PowerBook 3400c Display Ghosting/Shadows

[just.in.time]

Hi,

I recently got a PowerBook 3400c (200mhz/144mb/2gb).

Seems to be in decent shape except for some slightly loose hinges (i think they are just loose where they screw down to the rest of the frame, not the actual hinges themselves) and some display ghosting/shadows.  See photo below. The ghosting runs left and right from the source (in this case, the title bar of About This Computer), and to a much lesser extent top to bottom.

The display also takes a good minute or two to get up to normal brightness from a room temperature startup.  Not sure if that is related to the ghosting.

Is this ghosting effect a common problem with the 3400c?  Any way to fix it?  I used to have a 3400c up until 2007 or so and don't recall it doing this.  A PowerBook 540c that I currently have also doesn't exhibit this behavior.

 

[MJ313]

A 180c I have had ghosting (odd for active matrix screen) and I fixed it by recapping the display. Works perfectly now. I am not sure about the 3400c, but it's possibly the same issue.

 

[just.in.time]

Thanks MJ313.  So your 180c had caps in the actual upper housing of the case with the LCD panel, or they were caps associated with driving the display, but located on the logic board?

 

[MJ313]

Yes sir, on the rear of the display panel itself. I have no experience with the 3400c display panel... maybe someone else here has ripped one down. I would bet there are some smt caps on there... possibly leaking their guts.

 

[Macdrone]

Yes the 3400 has caps on the lcd itself, I did not write down the values or how many.  I was having no issues and was actually trying to figure if the motherboards were any good due to the pram battery leaking on the motherboard.  That whole upper panel is loaded with parts for the speakers in the lid.  Kind of crazy (lots of parts not hard) taking all apart.