Q: Strange vertical stripes

my problem automatically disappear after a few days, it works fine now

I also have witnessed this problem once.
Running on A/C, but problem remained when I ran on battery. Problem was gone after putting it to sleep overnight.

I have had the same problem off an on since I bought this macbook pro in Nov. Really didn't think it was a hardware problem, so I mostly ignored it. Most often happens when running off the battery, not AC adapter, and most often when the screen is dimmed to less than full brightness. I usually can get it to go away without having to restart, but if it really is a hardware problem, I'm concerned that the screen is doomed to a short life-expectancy. The apple care folks had me reset the PRAM but the problem was back the next day. They want to send the thing in for repair, but I want to wait until the end of the semester to lose my computer for two weeks. If it really is a mechanical problem, why would it matter whether the AC was plugged in or not?? I'm no computer wiz, but is anyone else convinced it really is a software glitch?

for what it's worth....

1. How often does it occur? Does it occur reliably?
-once or twice every few days
2. Does it resolve if you perform a specific action? What is this action?
-usually just turning up the brightness on the screen fixes it
3. Does it always resolve by performing this action?
-yes, I think so
4. Is the machine plugged into AC when the problem occurs?
-it's almost always when it's not plugged in, though once it happened when with the AC plugged in and the computer trying to wake up out of sleep mode
5. Can you cause the problem to occur by performing an action?
-no
6. Is your display glossy or matte?
-matte
7. What type of video graphics hardware does your machine have? How much VRAM?
8. When did you purchase your computer?
-Nov. 07
9. Do you have a photograph of the defect? If so, please post a link.
-no photo but it's exactly the same as above

I don't have VMware or parallels or anything installed, though the drive is partitioned and windows loaded on the other side

Since your computer is not one of the newest ones, I'm curious how long this has been occurring? Did it just start happening after the 10.5.2 update? I have the new base model MBP that was released at the end of Feb, so up until now I thought that it was an issue with the new computers.

It's been happening since I bought it in Nov. and it was running 10.5.1. There's been no improvement now that I'm running 10.5.2.

This seems to happen to me as well. Just bought this computer March 5, 2008

Let me add a "Me Too"

Only really visible on a bright (white) background.

Brand new, got it on saturday 8th

MB Pro 2.4 15,4" MB133

Ditto -

got the vert. stripes here too (appearing & disappearing) - received new 2.4/200gig MBP on Thurs. Mar. 6 last week.

In addition to the vert. stripes, a few other quirks too - bootable systems (10.3.9 & 10.4.10) on Ext. Lacies wont show in the Start-up Disk window, missing keystrokes/(ELP) and a Bluetooth quirk - mouse and keyboard v. hard to connect/pair/discover.

hmm.

I really dont want to have this turned around again - will call Applecare tomorrow. Hope this is can be resolved via a firmware/software update......

more soon,

J.

I can see something very very faint on whites too - kind of alternating shadows and brightness, but it's nothing as bad as the pictures posted here. Just FYI - new MBP/multitouch.

As I mentioned earlier, I took my laptop back for replacement on Thursday the 6th. So far, I haven't seen this happen at all on the new replacement unit, despite running the same sets of applications and the same use patterns. It took about this long for my first "sighting" of the problem on the old unit, so I am cautiously optimistic that the problem has gone away.

This might point to it being some sort of hardware defect, but I'd like to give it another couple of days before I say for sure.

Just adding a me too. Got a 2.4 Ghz last Thursday, first saw the problem on a wake from sleep today. Battery power, matte screen, 10.5.2.

The display went to sleep when I went to get a camera to get a picture, and when I woke it back up, the bands were gone.

Another "ditto".

Because of the number of users reporting this issue, I'm thinking it's software related. So I'm reluctant to return it to the Apple store just yet.

Has anyone reached a resolution?

I called Apple support and provided them with a link to this thread.

After exhausting the usual troubleshooting options, my issue was escalated to a Product Specialist. The specialist was unfamiliar with the problem and provided no valuable insight.

He said he'd report the issue back to engineering and I could take my MBP into the Apple store.

My new MBP-penryn is two days old and apart from the constant buzzing noise, this afternoon, I got these vertical bands that won't go away. This si so disappointing and worrying about it is time-consuming. I'm using this Mac for my dissertation.