I posted these questions on the apple web site and didn't get anything from it. Also, a new problem came up. So here it is:

Hi all

I recently bought a 1.5 Powerbook computer from someone. I was told before I bought it; that the screen was dim and you can faintly see things in the Finder. The person that I bought it from told me that she took it to the apple store and they said that it was the inverter board that was the problem.
After I bought the computer, I took it home and started to troubleshoot the problem. Well, the display is definitely faint. However, about a third of the display (from about the middle to the lower part of the display) is completely black.
I hooked up the powerbook to an external monitor and it worked.

My question is this. Since the lower portion of the screen is completely dark (and the upper half is faint), would the problem be the inverter board or the actual display?

Also, I have another 12" powerbook (it is the 867 model) that is disassembled at the moment. Would it be possible to take the connector from that display and somehow put it in the 1.5 model's logic board in order to see if the display would come on?

Another question: if it is the inverter board and not the screen, would I have to take the whole display out in order to get the inverter board? I noticed in the powerbook-medic's video take apart guide; that he only goes as far as to removing the display in his video and doesn't show the removal of the inverter. I know that after you take out the LCD, you have to disengage the airport part from the inverter from his take apart manual. Any thoughts on this for advance precautions?

Below is a recent post:

Anyway, I decided to buy a used display on Ebay. The person I got it from has 100% feedback and has done many auctions.

In any event, after taking the powerbook apart once again, I put in the new (used) display in. I also put in my hard drive from another aluminum powerbook machine (12" 867). When I booted the machine, I didn't see anything on the screen. All I heard was a low long beep for a couple of seconds.

I decided to put in another RAM chip and put in the original hard drive from the 1.5 machine. I started up the machine and noticed that it was doing the SAME thing that it was doing with the other screen that I bought off of Ebay. It was giving me a faint desktop.

I took the machine to work and tried it again with an external monitor once again. It works with an external display.

So, before I email this woman and tell her that she gave me a display with a bad inverter board. Would it be possible that there is something else wrong other than the display.

BTW, I did the P RAM thing and reset the power manager.

ok i'm going to assume these were both 12" machines.

If one section of the display (usually broken up into 1/3 sections) that is almost always the LCD. On a 12", the inverter board almost never goes bad, so it would most likely be the LCD.

Thanks for the quick reply.

So, from what I am getting here, it seems as though the original 1.5 powerbook screen needs a new LCD screen. By the way, the display that I bought from Ebay, well, I think that is just a faint screen and you can see more of the faintness. Therefore, should I assume that it is also the LCD? Should I contact this person and tell them the story and get my money back? As I said, I took the powerbook to work and it worked using the DVI to S Video adapter. I have heard that if you can get an external monitor to work, then it isn't the logic board.
Is there any other thing that I can do (meaning the wires or stuff) to troubleshoot it or is it a done deal? I also bought an inverter board on Ebay to repair the original 1.5 screen. Would I have any luck with putting the inverter in the display that I got from Ebay with most of the screen just faint? By the way, they are 12" screens.

By the way, I ran tech tool today and everything passed the test in the report which means that the video memory according to the software program is good.

You can try the inverter board just to confirm, but its a pain of a repair on a 12" powerbook. Most likely the seller will want you to try it first before dealing with a refund or exchange.

Well, if I do the inverter board on the display that I bought from Ebay, the chances are that seller won't want me to return it claiming that I did damage to the board.
I would much rather try doing the inverter on the original display since it has a similar problem and return the display that I bought on Ebay. This way, I might be able to get to get another display on Ebay that hopefully works in the future.

I guess the only thing now to do is to bring it to a place to diagnose the machine so that I can send the results to the seller on ebay.

Just another update. I brought the machine in to get it diagnosed. They told me that it was the inverter board for the display that I bought on ebay. I wrote the seller and told the seller what they said. The seller told me to send back the display for a refund. So, my next step now is to either get another display in one piece or put an inverter board in the original display.

BTW, this was the display that the powerbook medic thought might be the LCD that needs to be replaced. I do have an inverter to install. I guess I'll try that first. The only set back to this is that if it doesn't work with the new inverter board, I have to take the thing apart yet another time!