powerbook G4, now with black screen!

Finally! Time for me to experience Apple’s Customer Service first hand. Up to now it’s all been ordering and whatnot. But now I’m having video problems on my 17” Powerbook G4. Joy!

Last night, Hithum’s screen wouldn’t light up upon waking from sleep. I opened the lid, and … nothing. She was obviously on, but I couldn’t see anything. Huh.

This has happened a few times before, but closing the lid and reopening it usually fixed the problem. So that’s what I did. Still nothing.

Maybe a restart? Well, I was in the middle of a backup, so I just let that run all night. I could SSH in and shut down lots of processes, monitor things, make sure that the backup went as scheduled.

But after the backup completed, I rebooted… and got the black screen. I can see — very faintly — the details of what’s on the screen, but there are no lights. The apple on the back also doesn’t light up. Everything else is good.

Okay, so off to the internet I go. Zap the PRAM? Check. Reset the video card? Check. Nuke the PMU? Check.

Turn it on… and black screen. Argh!

Fortunately, I got the extended AppleCare protection plan, and I’m one of the <10% who have automated backups, so I’m just irritated at the inconvenience, not freaking out. So I called Apple this afternoon.

Oi.

They asked me what I wanted to do. Well, I’ll be in The City on Monday, so I can drop it off at the Tyson’s Corner store. But only on Monday. Otherwise, I’ll ship it in and have you ship it back.

“Well,” the helpful agent said, “I can book you for 3pm, 4pm, 7pm or 8pm tonight, would that work?”

“No,” I replied, “Monday is the only day I can do it. I’m on the other side of the state from that store.”

“Oh, okay. Let me put you on hold for a minute.” I’m on hold for 4 minutes. Dum dee dum.

“Are you an ProCare member,” he asked upon his return?

“Nope.”

“I’m sorry, sir, then I can’t make appointments for you on Monday then. I can only make same-day appointments for you,” he said.

“Whaaa?” I said. I think I actually said that, too, with my voice going up and all.

“I’m sorry, sir. But you can call the day of and make an appointment then.”

“Okay. You’re 24×7, right? No problem. I’m up early.”

“Actually, sir, you can only make a reservation starting at 9.”

“For a store that opens at 10?”

“Yes sir.”

(You can see we were getting along brilliantly. At least he called me sir.)

So: Off to a wonderful start, as you can see. I will call from the road on Monday morning, set up an appointment, and drop off Hithlum at the store to get fixed. I expect that I will have a short temper by the time I am all done.

But still.

At least I have backups.