Q: Strange vertical stripes

I started looking at making my switch to apple macbook pro from my 3-yr-old thinkpad about 2 weeks ago. After reading reviews and some googling, I found this thread one week ago then I hesitate. This is not meant to be another debate about which is more superior. It sounds quite bad with the random display issue. I might have to postpone the switch. Through this post I hope to see apple do something about this issue. May be, just may be, there are some people like me in the market who hesitate to take the plunge because of this issue not having been resolved.

Well, I haven't had any stripe effect since 10.5.3. Prior, I had maybe seen the effect once a week or so? I have a feeling Apple has attempted to fix some graphics/brightness issues in the update, but perhaps it only fixed it for less severe situations. I have noticed a minor graphics update in place, however. Very occasionally (I think only twice so far), after sleep, I find the colour profile has not been applied. Not sure if it's a side effect of any attempted bug fix.

Also, I didn't find the Photo Booth trick until today. It does not reproduce any stripe effect for me at all. Interestingly, every now and again when I try the Photo Booth trick, After the backlight 'flash', I see the LED lamps slowly return to brightness - another hint at an attempted fix, in place of where I would normally get stripes? (Other times it just returns to the previous brightness instantly). All anecdotal evidence, of course, so who knows what it all means. Food for thought.

Well, I haven't had any stripe effect since 10.5.3. Prior, I had maybe seen the effect once a week or so? I have a feeling Apple has attempted to fix some graphics/brightness issues in the update, but perhaps it only fixed it for less severe situations. I have noticed a minor graphics update in place, however. Very occasionally (I think only twice so far), after sleep, I find the colour profile has not been applied. Not sure if it's a side effect of any attempted bug fix.

Also, I didn't find the Photo Booth trick until today. It does not reproduce any stripe effect for me at all. Interestingly, every now and again when I try the Photo Booth trick, After the backlight 'flash', I see the LED lamps slowly return to brightness - another hint at an attempted fix, in place of where I would normally get stripes? (Other times it just returns to the previous brightness instantly). All anecdotal evidence, of course, so who knows what it all means. Food for thought.

i am gonna wait for the official apple statement... cause i could get a display replacement but my local service tech told me that its not as easy as the previous gen macbook pros also i dont want to risk getting an AUO or Che mei display... with the yellowing problem.. i got an LG display and its near perfect except for the stripes.. i can bear with it... cntl-shift-eject seems to work okay for me and it only happens when i am low on battery... if the battery is full or on AC.. not issues...

First time poster, long time reader!

I have had the verticle stripes since I got my MBP witch is about 3 month ago.
In the past weeks the "altcmdeject" solution has worked bad for me, sometimes I have to do several times to get rid of the stripes and sometimes I have had to plug in the power adapter to get rid of them.
Today when I woke up my MPB the stripes where there WITH the power adapter plugged in.
I have spoken to Apple support two times and at first I got the usually "I have never heard of that" but the support guy told me to wait and after a while he said they where aware of the problem and was working on a fix and that it was a software problem.

Im so %&/% sick of this and for me it seems like the problem gets bigger and bigger as today I got the stripes with the power adapter plugged in!

If you get the stripes hit Shift-Control-Eject.

If you don't want to get the stripes, ensure brightness is five boxes or fewer from maximum when you shut down (or put to sleep if you've had stripe problems after waking). Works for me -- haven't had stripes in weeks.

Apart from this minor annoyance I'm thoroughly enjoying my MacBook Pro.

I do have a squeaky spacebar, though! Solutions?

best,
Jake

Every once in a while, apple says it is a software problem. Frankly, if they know it is a firmware problem, it is hard to understand why they do not communicate anything. May be they can solve it via a firmware update by simply issuing twice the "turn on the lights" command, but:

1. the problem does not seem to depend on the specific screen manufacturer. May be it is not the screen, but how come that some people solved the issue by simply exchanging the screen?

2. the MBPs are affected by different degrees. I did have the stripes but could not replicate them using the photo booth trick. I used the past tense because currently my MBP is in the repair centre.

3. Even if some of us are able to replicate the stripes using photo booth, for others, like me, it is NOT possible. Furthermore, I used the notebooks for entire weeks without stripes, and weeks with stripes every day.

Anyway, I do hope it is a firmware problem.

-- mac.cardi

Here ust to add myself to the people who fight witg these odd stripes...

Hope Mom Apple will fix it soon!

Thanx.

Hi,

This has happened to me, i bought this soon after it was released in march (penryn). But i noticed these line would appear now and again so i decided to take it bak to the Apple store.

They held on to it and said they could not replace the screen then and there because they needed to see the problem. So i left it with them and the next day they had replaced the screen and i went and collected it.

I thought great i had never seen the problem since it was replaced. UNTIL TODAY!

It was unplugged and when i opened it up from sleep it was there!! gutted!

I am having trouble replicating the stripes i will try using the Photo Booth method so i can show Apple when i get there.

What's the current status with Apple? When will they uncover the problem?

I'm thinking if its not the screen, it sounds like a software issue, but couldn't it be the graphics chip? I'm concerned i want this to be solved before my warranty runs out, or i may have to take out an AppleCare plan to cover it for the next two years!

Ps What are Apple doing? How can it be so hard to diagnose, it must be a major bug/ hardware fault.

sypashley wrote:
They held on to it and said they could not replace the screen then and there because they needed to see the problem. So i left it with them and the next day they had replaced the screen and i went and collected it.

I thought great i had never seen the problem since it was replaced. UNTIL TODAY!

It was unplugged and when i opened it up from sleep it was there!! gutted!
I'm thinking if its not the screen, it sounds like a software issue, but couldn't it be the graphics chip? I'm concerned i want this to be solved before my warranty runs out, or i may have to take out an AppleCare plan to cover it for the next two years!

Ps What are Apple doing? How can it be so hard to diagnose, it must be a major bug/ hardware fault.

Meanwhile I've got information from a reliable source, that the issue cannot be fixed with the exchange of the panel.

So this is in line with your observation, that the stripes are back.

It seems, that all who have reported replacing the panel would have fixed the issue, are just lucky, that the issue didn't show up so far.

The fix will come with a firmware update. Unfortunately wasn't given a date.

So I just memorized the ctrl-shift-eject shortcut and wait for the update, but stopped agonizing, whether I should have my otherwise nice LG panel replaced.

Hope this information helps you guys a bit as well.

Peter

I did the 10.5.3 update, then tried the photo booth idea to get the stripes up - and third photo there they are. Cleared them, then second photo brought them back. I very infrequently see them normally, but this is a good way of showing the effect to the doubting Apple people. For me, the frequency in normal use (and the ease with which they can be cleared) means I am not heading to a store today for a new screen, but like many on this forum I am surprised at Apple's lack of a fix after more than 3 months. Here we go... shiftcntroleject

It's been approximately 2 weeks since I got my screen replaced due to the stripes.

At first apple did not want to replace the screen because they did not know how to reproduce. I think it was before people on this message board figured out how to reproduce.

Anyway I got lucky and the did notice it finally and decided to replace the LCD.

Three things I have to say:

1) So far no stripes but it's only been 2 weeks. It took 4 weeks on my NEW mbp before I saw the stripes. So the jury is still out. But if you see the stripes and you can reproduce it, I would still get it replaced. Who knows it may be a hardware problem. We should cause as much trouble for Apple for not handling this problem in a timely or appropriate manner. At this point no one knows for sure what the real source of the problem is. It may be combination of hardware and software/firmware issue or worse a design flaw.

2) I'm a new mac user and I really love the mac OS but there's one thing I don't like. The low resolution LCD monitor. When I two windows with text next to each other the font size is very small and I definitely notice how low resolution can make a difference. My 5 year old dell laptop has 1600 x 1200 resolution and to this day the LCD is crisp and clear.

3) Apple you suck for not getting on this issue. You are making a TON of money.
For those of us who spend over $2000 to $3000 on your most expensive product, we expect better service.

Since the beginning (10.5.2) I've got the stripe problem and the color profile problem. So this last issue don't come from any attempted bug fix.

FYI... called Apple Support just now. He mentioned that 2 out of every 10 calls has had this problem.

I had tried these steps before I called to no avail... but now, its working fine. Here's what we did (you know the routine probably)

1) Take battery out, open laptop and hold down the POWER button for 8 seconds or more
2) Put the battery back in and plug in the power chord
3) Press the one button and IMMEDIATELY press APPLE + OPTION + P + R (this is for the PRAM reset)

That seemed to work for me.

I seriously thought I was screwed. I was getting both the zebra stripes and the force restart screen in the four languages.

But I'm up and running now... just know. You are not alone!

UGHHH!!!! Scratch that... vertical stripes are back!