My Dead/Dim/Dark Display - Fixed!

I recently moved to a new apartment, and my iMac was unplugged for a couple of days. I set it up in the new place, and it started up. The screen quickly flashed gray, then went black. The monitor was very dim (no backlight), but I could see the login window and hear the drive working.
After totally freaking out, I tried the suggestions I found here: zapping PRAM a few times and booting into Open Firmware to reset NVRAM. Neither of those appeared to work.
What DID work was booting into Single User mode (hold down Apple-S while starting the computer). The white-on-black command-line interface loaded, I typed 'reboot', hit enter, and the machine works fine now.
Clearly my problem was software-related; I'd recommend trying the steps I went through before paying for a hardware repair.

I didn't take his post as "not nice". If anything, he was trying to be nice to the majority of people who were not as lucky as you. Call it voodoo, or just plain dumb luck, it's pretty clear to me given the experience I've had repairing Apple displays over the years that Apple's displays often have backlight inverter problems. It's also clear that Apple's lousy 1 year warranty on displays falls far short of almost every other display on the market. It's also clear that Apple has not made any commitment to help people out who suffer this rampid display problem, and believe me, there are more of them than you realize (what you see posted here is only a sample). So while it is nice that you think you found a solution that would help people, it isn't really a solution to the backlight inverter problem. My guess, is this is a fairly educated guess based upon experience, is that your iMac had a "hiccup", but it is on its way to the backlight inverter demise. I'd be interested in hearing how your iMac is doing in another 6 months.

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Dim/Dark Screen, How to fix it?

I own a Black 3G iPhone that has recently suffered from water damage. I had fixed it from the water damage a day after it had dropped into the toilet (the toilet was clean thank god) but a series of other problems had occurred after fixing it up. Such as harder to press Home Button, some problems regarding its performance, but nothing as worse as having a Dim/Dark Screen.
I had used it one night from texting and calling people to leave it in my charger cradle for the rest of the night. But that morning I had awoken to my phone being a dim/dark screen. I've tried adjusting the brightness meter but it still was dim. I tried blocking the proximity sensor and the ambient sensor with my finger to see if anything would happen but nothing happened. I opened the phone and gave it a yonder and everything was securely in and dry.
I had already restored it, restarted it, what else could I do to preserve me from going to the apple store.

Nowadays with all the chips/circuitry so embedded into single chip sets and boards a problem in one area will effect the unit as a whole and is unfixable other than to replace the whole board unfortunately but welcome to the disposable generation is one of the downsides of downsizing (pun intended) electrical equipment. you could try to find a repair centre to look at it but it sounds like you have multiple failures over multiple portions of the elec board and i would say by the time you had replaced all the damaged components the total cost with labour and all would be far and above the cost of a new phone sorry but i reckon unless you can live with the issues (which will probably get worse over time as more components are affected) i would suggest looking at buying a new one

Emac 1.42 ghz external display mirroring will it solve dark display problems ?

I have an emac 1.42 ghz and the display is getting dark I have the contrast turned all the way up and the contrast turned up one notch in the universal access. When the computer is shutdown sometimes when it starts back up it is very dark almost unusable until it warms up or is running for about 20 minutes. Then it is normal. If I use an external monitor on the mini vga port with an apple adapter will it have the same darkness/display problems. I really like this computer but if the external display wont fix the problem I will need to wipe the drive while I still have a useable display

I'd say it's likely to help using a different monitor.
I think you could possibly check by doing a Screen Capture, which I believe gets it frm the graphic card, then view that capture on aniher computer, or post it here for us to view.

I phone 4 goes dim/dark during use

Replaced a cracked screen, phone comes on fine but after brief usage the screen goes dim/dark. Pressing the sleep/awake button on top will usually bring it back to normal but it continues to do this until I do hard reset. If I hold the phone at an angle, I can still make out that there are icons, phone is still on, calls and alerts still come through. Have done sleep/home buttons reset. If it were a connector issue I would think the screen would not come on at all... Any help would be appreciated!

Try hard reset. If not Resore as new iPhone. iOS 4.0.1 Made signal much more reliable. Unless of course at&t service is actually alot worse than previous phones showed.

My iphone 4 turned off and will not turn back on. i know it is not dead, how do i fix it.

my iphone 4 turned off and will not turn back on. i know it is not dead, how do i fix it.

Charge with the mains charger for 15 minutes, then disconnect and hold HOME and SLEEP until an Apple logo appears (about 10 seconds).

My iphone 4 will not charge and the battery is dead how do i fix this?

My iphone 4 will not charge and the battery is dead how do i fix this?

If it's still under warranty, Apple will fix it, but you have to send it to them, so you won't have it for several weeks. If the warranty is expired, they'll still do it, but you'll have to pay for it. Last I heard, it costs $99/S&H.
That is the ultimate defect in the iPhone. No other cellphone has a battery that is not user-replaceable. I won't buy a phone that doesn't.

Go-openoffice-dark-gtk-fix does not work

Installed and ran openoffice-dark-gtk-fix, but go-openoffice still loads with dark theme.
So, I reinstalled go-openoffice and ran go-openoffice-dark-gtk-fix, but still no results
Clearlooks theme installed, and works
/usr/share/themes/Clearlooks/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
[doctor@doctor ~]$ cat /usr/bin/soffice
#!/bin/sh
env GTK2_RC_FILES=/usr/share/themes/Clearlooks/gtk-2.0/gtkrc env OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome /usr/lib/go-openoffice/program/soffice1 "$@"
[doctor@doctor ~]$ cat /usr/lib/go-openoffice/program/soffice
#!/bin/sh
env GTK2_RC_FILES=/usr/share/themes/Clearlooks/gtk-2.0/gtkrc env OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome /usr/lib/go-openoffice/program/soffice1 "$@"
So, every time I start openoffice
/usr/bin/soffice
it is not loading with Clearlooks theme.

I personally use gtk-qt-engine-svn, gtk-chtheme, qtconfig, and systemsettings to select themes.
I am using a universal look, for all apps, with QtCurve.

How to dim your display by waving at your MBP

Brand new MBP: I've discovered that if I hover both hands over the speakers (at the same time), the display dims and remains dimmed until I move my hands. Presumably this has something to do with the light sensor, but doesn't strike me as acceptable as it's too easy to dim the display... Anyone else?

I've been hoping Apple would invent a Theremin version of the PowerBook. It would operate on the principle of electromagnetic capacitance like the capacitive sensors on my DVI display. Simply massage the space around the MBP and you get some sort of input.

Dark display

10 year old flat panel iMac with dark display. Boot chime OK sleep OK

Is it too dark to see anything or does it show the icons and windows but looks as if you are wearing dark sunglasses?
If it is totally dark, shine a bright light like an LED flashlight onto the screen near the top of the display and see it you can detect the menubar. If so, the display part is working but the backlighting has failed.

Power Manager idle timers don't work correctly when set to dim the display in 15 minutes

Instead of dimming the display to 0 on AC power, Power Manager dims it to 4, which is a normal setting when on DC power. Then when the laptop is resumed by tapping a key, it "restores" the brightness to an incorrect setting of 15, and a few seconds later back to 8, which is the correct setting. I haven't noticed this problem when setting to dim the display below 15 minutes, but the restoration of screen brightness onscreen notification is displayed twice in both cases.

Hey there lenssd9,
It seems strange that the Power Manager would be behaving this way, although speaking with some colleagues they also have encountered similar occurences- but instead describing it as if "the engine were warming up with a high idle, and then returning to a standard idle."
What I can recommend is to first, ensure that your Power Manager Software is up to date. And then try adjusting the configuration within the Power Manager. If you will, see if you encounter this with a idle display under 15 minutes.
Thank You lnssd9, I look forward to your response.
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Windows 7 "Dim the display" and brightness controls missing

Is this another driver problem? I would think the Nvidia drivers would support this new feature in Windows 7.
http://www.technospot.net/blogs/windows-7-automatically-dim-display-screen/

I suspect you need another driver (not the video card driver) since these function require control of the backlight. It seems Apple does not provide a standard driver that can be used by Windows as the display brightness can only be controlled through Apple's bootcamp drivers in the bootcamp control panel or using the keyboard shortcuts.
Even in Vista, if you go to the Windows mobility centre (Win+X)there should be a panel for display brightness. This panel is missing in bootcamp, suggesting the necessary drivers are missing. This is a shame, but I wouldn't hold my breath for Apple to ever provide these. Then again, I didn't think Apple would ever fix the touchpad drivers for Windows, but they seem to have finally done so in the Bootcamp 3.0 beta drivers, so maybe someday...
Windows 7 also supports automatic brightness changes based on an ambient light sensor, but again, no appropriate driver supplied by Apple...

Help with color setup, pictures printing dark, display looks great

Ok, first let me say I am completely new to Mac, so some of this may sound incredibly stupid but I really need some direction as to how to solve a color issue. Please bare with me as I describe what is probably a most simple fix to those of you with knowledge.
My issue is that I have great display, the pictures, (some taken with a Nikon D100 and D200 in raw format) look wonderful on screen and then, I print.... and for lack of a better description, they appear darker and less "colorful".
The printer is an Epson Photo R1800 which did a wonderful job while on my windows box (using photo shop elements). I had the problem before and after leopard so not an os issue.
I have looked around a bit and found information regarding calibration, icc profiles, etc... and have downloaded the icc profiles from the Epson website. I guess my frustration is that I expected this to be more straight forward as I did nothing but install drivers on the windows box and the pictures printed as they looked on screen, which is my ultimate goal since I am not a pro.
I guess I cannot understand the need to buy another piece of equipment to calibrate a display just to print family photos and it just doesn't make sense to me that the display, which is truly a great picture, needs to be dulled down to match what the printer is putting out. This appears to me to be more of a printer output or driver issue than the display being incorrect.
Sorry for the rant, it is one of frustration and admitted ignorance.
Would much appreciate any help.
Ben

hbthomas3 wrote:
it just doesn't make sense to me that the display, which is truly a great picture, needs to be dulled down to match what the printer is putting out. This appears to me to be more of a printer output or driver issue than the display being incorrect.
What is (probably) happening is that the output to the display is boosting the picture to "look great" whereas what you actually need to do is have a neutral display and then adjust the picture to make it look good on that neutral display.
That's why you need to calibrate the display if you want accuracy when you print.
You may also require the output profiles for your printer, so that when the picture is printed the printer driver makes the correct mapping to the inks and paper.
There's been some other colour management threads recently - search for those and follow the links to some good articles that will explain all you need to know about colo(u)r management. It's very, very, important to get this right when you are printing for yourself, or even when you are sending the image off to a good lab to print.

IPhone 5 with iOS 8 - Auto Brightness too dim / dark

Hi all,
I just updated my iPhone 5 to iOS 8 and the auto brightness makes the screen too dark and hard to read. This was not an issue with iOS 7 on my phone. I've tried using some of the calibration tips online, but none seem to help.
When I am outside, it's fine, it will automatically adjust the brightness all the way up. The issue is inside, then the auto-brightness will make the screen too dim to be able read very well.
I know I could turn off the auto brightness feature and manually adjust the brightness, but I really liked the feature with iOS 6 and iOS 7.
Is anyone else having this issue? Any tricks I could do to fix this, or is this just an issue with iOS 8 on iPhone 5s? It would be nice if Apple gave us more control with auto brightness, like maybe letting us set the min and max brightness when it is on auto.
I did see this post from jedi31780 where his iOS 8 auto brightness isn't adjusting at all, but other than that, I haven't see any other posts online about this yet.
iOS 8 Brightness
Thanks

Thanks! I went into settings under brightness when I was in a room where I felt the iPhone was too dim and I moved the brightness up till I was happy with it. it now uses that as a baseline and adjusts from there instead of where it was before, so no longer too dim. I thought I already tried that before, but either I adjusted it again to thy the calibration steps, or maybe I adjusted it from the "control center" screen and maybe that one doesn't save.
Either way, all is good now. Thanks for the tip!

Videos look dark displayed using projector, but OK in my laptop?

this one seems to be a common problem. I have been lecturing in several medical meetings and when colleagues show embedded videos in their presentations, they look very dark. Sometimes they are so dark that miss completely the point. I have had the same problem, to the point where I have had to skip a slide with video because it is so dark that it cannot be seen on the main projector screen. The curious thing is that in my laptop screen they look fine when I am presenting... but very dark when they are projected. Any ideas to solve this problem? Thanks in advance!

I don't have the same problem (i.e. videos too dark) but I'll bet it's the same solution. My problem was that the Keynote presentation on the LCD were way too dark. Funny thing was that if I opened up the systems preferences dialog box, they looked fine. Hummm.
Turns out that it was an issue with a change in the latest OS and how apple now handles the gamma setting in external displays. I don't recall all the details but Snow Leopard seems to use the new standard gamma of 2.2, making output too dark. The output gamma should be closer to 1.8.
To fix this, you need to adjust the color profile for the LCD projector that you are using.
To fix a projector, the projector must be plugged in and turned on to do this.
If you go to System Preferences, Displays and the Color option. You'll see a list of Display Profiles. There will be a dialog box on both the computer screen and the projector screen. To get them both on the computer screen to make editing a little easier you can click Gather Windows at the bottom of the dialog box on the computer.
I found it easier to just Calibrate the monitor and same a new profile - you can also uncheck the Show profiles for this display only and pick another profile like one of the sRGB profiles. To calibrate, click the Calibrate button (be sure you do it on the dialog for the LCD projector) I'd click Expert Mode - this will give you more options when adjusting the Gamma. Run through the Calibration routine making sure that you select a Gamma that is closer to 1.8 instead of the 2.2.
At the end, same the profile and then everything on the external display should look much better.
When researching my issue, there seemed to be consensus that using a digital interface the projector was better than the normal VGA cable. Didn't have a cable to try that.
Once you do this, the machine should always recognize the projector and behave properly. Seems a pain to have to do this but I didn't find any other alternative. The good thing is that I have not had to do this on every projector that I use. I have my own projector that has always worked properly.
I teach at a university where the rooms have mounted projectors - some work with no change, others I have to calibrate...
Try it out, hope it helps...

Help dark display

hi folks i need to know something about the display i recently got a power book g4 400mhz titanium well i installed a display on it cause it didn't have one on it and pinched the backlight cable.
i patched the cable but now the back light don't work when the cable got pinched the computer made a odd noise from the right side like it was from the inverter board but i don't know.
could the inverter board need replacing cause i am using it on a external monitor right now so i know it ain't the video chip that has gone bad
here is the specs power book g4 titanium m5884 400mhz g4 processor 384megs ram 30gig hard drive

thanks for the help cause the guy that i am getting parts from to fix up this machine said that it was the backlight
do you know if i can run os x tiger i have a 30gb hard drive thanking of upgradeing 384 megs ram going to upgrade to 1 gig 400mhz g4 processor
i have owned three apple laptops a powerbook 1400c/133that was used when i got still have it and can boot after all this time and a ibook g3 500 mhz 12in great g3 laptop now useing the powerbook g4 with a dark screen but i like the powerbook line allthough i haven't used a g3 powerbook but if they are as good as my powerbook 1400 was in durabilty i would say it would be a great computer i love the powerbook line don't get the ibook the video chip died which fired the mb on mine 3 months after i got it from the used computer saller luckly the hard drive didn't die and i am still useing the hd from my ibook and it is so smooth and fast yah thanks for the advice on the inverter board now all i have to do is patch the cable and change the inverter and i am good
powerbook are great rock solid design light wight and fast i am thanking of getting another one to go this one thank you for all your help sorry for getting carried away

My Dead/Dim/Dark Display - Fixed!

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