My 15" Powerbook display problem experience, Pt 2 Today I took my new 15" Powerbook in to my local Apple Store, which is fortunately only 10 minutes away. The same Apple Genius/Tech employee that had helped me the first time I went was there. He looked very happy to see me, which was encouraging. It confirmed my feelings that I had an new ally at this Apple Store.

He greeted me, saying "I was wondering when you'd come in," and then explained that I should talk to the lead technician of the store, whom he had filled in on all of the details of my 15" Powerbook's display issue. I realized that I had again failed to make a "reservation" online. I knew better this time, as he had explained it was a really good idea to hop online in the AM, and and setup a time to come in. You go to the Retail page on Apple's website, and then choose your local Apple Store, and finally click on the "Make a reservation" link. You can only reserve a time slot for the same day, unless you've invested in Apple's ProCare membership.

I apologized out loud for not having made reservation, but he assured me it was no problem. I'd just have to wait until the lead technician was done helping the customer who was there before me. I waited patiently, and after ten minutes shook hands with the man, and showed him the screen of my 15" Powerbook. I had taken the SplitDesktop.png image and customized it by changing the type to be larger and say "If this display is working properly, then both sides of this background image should appear to be the same value." Then I saved it as a high quality jpeg (with almost no compression artifacts). I had setup the image as my desktop background, filling the entire screen. Also, I set it up to be the background image in the login screen using a technique you can read about here. A copy of the actual image I used is here.

I explained in brief the issue with the screen, and he clearly understood what I was talking about. The original Apple Genius/Tech employee had definitely gotten this person on the program. I told him that the desktop background image merely highlighted the issue, and that it was most prominent in deep blues, greys, and skintones. He didn't require me to demonstrate any of the issue in photographic images. I imagine since all of their 15" Powerbooks at the store had the same issue with their displays, the lead tech had probably seen the issue on one of their own machines - now that they were aware of it. I still blame the garish lighting in the Apple Store for making it very difficult to evaluate any LCD screen.

I explained that I had set up the login screen with the demonstration image, and he told me that was a very good idea. Then, I asked him about the "special language" required to make sure the repair was done properly. He said it was all on the repair order file. He was busily typing up a Repair Order on one of the Genius Bar's 15" Powerbook workstations - the same kind as mine. Finally he pulled out two identical printouts, one for me to sign, and one for me to keep.

Apple refers to the last revision of the 15" Powerbook G4 as "POWERBOOK G4 (15-INCH DOUBLE-LAYER SD). SD, stands for SuperDrive. Here is the exact text of the important section of the Repair Order paperwork:

ISSUE: the customer perceives faint, white horizontal lines
POSSIBLE LIQUID DAMAGE: N
STEPS TO REPRODUCE: Boot to login screen. Customer has modified login screen to maximize effect.
IDENTIFY COMPONENTS YOU BELIEVE FAILED: 646-0324
ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE: N
COSMETIC DAMAGE: N
REPAIR COSMETIC PLASTICS DAMAGE: N
CONFIGURATION: PBG4 15"/1.67G/512MB/80G/SD
MAC OS X ADMIN NAME/PASSWORD:
DATA BACKUP NECCESSARY(sic): N

That's it. He pointed out that the text next to "ISSUE" is the language that indicates to Apple what needs to be done in order to resolve the horizontal line display issue. In particular, he repeated the word "perceives," saying that it was important. Then he explained that the Powerbook repair would take 7-10 days, but likely a shorter number than that. He gave me the option of having it delivered upon repair completion to the Apple Store for pick-up or directly to my home address. I went with home delivery.

And so I went home.... to wait.  ¶ 11:08 AM