Black/blank screen

[Alison316]

I have a 12" ibook G3 800 last night the screen went crazy displaying horizontal lines in patches and now it is not displaying anything. I don't know very much, but through some research it seems it could be just the display itself or the logic board. Is this correct, and is there a was to determine certainly? I also know I should connect to an external monitor, when I do this, and it works or does not work, what will that mean?
Thanks

 

[heatmiser]

Yikes. I'm typing this from a G3 800. If you can connect to an external monitor, that suggests your computer still has the power to generate a functional display. Ergo, your screen's the problem.

 

[ab2650]

If it doesn't go nuts on, say, a reinstall CD, then the problem lies in software. If it does it always, and especially if it does it with an external, then the problem is the video card part of the logic board.

It's my guess that an external LCD will work, which would mean the problem probably exists in the LCD of the book itself. Either way, w/out applecare is going to be an expensive fix.

 

[eman]

If the display works with an external monitor, than your GPU on the logic board is not suspect IMHO. Many Ibooks had GPU problems and there are some post on placing a shim under the GPU.

If your computer still boots, shine a flash lite at/into the LCD screen and see if you can still see the screen however faintly. If so, than your inverter is bad or LCD screen is out. Replace the inverter first, as this is the cheaper fix. Check ebay for an inverter if needed.