April 30, 2001
Untitled
Ever since I moved my trusty PowerMac 8500 downstairs to reside in the same room as my new G4, the monitor has been acting up. It has been regularly, yet unpredictably, flashing into fits of bright green rage and then returning to normal again, as if nothing ever happened. My wife and kids figured that the old computer was simply jealous of the ample, wide-screenliness of its new roommate’s Cinema Display — pixel envy, if you will. An interesting theory, but not too darn likely. Aiming to solve the problem, while ultimately trying to avoid lugging the welterweight Trinitron downtown to get serviced, I popped the back off the monitor and gave it a compressed air bath. Still the screen gloweth green. Next came a pass of contact cleaner on the cable and port connectors. Nothing. Thinking that it may not be the monitor after all, I slapped the cathode ray on a previous-loved Quadra 700 that had been collecting particles of basement downstairs. Given the size difference between the Quadra and the Apple Multiple Scan 20, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I slapped the computer on the monitor. How green was my valley? Not at all, thank you very much. The incandescent filament began to warm and out came the screwdriver to pop apart the 8500. What should I discover? Gobs of microscopic grey schmutz encrusting the pins of the video memory on the motherboard. A few more shots out of the can of air, and no more green. Exciting, eh? And how was your afternoon?
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