While using the trackpad to scroll down a web page, my MBP gets ripples on the display. I looked at the activity Monitor while doing this and it never went passed 60% used. I have 2g of RAM with the 2.2ghz processor. Is this normal??
I also have this problem! I am using fire fox at the moment and it isn't doing it anymore.I really like Safari but can't stand the ripples.It seems the only application it does it in is Safari.
Just in case someone from the Cupertino mothership is actually reading this thread, I'd like to add my voice to the fray.
I'm having exactly the same ripple problem in 10.5.6 on my MBP in Safari 4, iTunes (screws up the location of the BUY buttons, so they're harder to find...), and Mail. It's really getting to be a pain having to repeated do a Select All on webpages or a window re-size in iTunes to read anything... Maybe the thought of lost revenues caused by mis-located iTunes BUY buttons will cause someone to get in gear and fix this problem!
I agree with all the posts on this website. I have an appointment with a Genius at 7:30pm today. As many of you have mentioned, restarting the computer usually alleviates the problem temporarily. I have plenty of screenshots and the many posts on this forum explaining the situation which I can use to help my case while in store. However, if because of this "temporary fix" (restarting) I can't demonstrate the problem to the Genius...I hope my screenshots are enough. This problem is a pain and is really distracting when trying to do heavy research and navigating through websites attempting to gather information.
This thread has been extremely helpful and it describes the problem perfectly well. I believe it is deeply rooted in the hardware and not the software. That much is clear.
This drives me crazy! I was just about to make a post about this. This happens not only in safari but in photoshop, illustrator, coda, text mate..and pretty much everything else that I use.
I got my 17" MBP replaced with the new 17" unibody MBP last week because of this problem. BUT THE PROBLEM PERSISTS! Scrolling with the trackpad on battery power causes horrible display ripples and blocky flashing on the screen, whether I use the integrated or discrete graphics. Amazing. So frustrating.
The only good news here is that this must be a software problem, which Apple should be able to fix with an update. Someone at the apple store told me that Apple is fully aware of the issue, but simply has not addressed it in the past year. He also said that the suspect was WebKit, not the GPU driver, which makes sense to me only because I see the problem most often (but not exclusively) in Safari.
You can add me to this list. I am pretty sure this only happens when i use the trackpad to scroll, but it is really making it difficult to use the computer. It goes away temporarily with a reboot, but always comes back. With this many people complaining is there really no fix for this?
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.5 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP41.00C1.B03
SMC Version: 1.27f1
Serial Number: W882313SYJY
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled
I have the same scrolling problem as well. Only happens when I am on battery power. Happens in just about every text intensive application. It looks like a software problem to me ... maybe they will fix in 10.5.7
I have had 3 replacement MBP's for this exact issue.
My latest replacement i had to fight for as the Genius bar stated i should just "wait" for a solution.
Well, I have been waiting since I bought the MBP new in January 2009.
VERY VERY DISAPPOINTING that the solution to this issue is to "wait" for a fix that apparently seems like it is never going to come out.
THe only other "workaround" I was offered was to adjust the Energy Saving Settings to ALWAYS be on "BEST PERFORMANCE" settings.
Which is said to fix the solution (unconfirmed) but kills the battery life ... which again is unacceptable as I am ALWAYS travelling and rely on battery life at crowded airports to get work done.
Has anybody else found any viable and/or REAL solutions for this problem?
Just got back from the Authorized Apple tech shop, where they tested my MBPro 15" 2.4Ghz with Nvidia 8600M GT with 256MB vram, using the special Nvidia test software. They hook your MBPro to an external HD with the test software on it.
They tested my MBPro and the results said the video card WASN'T defective or affected by the known defects.
When the tech said "everything's normal", I said that it may not be eligible for the free replacement program, it may have cleared all the Nvidia tests, and the video card might not be "officially" defective, but if there's one thing the display on my $1800 MBPro is NOT is "normal".
I insisted the tech guy look at my MBPro in action, scrolling down and up longish text and web pages. Took him about 3 seconds to "get it", i.e. what I'd been describing as the dizzying ripples, where the text "bulges" up and out at you as you scroll up and down.
He said, Yeah, wow, I guess you do have something there. But you're still not eligible for the replacement program.
I said I wasn't interested in getting the logic board replaced, in fact I'd prefer NOT to have to leave the MBPro for any length of time. But I was not ready to hear someone say it was "normal".
I said I'd had just about every Mac ever made, including a few recent Intels, and NONE of them ever had this "ripple" problem. I still have a Core Duo 20" iMac - no ripples - and a Core 2 Duo Macbook - no ripples - and I asked the tech what he could make of that.
He said hold on a sec, and went onto his brand new 24" iMac and, lo and behold, he said "Well, yeah, I see what you mean by those ripples. I'd never noticed it before."
So he called over the other tech guy and they looked at the ripples up and down, and said that it might get annoying after 8 hours at your computer.
Then he said that seeing as the problem WASN'T there with the Intel Macs that had ATI cards in them, or Intel GMA for the Macbook, the problem just might be with the NVIDIA DRIVERS. He said it looks like a problem REFRESHING and REDRAWING the screen. And might be solvable in future releases of the drivers and/or the OS.
