older white macbook, a1150
2.16 Ghz 4gig RAM

i have replaced the inverter board which seemed to work for a short period of time, but now whenever i am on skype the screen goes black. i have set up expose so i can put the screen to sleep and wake it up when i slide the mouse to the top left corner. so when the screen goes black i slide the mouse to that corner and wake it up. i may stay 'awake' for a half minute before shutting off again. the corner of the machine where the video card is located is quite hot.

any advice would be very much appreciated. i am comfortable with any kind of hardware work that may need to be done.

thank you,
chris

You may want to open up Console from your Utilities folder and check out your system log and see what is ordering the machine to go to sleep. It can be a software program, the OS, or the reed switch inside thinking the lid has been closed.

From there you should be able to see if its a software or hardware problem.

thank you justin for your reply.

ok, so here is what i could find in the system log, does it make any sense to you??


Jul 27 18:10:56 chris-spielmanns-computer Skype[1031]: Skype version update was registered at Skype website
Jul 27 18:10:56 chris-spielmanns-computer Skype[1031]: Current Skype version installation was registered at Skype website
Jul 27 18:10:57 chris-spielmanns-computer Skype[1031]: -[SKCallerIDManager onCallerIDOptionsChange:]: reqID=0 code=3
Jul 27 18:12:02 chris-spielmanns-computer [0x0-0x14014].org.mozilla.firefox[177]: NOTE: child process received `Goodbye', closing down
Jul 27 18:23:40 chris-spielmanns-computer [0x0-0x14014].org.mozilla.firefox[177]: NOTE: child process received `Goodbye', closing down
Jul 27 18:28:11 localhost com.apple.launchd[1]: *** launchd[1] has started up. ***
Jul 27 18:28:19 localhost DirectoryService[15]: Improper shutdown detected
Jul 27 18:28:23 localhost com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.SystemStarter): Failed to count the number of files in "/System/Library/StartupItems": No such file or directory
Jul 27 18:28:31: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Jul 27 18:28:26 localhost bootlog[41]: BOOT_TIME: 1343438888 0
Jul 27 18:28:29 localhost fseventsd[34]: event logs in /.fseventsd out of sync with volume. destroying old logs. (451887 21 451935)

thanks again for your help

And it's going to sleep or is it turning off? Those messages sound like it's booting up again, not just waking from sleep.

If you haven't already, load up Disk Utility and Repair Disk Permissions on your hard drive and scan it for errors.

the machine usually just goes to sleep, but there have been times when it shuts down.

i ran the repair on the disk permissions, but i'm not sure what to do to 'scan it for errors'. do you mean 'verify disk'?

thanks again for your time and effort.

Yes verify disk, sorry.

If it still works fine until you turn on the camera.. I would say there may be a short in it. We'd really have to see it in shop to determine where the issue is.

thanks for your help justin,
it's still going to sleep. i'm going to try some hardware replacements and see if i can resolve.
thanks again

i think i have fixed the problem.
i got another macbook off ebay for parts and swapped out the video cards. problem solved. the faulty video card had three connectors (black, grey, and blue), where the working card only had two, black and grey. will this be an issue? doesn't seem to be right now but i have only just started using this machine with the new card.

thanks again for all of your advice/help

The video card is built into the logic board. The card with the colored cables is the wireless card. Those colored cables go up into the display for the antennas.

If the problem comes back, you may want to take out your logic board, clean off the thermal paste, and apply a new layer of it. It could be an overheating issue because of an old dried up thermal paste.

well that is strange, because i have yet to experience the problem again. the fans do increase in speed when watching video, or on skype, but the machine doesn't go to sleep or shut down anymore.

my wireless is working fine, and the card i put in only had 2 connections, where the one i took out had three. everything works fine.

i have already replaced the thermal paste.

thanks again