Q: Strange vertical stripes

Just an update for those interested-- I got my notebook replaced at the Apple Store last week and I've had no problems for one week now, suggesting it is indeed a hardware defect.

I've had this happen to me once, after owning the MBP for about a week. The laptop had been on battery and was sleeping closed for about 20 mins. When I opened it, I had the dreaded stripes. Closing and re-opening made the stripes go away. Unfortunately (or fortunately, some might say) I have been unable to make the stripes come back, no matter how much opening and closing, or removing of the power cable and reconnecting, that I do. I'm frustrated because I don't want to fully "move in" to my new laptop without knowing for sure whether it's a keeper. I'm skeptical that it's a software problem, but without evidence for my problem, I won't be able to return it. sigh

Roberta

Me Too ! Brand new, 3 days old, 250GB HD so BTO thru' a reseller. Stripes ! Will an Apple Store handle this problem or back to the reseller? I am in Sydney...

I've got the stripes yesterday on me 10 days old Macbook Pro 15". Called the Apple Store today and the'll send me a new one. Hopefully that one will be ok, but it seems kind of odd that so many people have got the same problem with this new revision. Can it really be a hardware issue?

I got my new MBP 2,4 yesterday and I have the same problem. It seems to be a bigger Problem.

Another me too on the stripes. I have a 2.6 GHz Penryn MBP 4 GB RAM, 200 GB hard drive, arrived early March. Seems that the stripes appear after sleep and removing power adaptor, this has happen about 4 times now. I phoned Apple and they had me reset PMU and PRAM, but this has not solved the problem. Can anyone who has had a replacement confirm whether newer Penryns have this problem?

I purchased the my new macbook pro the weekend the new Penryn was released. The problem everyone is experiencing happened to me the same night I purchased it. Went to the Apple store and took pictures of it. It was pretty easy to recreate. Shut the macbook pro lid open it up and there you go. The bottom LEDs were not firing. Showed the pics to the guys a the genius bar and they immediately replaced it. Received the standard, "This is the first time we've ever seen this" response.
Tonight, it started doing it on the replacement macbook pro. I let the screen go into sleep mode and woke it back up and it is back to normal.
There is definitely a problem with LEDs firing on the bottom of the screen. Hopefully this is fixed by a firmware upgrade.

Agreed, I believe it is a bigger problem with the whole product line. When this first happened to me I did a search on the Internet for other cases and did not find any. It was my belief I was the only one so I had it replaced. Now that it happened again this posting (thank you atomic wedgie) is at least collecting this information. Also, noticed other mac forums starting to post this topic.
As much as I stand behind mac products, the truth is it is sometimes so difficult for them to admit/address these types of problems.
So, I encourage all other penryn owners to post these problems, call Apple, go to the genius store.

Note: I've found other forums posting this as "shadowing" or penryn LED sleep problems.

Im having the same problem and have experienced it twice in the two weeks I have owned the new MBP. I just called customer support and was told by the representative that she hadn't heard of the problem. She suggested hanging on to the computer to see if apple fixes the problem in the near future, or that I could either send it in or leave it at the nearest apple store for observation. She also said that this problem would be covered by apple if dealt with within a year of purchasing the computer.

I have now had my replacement MBP for over two weeks. Fortunately it has worked flawlessly and I have not had a recurrence of the vertical stripes. The defect began after two days of ownership of the original computer and recurred on day four and six. The stripes occurred while running on battery power and would go away upon sleeping the computer. It was nothing subtle, and occurred while I was using the computer. Changing the screen brightness did not get rid of the stripes, only sleeping the computer. The problem does seem fairly widespread, but that maybe because it happened to us. So far it does seem that there are non-defective MBP's out there, so I will offer that encouragement. It will be interesting to know what Apple determines is the problem.

The same problem here. I have one of the new penryn 2.5 GHz MacBook Pro's and it shows this problem often. But i'm not so concerned about it since the backlight can be brought back to life by closing and reopen the lid. I have a very strong feeling that this problem is firmware related, and i think it would be possible for Apple to solve this problem. I guess the big question is - when will it happen?

The interesting thing for me is how many people say it happens to them a lot. For me, it only happened once, and I suspend several times a day, and change power sources at almost each suspend/awake.

My original MBP has gone back to Apple for a replacement due to a faulty DVD drive, not related to the backlight issue. My replacement should be here on Tuesday and I hope it doesn't happen any more than it did with my original one.

This has happened to me once before. A closing of the screen did not correct it, but a reset of the computer did.

Penryn MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz, 256MB VRAM.
Custom energy settings.
Power Adaptor: 1hour sleep, 20 mintues display sleep, wake ethernet, automatically dim display before sleep.
Battery: 10 minutes sleep, 2 minute display sleep, put hard disks to sleep when possible, slightly dim display when using this power source.

It occurred when I went to plug it in while I was on red battery level.

It looks like every other LED is not on - but could be a software issue too, as it drives the LEDS to switch on and off.

IT has kind of happened a second time. I can confirm it was on low battery when I plugged the power adaptor in (same settings as above). This time, however, all the LEDS failed to turn on (or they all turned off) - I could see the screen, it simply wasn't backlit. I turned the brightness all the way down and back up, but it did nothing. Closing the lid, letting it sleep, and opening again had them turn on correctly. It really does sound like a software controlling issue, as the LEDS themselves seem fine, and only happens when something triggers the brightness to change.

I've heard ti may also be heat -related. My computer was running reasonably warm.

I really hope this is fixable by firmware, because I'm anxious enough with a new computer as it is. It shouldn't have to be this way.