Comments on: An iMac and a Black Screen

By: guicho

guicho — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:34:52 +0000

Back in July 2007, after the iMac was returned from its first round of repairs, I received an error message when attempting to start Photo Booth.

Photo Booth cannot open because no camera is attached or the camera is in use by another application. Make sure your digital camera is properly attached and turned on. If you are using the camera with another application, close that application before trying to open Photo Booth again.

I reinstalled the operating system just in case, but it still did not help. So I returned the computer for repairs on Monday, July 23, 2007. Moral of the story: Always verify that everything is functioning as expected.

By: guicho

guicho — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:39:34 +0000

In June 2007, I took the iMac in for repairs to the nearest Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP). It took them about 4 weeks to repair the computer. Although the service technician kept me up-to-date about the status of the repairs, I was a bit upset about the length of time that it took them to repair the iMac.

The technician replaced several internal components including the logic board on the unit. The technician blamed Apple for sending him the wrong parts on various occasions throughout the troubleshooting process. Eventually, he informed me that the cause of the problem was a short on the circuitry of the LCD panel. I was just happy to get the unit back, so I thanked him and off I went.

Once I got home, I quickly began to test the machine for any other possible hardware problems. After a few days, I realized that the technician forgot to reconnect the cable for the internal iSight camera on the iMac.

I took it back to him so that he could fix the issue. A day later, I got the unit back. I haven’t had any hardware related problems with the computer ever since early August. I have recently installed Mac OS X Leopard (10.5.2) and my niece is very happy with the computer, especially the new Photo Booth capability of recording video.

By: John Sawyer

John Sawyer — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:04:36 +0000

Your iMac has/had a bad logic board. The problems you describe wouldn’t be caused by the display, hard drive, etc. The iMac doesn’t have a separate video card–that’s available only on the tower Macs, and some newer MacBook Pros.

I assume you got Apple to replace the logic board, since your iMac is still on warranty?

By: guicho

guicho — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 00:42:05 +0000

OK. That does it. I’m taking the iMac in for repairs, but most likely I will demand a replacement product. The computer was purchased directly from http://www.apple.com on April 14, 2007 and it was delivered to my home on April 20, 2007. Ever since receiving delivery my niece hasn’t used it for much other than the occasional browsing of the web and playing with Photo Booth for a total of no more than 20 hours. In this two month period, the computer has been in an off state longer than it has been in a usable state. Hopefully Apple Customer Service can change my highly negative experience with Apple products.

The reason for such dissatisfaction is that I finally managed to reinstall the operating system. I restarted the computer once and decided to create a second limited account. Afterwards I checked for software updates and was was in the middle of installing a few updates when all of a sudden the screen went dark; i.e., it turned black. The version of the OS that I received with the computer is 10.4.8 and the same thing is happening. Shouldn’t the product “just work”?

By: macKore

macKore — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 22:23:29 +0000

The error message that you observed “You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.” is called a Kernel Panic. For more information about a Kernel Panic on Mac OS X refer to

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106227

I strongly recommend that you take the computer in for repairs. Have you considered extending the 1 year warranty by purchasing Apple Care? In might be in your best interest to do so, since this problem may reoccur well after your 1 year warranty has expired and even after the problem has been “fixed”.

By: guicho

guicho — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 20:38:26 +0000

Latest update: Before taking the computer in for repairs I attempted to reinstall the operating system one last time and put it in a factory default state. I selected the option "Erase and Install." However, as soon as the installation process reached 92% complete (Checking Installation DVD) a vertically scrolling bar, darker than other areas on the screen, began to cover the entire screen. Then a box with a message appeared on the screen with the following text:

"You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button."

I did the aforementioned, but once again the computer suffers from the same symptoms as described above. The screen remains in a steady state of complete darkness with the power LED lit; that is, the screen remains blank.

Now I definitely need to find the time to take it in for repairs.

By: guicho

guicho — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 08:23:56 +0000

Over the past few days, I’ve been trying to determine the cause of the black screen problem (mentioned above), but to no avail. The computer is still under warranty as I only purchased it less than 2 months ago. Rather than spend any more time trying to figure out what part(s) are causing the problem I will let Apple Technical Support take it from here. In the next few days I will deliver the computer to an Apple Authorized Service Provider and await their analysis.

Before contacting Apple Technical Support, I performed a web search for information related to the black screen problem. The following are some of the most useful sites that I found online.