj

Have you tried disconnecting and reconnecting the external display?
Yes. However, no change...
Have you tried restarting the computer?
Yes. However, no change...
Have you tried calibrating the monitor?
Yes. However, no change...
It could be that you need a new display adapter
Let me try this...
Thanks and Regards,
-Manoj

IBooks not displaying books

This only happens on my iPad (G1). While Browsing the authors list I'll tap an author name, but no books show up, it just keeps flashing the "Tap an author in the list to browse their books" message. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app. It works fine from my iPod Touch.

No other Spaces set up. Just main Desktop but the Book window clearly disappears offscreen.
Window > Zoom does help for me in that the book will appear in a small window. From there going Fullscreen works.
But the next time I open iBooks I have to go through the same process all over again.
Reminds me of issues I used to see on other machines of windows trying to open in the screen of an external monitor that is no longer attached. Maybe I should delete Display preferences.

IBooks not displaying since updating to OS 6

Since updating to OS6, I have had a few issues with my phone.
This one involves my iBooks. Severa of my books are displaying the following error message in a red box when I try to open them:
"This page contains the following erors:
error on line 1 at column 1: Document is empty error on line 1 at column 1: Encoding error
Below is a rendering of the page up to the first error.
And there is nothing below the box. Table of contents shows up, but if I select one, it goes to the same error. It also looks like the book only recognizes 11 pages, all of them with the big red box and error message.
I want to get these restored, seeing as I paid for them (go figure, right?).
Thanks!
Andrew

I don't know if this has been solved yet, but I have an update to my original reply.
I too am having the same issue. I took my phone to work and hooked it up to the wi-fi and hit backup just to see if it would work. and guess what... it worked! So its apparently not a problem with iOS 6...
Still won't work at home, though it works for my sister and dad..
Has anyone figured anything out?

IBooks not displaying pictures, why?

I bought a book in iBooks. It's a book made for iBooks, but the pictures are not being displayed. What's wrong? I've already erased the book and downloaded it again, no success. Don't know what to do.

Yes, those are placeholders for the pictures. I have tried clicking and other stuff, but they dind't appear. I tried downloading it again today and got this error:
Thing is, i've tried several times. Coud it be a bug in iBooks?

IBook G4 Display Problem

I am having a display problem that looks exactly like the video link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFzfdq3xMrI
What could be the cause of the problem?
Some possibilities:
If the display cable, how can this be replaced without taking the whole thing apart - is there a simpler way?
If a video card heatsink problem, is this an easy fix?
Many Thanks.

This appears to be a continuation of an issue you noted in September, as the
display had some problems then and after trying a few things, it seemed to be
stable at the time.
Perhaps the components involved with the iBook then are behind this problem.
Does not seem any easy path could be available to fix the problem, since the
parts most likely to be affecting or contributing to the symptom are deep enough
into the computer to require tedious disassembly effort. And odd screw locations.
Looking into the iFixit guide for iBook G4 12" 800MHz to 1.2GHz series build:
https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iBook_G4_12%22_800_MHz-1.2_GHz these
items may be weak or failing: the inverter, inverter/airport cables, and there
may be an indirect issue with the data display cable as they get bent & can
fail. The rolling & flickering image may be the inverter, but there are a few
components that essentially are not replaceable on the logic board that can
be the cause of display failure when these other items have not failed.
And a failing graphic processor or overheating may be contributory causes to
the symptoms. A complete diagnostic test, probably beyond most AASPs interest
may be required to troubleshoot the device accurately. So many don't want to fix
the older hardware, perhaps they're fearful of someone not willing to pay a lot to
have an older machine repaired. Hard to say...
You may need to enlist the aid of a specialist who restores and refurbishes
Apple portable computers and who has sufficient facilities to repair almost
everything in most any of these computer models... wegenermedia.com.
Since they have devised methods to fix these correctly & more efficiently
that may be a way to go. To call them &/or email after looking at their web
site can be helpful to discuss the matter and their processes of repair, etc.
Sorry to not be of much help, but in the process of locating correct service
and repair, you may also consider obtaining a second iBook or something
that can run the software of that vintage, to extend the usefulness of it.
Good luck & happy computing!

Ibook g4 display

Hi all,
I've seen a couple of posts about faulty ibook displays but wondered if anyone had an opion on mine. The display on my g4 ibook (the last model before the macbooks replaced them) is not working properly. The bottom third of the screen is 'bleached', in other words, you can just about make out what is on the screen, but it is almost totally white. When you twist and adjust the screen, you can sometimes get the entire screen back. This worked for a while, however, the length of time that it works for is getting shorter and shorter, to the point where it will only work for a few seconds now if you're lucky.
It is just out of its two year warranty, and i spoke to an authorised apple repair centre, who want £95 to diagnose, and the estimated a further £300 for a new screen.
For an old machine, £400 to fix is clearly expensive, but £100 is justifiable. Does anyopne have an idea of what may be wrong, or how much i tshould cost to fix/where to get a fixed. I'm based in London.
Thanks very much,
Nick

Hi Nikos,
I am just in the middle of looking for the same info regarding a 800 mHz G3 "Stinky" iBook. I've already diagnosed the same problem, (hopefully I'm right).
I'm not sure of the exchange rate (I'm in Canada) but I would not be surprised to see that cable new for around $50, maybe more. The labour is going to be pricey because taking apart a laptop is time-consuming.
It's not like a desktop where they can just reach in and drop in the new part; it's more like when you have your car fixed and it's a $20 part and $400 labour. The Labour comes from the amount of time and number of other things they have to disassemble just to get to the point that they can do the actual five-minute job. Laptops are so densely arranged that just about anything you try to do to them will involve taking out half of the stuff, then putting it all back in.
Here's my plans:
1. decide if i'm okay with bricking the whole works due to my own incompetence. I think I'm okay with it, I just have to check with the actual owner of the iBook.
2. Find the cable on ebay with assurances that there are no frays or damaged insulation. I've seen them for $10 - $50
3. Locate the iBook disassembly instructions on the internet that I've seen before, but can't remember where. Working on that right now, in fact, but if anyone wants to drop me a refresher link, I would much appreciate it.
4. Electrocute myself and start a fire.
Good luck to you!

IBook G4 Display Removal

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