Strange vertical stripes - Continued

do anyone have some weird problems they have encountered with no resolution to date?? I am hoping(?) that maybe there other things that may help to zero on the real issue(unless apple knows)

I have for some time had a problem with ACTIVITY MONITOR which is fired up but no data shows in the windows except for the graph on CPU the program also generates continuous errors on the console log
1. agent connection died.

2. NSMACHPort handler port message dropping incoming DO message because the connection or ports are invalid
3. /source Cache/top/top-15/libtop.c:1578:failed assertion'0'

Hi all,
Have seen this problem on my Macbook Pro.

Just wanted to ask if Apple has commented this as a faulty mac or to just do what it says here ? http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1258

donnib

I have been stressing about this whole screen display issue for some time now (3-4 months...too busy with grad school to get it checked out).

I am convinced it is the same NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT card problem that was reported by apple last summer...
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

To see if you have this NVIDIA card on your mac:
go to the apple
select "about this mac"
click on "more info..."
under "hardware" click on "Graphics/Displays"
look to find the "vendor" the "chipset model"



Yet my issue looks a bit different than what I have seen on this thread and others that are similar. I just want to document my issue so others can with similar problems can accurately diagnose theirs.

My screen would take a single line of horizontal pixels and extend the color of that line all the way to the bottom of the screen.
Take a look here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27627272@N05/3305207133/

Usually the line would be about a 1/4 of the screen height down from the top....until today when my whole screen went into vertical disaster mode and I couldn't see any of my screen. Normally I can wait it out to recalibrate, but today it went haywire for about 6 hours. Now the screen jitters randomly and can have a car-sick vibration to it.

I have an appt with the apple help in a few days. I will report back to this thread as to the cause. But it looks like the graphics card is the culprit.

Hi: I have had the stripes twice and then some small halos at the bottom starting to show. Called in on the nearest Apple store in England and I discussed the issues with the Genius Person, who immediately decided that I should have a new LCD screen installed. They also had the parts on site and technicians capable of repairing the machine.

*_22 hours_* later they called and said the machine was ready. It was and I now have a new screen and a machine that somehow seems different more responsive, brighter I cannot explain it. It seems to run faster and so on......

*some observations that I think are important to everyone with this problem*.
1. The technician had left the protective mylar on the screen and that included the inventory number for the LCD screen and more important a date that I think was the build date or near. It was two days after I bought the refurbished machine four months ago. also the name SAM was on it probably Samsung. This implies that they built replacement LCD's for the aluminum mac pro after the unibody's came out.

2. I then checked to see from the finder window the "Search for applications run" on the machine while it was in apples hands. Guess what 20 minutes before the phone call to me to tell me about the successfull completion of the job.... *PHOTO BOOTH* had been run why???

Some of the posts on this discussion forum had indicated that stripes occurred when they ran Photo Booth. May be there is more to that than we know?

MY HAT OFF TO THE APPLE STAFF WHO ASSISTED ME AND FIXED MY MACHINE (HOPEFULLY) THEY WERE COURTEOUS, LISTENED AND GOT THE JOB DONE THIS IS WHAT SERVICE AND SUPPORT IS ALL ABOUT. THANK YOU....

Message was edited by: elolaugesen

Message was edited by: elolaugesen

Message was edited by: elolaugesen

First of all, thanks for the info. Hopefully I can get my screen replaced sometime soon.

The Apple technician was most likely running Photo Booth in order to verify that the iSight camera was working, since it's part of the display and actually has its own cable that must be plugged into the main logic board. I doubt that they ran Photo Booth to check for the display problem.

I agree with you: Hat's off to Apple -- I've always come away from an Apple store happy with their service.

Another 'Me Too', first occurrence of the vertical stripes was tonight on my Early 2008 MBP purchased June 2008. Repaired once (logic board replacement, complete system failure) in Oct 2008.

On the bright side, I've been way more diligent with my backups with this notebook since I just don't trust it at all. 😉

Anyway, shut the lid and the stripes are gone, can't make them reappear, but I don't expect I've seen the end of them.

I am new to mac and thought I was buying a top notch machine, while I still think it is a top notch machine I have had the spotlight affect as stated on this thread twice this week from mbp 2.4Ghz 15" I purchased late Nov, 08. It was the third one after returning the first two with other issues. apple has been good to me so far. but this issue I'm afraid will come back after warranty is up, as I bout this mbp with longevity in mind. hopefuly they will get a fix to set my mind at ease.
My screen did this once when I first bought it, and I thought it was an anomaly, but now after doing this twice this week and reading this thread I see its a problem. My problem is it has happen so few time and I can't make it do it again. It would be hard to ask them to fix it. It is definitely disappointing

Same 'stage lights' problem - had the machine for about 3 months, it has only started happening after i used photo booth last week. Thanks for the Ctrl/Shift/Ej fix, it seems to have worked for the time being.

Checked and the machine does have the NVIDIA (0x10de) chip.

Are apple now replacing all screens with this issue for free?

My stripes also disappeared for about 6 months after upgrading the system and just today have re-appeared after a restart. Very disappointing.

Happening to me as well. 1 week old 2.5 Ghz MBP 15" Matte with 4 gigs of ram. It has already happened twice. I am sending the computer in for service related to another problem, so they are going to look at it at that point. Maybe 10.5.6 has something to do with this issue?

I have also noticed that the stripes appear when my laptop is very cold. It has happened twice in the last week when I left it in my car and the outside temp was below 40. It hasn't happened any other time for quite a while.

I got the same problem and it keeps showing up and driving me crazy. Calling the apple support they told me they didn't know that problem!? What is my garantee good for?

The folks at the Apple store in Houston Galleria said that there was a hardware patch that fixed this if it became persistent.

Is this just a Mac Book problem - I'm getting it on my 2007 Aluminium 20 inch iMac? The SHIFT-CONTROL-EJECT trick doesn't do anything at all on my machine. Thanks to all who have posted here.

i don't think Apple can fix this issue. i pity myself for paying £1600 for a piece of faulty hardware. apple is really irresponsible. asked for money back and apple people advised to go to pcworld (where i bought). they say, go to apple. thinking of filing a case against apple/pcworld with consumer forum.