Chocolate and Vodka :: The red line of death

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The red line of death

by Suw Charman on Wed 26 Jan 2005 12:59 PM GMT | Permanent Link

Just before Christmas I blogged about how my PowerBook, affectionately known as the 'interim solution', had developed a green line on the screen. Having asked around and actually had my qualified Apple engineer friend Gerard take a poke about inside the screen, it was ascertained that the line probably could not be easily fixed. Well, not for a reasonable price and considering the spec of the machine it would make more sense to spend the money on a new one instead.

Well, earlier today, the green line got a friend. The Red Line Of Death.

I have never been good at asking for money due to the conflict between the 'don't ask, it's rude' ethos and the 'if you don't ask, you don't get' ethos as espoused by my Mum and my Gran respectively. Anyway, before Christmas some very lovely, generous people PayPal'd me some cash and then the tsunami happened and I immediately felt like a greedy, selfish person for thinking my problems warrented any sort of plea for help. But the truth is I am way broke. It may not look like it, but I just don't have the money to get a new laptop, despite the fact that it is an essential tool of my trade. Without it, well, my working life will become more difficult than it already is.

Anyway, over there on the right there are two links - one for PayPal if you should feel so inclined, but the other one will take you to my shop where you can buy a really nice t-shirt at a really good price. We have a bunch of these sitting up in the loft that I would like to see going to a good home, so please buy one.

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Re: The red line of death

by Anonymous on Wed 26 Jan 2005 05:33 PM GMT | Permanent Link

I had this exact thing happen to my PB 667. If it behaves like mine did, it will get worse until all of the information between the red and green lines is no longer displayed.

Sorry.

Re: Re: The red line of death

by Suw Charman on Wed 26 Jan 2005 05:41 PM GMT | Profile | Permanent Link

Yes, this is exactly what I have heard will happen. Can I ask, how long did it take? If it continues to go at a line a month, I will have time to find the money for a new one.

Re: The red line of death

by Anonymous on Wed 26 Jan 2005 07:31 PM GMT | Permanent Link

I have a new 20" Cinema Display that had (and occasionally still has) the Red Line of Death, though not the Green Line of Annoyance. At first, the RLD was almost always there, but now it only rarely raises its ugly head. I asked around some forums, but no one knew why this happens. Some speculated the video card, some the display, some that the monitor cable was too close to the power brick. Who knows? I'm glad it's not there most of the time now, but if anyone has a technical explanation for RLD, I'd love to hear it!

Re: Re: The red line of death

by Suw Charman on Wed 26 Jan 2005 07:44 PM GMT | Profile | Permanent Link

As far as I can tell, in this case it is the connectors between the ribbon cable and the screen which are slowly giving up the ghost. When I plug the laptop into a desktop monitor, the lines are gone so it's not the video card. It's not the ribbon because when I torque the screen just so, the lines go (although only one line at a time vanishes, of course). I would be betting that your problem is similar, although surely your display is covered by warrenty?

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