Sometimes when waking a PowerBook from sleep the screen stays black.

We have found that if the built-in display is set to a non-native resolution (something other than 1024 x 768 on a 14-inch display or something other than 800 x 600 on a 12-inch display), the PowerBook may do this in certain circumstances. The light stops blinking, the hard disk spins up, and the processor is functioning, but the screen remains black.

If you run into this situation, simply force the PowerBook back to sleep by pressing command-shift-0 (or closing the lid) and then wake it up again. It might also be a good idea to leave the PowerBook display set to its native resolution (1024 x 768 for 14-inch displays and 800 x 600 for 12-inch displays).

Note: This issue affects only the PowerBook G3 Series model number M4753 that was released in September of 1998.