My screen goes grey...?

[Terence Wallis]

My iMac G4 17" flat panel (10.3.9/800MHZ PowerPCG4/768 SDRAM) goes very dark with the keyboard plugged in. An 8 blade daisy icon appears & when I check the display settings the brightness button is all they way to the left. It doesn't stay to the right (& the screen is bright) unless I unplug the keyboard....

Can someone tell me what to do to fix this problem, please?

I know the machine is 10 yrs old & had a new hard drive 3 yrs ago, but it works well & I use it for all mu digital photo & video work......

If you can help - thanks.

 

[jukeofurl]

A Shot in the _____?

Since I have a very similar iMac - slightly over 7 yrs. old, I'll see if this can help you at all. That occasionally happens to my display when my screensaver settings are having some quirky glitch & my cursor doesn't quite trigger it in the screen corner. Maybe reset that function - see if it does anything good. Hope it's that simple

 

[Terence Wallis]

Thanks....my cursor works alright so I'm not sure what function you mean?

 

[jukeofurl]

Yeah - hard to explain(for me ). In my version of the System Pref pane there is one for Dashboard & Expose where the 4 corners of the screen can be set to auto open windows. But there is also a setting which allows the screensaver to function by dragging the cursor into a cnr. I've noticed recently - as my Mac is aging, sometimes the screensaver doesn't show & the screen is grey until I try again - then luckily it all is fine. I thought maybe something w/your mouse & that pane might need a jiggle? Either way - it is unsettling. No doubt it is a sign the CPU is not what it once was.

 

[Terence Wallis]

I think the problem may be with it's Apple keyboard. I tried one from a Windows machine & the screen didn't go dark & functions normally. I've switched it on & off about 6 times so far today & as the screen stays bright I'm hoping that's it!
Cheers.