Back at the Apple Store

Well, I'm back at the Apple Store as I type this. Don't worry, my PowerBook is fine, for the most part. The only thing wrong with it is that the video won't output properly. It comes out in PAL format and that is bad, as those who are familiar with these things know. To those of you who don't know, most American TVs are NTSC format, not PAL. When a PAL signal is displayed on an NTSC TV, it looks like a real mess. It's blurry, black and white, and shoved so far over that the right side of the screen is on the left and the left on the right. It reminds me of the picture quality I'd get while trying to watch the Playboy channel as a kid. My cable company carried it, but the folks didn't pay for it, but I could sort of get it in if I pressed the 3, 5 & 7 buttons on the cable box at the same time and then adjust the fine tuning. If I got lucky (ha) I could see sex scenes in photo-negative.

Good times. :rolleyes:

Anyway, so there's this adapter Apple makes you buy when you buy the 12 inch PowerBooks. The adapter will convert a "mini-DVi" signal to an RCA and/or S-Video signal. According to the discussion boards at Apple.com many people are having the same problem as me. According to a few people on those boards, I've got a bum adapter and just need to swap it out. I tried to bring it in last weekend, but the Apple Store didn't have an RCA video cable. These are the most common video cables known to man. In fact, there's a television station located five minutes away on foot. There's also a K-Mart then minutes away. But they don't have a cable and this was the one time I left my RCA cable at home. :angry:

So, I'm back, with a lag in my schedule. With any luck, they'll see that it's the adapter and just swap it out for one that works.

I'll let you know how it goes! :)

UPDATE: Well, everything's cool. After doing things I knew wouldn't work, the genius took my advice and just pulled a new adapter off the rack and then tried it out. When it worked fine he simply said: "Trade ya?"

And I said: "Sure! Thanks!"

I now have an adapter that works, so I am a happy Apple owner. :satisfied: