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PowerBook 1400cs Screen Distortion
Posted by: Snial on 2022-12-01 12:40:12
Hi folks,

My recently acquired PowerBook 1400cs has started to develop a bit of an erratic screen. It did it once yesterday, but I rebooted and it was OK and has done it on both reboots today. Any ideas about what normally causes this? Could cold be a factor as it's probably about 15ºC in here (59ºF)?
tempImagelwDA9Q.jpg

The machine still 'works', I can press the power button for a few seconds and I get the [Shutdown] dialog.

OK, I think I know part of the answer. Although the previous time I'd tried to see if it was the screen angle and that hadn't made much difference; when I re-adjusted it this time I found that yes, there was an angle that corrected the image. So, is the most likely cause the screen ribbon cable?

-cheers from Julz
Posted by: 3lectr1cPPC on 2022-12-02 06:51:29
Fair chance that the cable’s loose. I haven’t seen that sort of distortion from a loose LCD cable, but my 3400c can corrupt a bit sometimes due to a finicky cable, although if I press the display assembly where it corrects, it goes away. I’d try pressing on the display housing on the left and right sides to see if it goes away.
Posted by: LaPorta on 2022-12-02 07:45:37
Above. The cable does snake through the left hinge area and it’s a tight turn. Taking apart the bezel to check isn’t very hard, you just need to follow the service source documentation exactly to avoid breaking clips.
Posted by: Snial on 2022-12-05 13:00:08
To LaPorta and 3lectr1cPPC, thanks a lot - I'll try the advice 🙂 !

-cheers from Julz
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