Dual iBook 500 display problem

[Paul Fuchs]

Have a friend with this machine. It's the earliest of the white iBooks
and in my opinion, a bit of a dog. Anyway, a couple of days ago the
screen suddenly inverted. What I mean by this is that black is white
and the color display appears to be what a 35 mm color negative would
be.

Same in OS 9 and OS X so I assume it's hardware.

Does anyone have any idea what happened and what the fix is?

TIA

--
Paul Fuchs
paulfuchs-at-attglobal-dot-net
Sitting on a small rock (St. John) in the Caribbean

[John Johnson]

In article <20030811122150914-0700@news.la.sbcglobal.net>,
matt neuburg <matt@tidbits.com> wrote:

> In <1fzj76q.1srrmrk1cqulmsN%paulfuchs@porkaintkosher. oink> Paul Fuchs
> wrote:

> > Have a friend with this machine. It's the earliest of the white
> > iBooks and in my opinion, a bit of a dog. Anyway, a couple of days
> > ago the screen suddenly inverted. What I mean by this is that black
> > is white and the color display appears to be what a 35 mm color
> > negative would be.
> > Same in OS 9 and OS X so I assume it's hardware.

>
> Why do you assume that? Screen gamma is a PRAM setting. So surely your
> first move should be to try changing the gamma (e.g. try recalibrating
> the monitor). At the very least you could zap the PRAM. And hey, if that
> doesn't work you can always use Black Light to invert the gamma to
> "normal"! m.

It's also worth checking the Universal Access (that's the name of the OS
X pref pane, I don't remember the name of the OS 9 control panel
equivalent) settings. One of them is "Switch to White on Black" which
does exactly what you describe. If the pane is set to allow it, this
option is available from a keyboard shortcut (which makes for a real
surprise if you hit it without knowing about it). I don't know why this
would carry across OS's (which makes me doubt that it's the cause) but
it's quite easy to check.

later.

--
johajohn AT indianahoosiers DOT edu

Remove the non place-name reply. Indiana is a place-name.

[Rich Williams]

In article <1fzkkhe.1pfutvk11xrvuoN%paulfuchs@porkaintkosher. oink>,
Paul Fuchs <paulfuchs@porkaintkosher.oink> wrote:

> John Johnson <see-.sig@bottom.invalid> wrote:
>

> > In article <20030811122150914-0700@news.la.sbcglobal.net>,
> > matt neuburg <matt@tidbits.com> wrote:
> >

> > > In <1fzj76q.1srrmrk1cqulmsN%paulfuchs@porkaintkosher. oink> Paul Fuchs
> > > wrote:
> > > > Have a friend with this machine. It's the earliest of the white
> > > > iBooks and in my opinion, a bit of a dog. Anyway, a couple of days
> > > > ago the screen suddenly inverted. What I mean by this is that black
> > > > is white and the color display appears to be what a 35 mm color
> > > > negative would be.
> > > > Same in OS 9 and OS X so I assume it's hardware.
> > >
> > > Why do you assume that? Screen gamma is a PRAM setting. So surely your
> > > first move should be to try changing the gamma (e.g. try recalibrating
> > > the monitor). At the very least you could zap the PRAM. And hey, if that
> > > doesn't work you can always use Black Light to invert the gamma to
> > > "normal"! m.

> >
> > It's also worth checking the Universal Access (that's the name of the OS
> > X pref pane, I don't remember the name of the OS 9 control panel
> > equivalent) settings. One of them is "Switch to White on Black" which
> > does exactly what you describe. If the pane is set to allow it, this
> > option is available from a keyboard shortcut (which makes for a real
> > surprise if you hit it without knowing about it). I don't know why this
> > would carry across OS's (which makes me doubt that it's the cause) but
> > it's quite easy to check.
> > ...

The keyboard shortcut is:
ctl-option-cmd-*
and it's a toggle - press all four keys once to switch to white on
black, press them again to switch back.