Could it be because of the RAM ?

By Kalomir. Original by Lionel - 28/07/2003 16:38:41 CEST - Category: Video

Thx to Thierry whose testimony proves electronics follows its own rules.

I was given an indigo DV iMac that had a problem, and told that if I managed to have it work or could fix it, that would be all the better for me.
The screen was absolutely "dead". Nothing left. Black. Everything else seemed to be functionnal.
Sometimes, though, I still obtained a but very brief and distorted image, with pink of green reflections, somehow liquid, which eventually wore off. This problem was partially solved by connecting an external display on the VGA port, which yet denied me access to the slot-in drive, on/off button or USB and FireWire ports and so on.
So, after I opened the iMac without noticing anything special (I'm not a competent technician though) and after repeteadly zapping PRAM, I had to give up and decided to use the external display. Mac OS 9, the only installed system, took an infinite time to let me handle things after booting. I had decided to install Jaguar, but this caused a systematic bug, always occuring at the same instant, shortly after the beginning.
There was definitely more than this screen device problem. But as this machine had generously been given 512Mo extra RAM I thought I could take it off, as it could explain the sluggish boot under OS 9 (RAM check routine) and the bugs under OS X (same reason). Once I'd taken it off, not only did OS 9 boot normally, not only was OS X install perfect, but the screen also worked perfectly !
As much as I can understand why adding low end RAM could account for system problems, this screen malfunction was an astonishing surprise ! Though searching the web, never heard of it. And I definitely had neither the spare pieces nor the courage to change the screen, though I had found a tutorial explaining how to do it.