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The third generation of the Apple iPad, released on March 16, 2012. Full 4G and Wi-Fi model repair guides. Repairs require heat and careful prying. Model numbers: A1416, A1430, and A1403.

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won't power up, no light on screen

A friend brought me her Ipad3 and said she was installing IOS7 when it suddenly turned off. She tried powering it back up and resuming installation, but can get no light on the screen at all. I tried all the tricks I know to reset it, (holding down the power switch at top of tablet while also holding down the home button at bottom of the screen), all to no avail. Then I plugged in the AC adapter and let it charge overnight (there was no indication of any activity, however the unit was slightly warm, (presumably the batteries inside.) Then tried all the reset tricks again, to no avail. I tried the overnight charge again and next morning I found it "chiming" every couple of seconds or so (the sound it normally makes one time when you first plug it in to the AC. Also when I pressed the Home button, an area in the middle of the screen (about half the entire screen) lit up all white, with a fuzzy edge all around. It stayed on a few minutes, then disappeared when I pressed the on/off switch at top of case, and never came back on again. Now the screen is again totally black, no sign of light or power or any activity at all. Just the chiming when I plug in the AC adapter. I removed the screen assembly and checked all the connections at the power switch and Home button and cannot see anything that looks loose or unusual. That's as far as I have gotten. Does anyone know of any other "tips" to isolate the problem further, or do any of these symptoms sound familiar? Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

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Thanks, Gary. I let the iPad3 charge overnight again, with the screen disconnected. This morning I reconnected the screen and held both the Home button and the power switch down for 10 seconds. The screen lit up all white, except for about 1/4 inch in the four corners, and the chiming started again, but stopped after a couple of minutes. I left it alone and just observed. After another 5 minutes or so, the screen went black and the chiming started again. The batteries were cold after charging all night, so I'm wondering if the problem is battery related.

I should also mention in earlier testing, I attached it to both a Windows PC and a Mac, and neither one recognizes the iPad is attached.

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Well some progress made, but still unresolved. I disassembled the iPad, unplugged and replugged all cables, and looked for any visible sign of problems...saw none. Reassembled the iPad and connected the charger. After a while, the screen lights up, muted white around the edges and black in the middle. I decided to try connecting it to a PC with iTunes, and behold...it was recognized and a message appeared saying a previous restore had failed. It then began a restore of IOS7.1, which ran about 15-20 minutes and stated a successful restore was completed. All during the process, the muted white screen with black around the edges flashed on and off at 1-2 second intervals. Never was there any logo or text. While it was connected, I synched some music to the iPad and everything appeared to be working as expected from the PC view, but the iPad still flashes the muted screen.

So....I'm still at a loss to the source of the problem. It must be either a careen problem, or more likely a logic board problem. If anyone has seen anything similar, sure would like to hear about it. By the way, the earlier symptom of chiming while plugged into AC has disappeared...no chiming, just a flashing, muted black and white screen.

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Follow-up to this post.....I installed a replacement LCD screen, and now the Ipad3 works as expected. Guess I should have suspected that to begin with, but it sure didn't appear to be the typical Ipad screen issue, with the chiming and all. So...thanks for the replies and the suggestions.

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I would disconnect the cables for the display assembly and reconnect them to make sure they are seated properly, if that doesn't work chances are there is a hardware failure as you've tried to perform the basic steps for a non-responsive Ipad.

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You're right--it is either screen or board.

No choice but to rule out screen with a known good LCD.

I have seen this kind of thing before---but usually it would be post-drop damage or water damage. Never out of the blue.

A bad LCD will behave like this, but so will serious logic board problems. I have seen both.

The chiming is typical---iPad yelp like that when they have a backlight problem, and knock it off when the problem is fixed. Sometimes it is the device prompting you to enter 'trust this computer' on the screen.

If I were you I'd take it to a local shop and ask them to slap an iPad 3 LCD on there and see what happens.

jessa

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Glad the new screen worked for you!

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Thanks Jessa. Based on your feedback, I think I will try a LCD replacement. I tried the local Apple store and they were not interested in helping since it is out of warranty. I will post results in a week or so.

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Ron will be eternally grateful.
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