Q: Strange vertical stripes - Continued

This is the problem Im having:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1258
or
http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mg2729smallnx2.jpg

This has happened to me too, unfortunately. MBP is only 2 weeks old, and I just got the stripes!

Mine was on AC, not battery like most folks, and using with an external 24" DVI-connected monitor. (The stripes appeared ONLY on the MBP display, not the external monitor.) Running OS X 10.5.6, and located in a cool environment.

Without knowing anything about this discussion, I tried a couple things to fix it:

First, I tried to adjust the screen brightness to see if that would clear it. (At the time of failure, my brightness was set at -2 clicks from full bright.) It did not. Second, I closed the laptop, putting it into standby. When I opened it, the problem was gone. I then went googling and found this discussion.

It doesn't seem like a very serious problem (you can still see the screen, and it can always be fixed by the ctrl-shift-eject key combo), but I am still very disappointed that Apple has not provided a real fix for this.

I tried to reproduce it with the "photo booth" procedure, but could not reproduce it. Perhaps the 10.5.6 release of the OS has "fixed" that way to reproduce the issue -- yet the underlying problem still exists.

My S/N is "W882301....". Purchased from an authorized Apple reseller - so it could have been in stock for a while.

I hope Apple will fix this soon, and provide a repair/replacement program.

Wait... are you saying that you saw the stripes on a "unibody" MacBook Pro:

(see picture at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacBook_Pro )

?

Message was edited by: Roberta Millstein

I had the vertical stripes appear every few days on my MBP ever since it was purchased back in March '08 but the problem was very hard to reproduce. Then about a month ago I had the logic board replaced due to several random crashes which got VERY annoying to say the least, particularly with graphics-intensive apps. Not sure if the two issues are related but it appears that all is now resolved and I've had no more crashes or vertical stripes since then.

No. As shown in the last line of my posting, I have an Early 2008 MBP, not a unibody. I should have been more explicit I guess.

Ah, Ok. I don't think anyone who has posted here has seen the problem on a unibody.

I had the vertical stripes on my early 2008 MBP 2 months after I bought it. I kept a picture on my desktop of what it looked like(i found one on the net) and took it in to get serviced. They said the lights in the display needed to be replaced, they had it for 2 days and it's been fine ever since, well, the display that is.

I just found this forum -- I've been having striping since September, and it's currently in that state as I type this message... I was thinking about getting a 2.6ghz MBP (early 2008) closeout, but that will likely have the same prob, right? Apple is committed to repairing the problems (and not just replacing defective parts with new defective parts) right?

I got my MBP back from the repair shop Monday night with a new logic board installed. I wasnt too happy when I got it back. I used it Monday night and Tuesday morning and I didnt get the stripes but Tuesday night it happened again right after I turned the machine on. Also to make things worse it seems my MBP wasnt put back together correctly. The keyboard on one end was sticking way up, the area around it was puffed up, and the lid did not close correctly because of this. My MBP also now takes forever to boot up. Before I took it in to be repaired it only took a few seconds to boot and it takes over a minute now. I took it back to the shop Tuesday night and they said the repair guys must have missed some clips when they were putting the machine back together which is causing the keyboard to stick up. They are going to try to fix it again and hopefully get rid of the vertical stripe problem.

There is a real fix for this: Replace the screen.

You know, I may be mistaken, but I SWEAR at one point on the support page for this fault, Apple said to bring in the machine for replacement. Either they took it down, or I was just crazy to begin with. Maybe I was just reading that in this thread. It appears Apple is aware of the situation, and that a range of serial numbers for faulty machines (lol, ALL early 08 15" MBPS)is known, and the fix is to replace the screen (or the LED driver board, but that is part of the single part that is the screen).

MMM I don't think so, there is a lot of people around here that were replaced their display's with no success.

stripes back again for the second time since I got the machine 4 months ago....

I had powered the machine down and started from scratch as soon as it came up even before any application the stripes were there....

will go to the apple store in two weeks when close to manchester.

spoke to an apple person on the phone from england she knew about the problem but did not know about the ts1258 and the ctrl -sht - eject key sequence.... thanked me....

Yeah, that's the Apple repair notice I saw. A site discussing the various video problems of the early 2008 MBPs linked to it.

Wouldn't the vertical stripes constitute "distorted video"?

The repair shop replaced my display and logic board again. I went to pick up my MBP last Saturday and the latch was broken and I couldnt open the lid. I had to leave it there again to get fixed. I went and picked it up on Tuesday and the latch was fixed along with the keyboard and case. The keyboard was still sticking up a little bit on the left side but it wasnt as bad as it was and the case got put back together correctly. There was only a little gap and bulge on the side by the power supply port. I tried out my MBP before I left the store and there was now something wrong with the airport card. It wouldnt connect to anything. The store wanted me to leave it there again but I had already gone there four times and driven over 400 miles in two weeks. My MBP now had problems that it didnt have when I first brought it in there. I took my laptop home and called Apple. They are going to replace my MBP since I had three repairs in two weeks and my laptop was still broken. I dont know if the new display and logic board fixed the vertical stripe problem because I sent it back to Apple on Wednesday. I definitely should have taken it to an Apple store instead of an authorized service provider. Unfortunately the closet Apple store is two and half hours from my house and the closet authorized service provider is an hour and a half away. Anyway its super cool that Apple is replacing my machine.

Someone in a related Digg article posted that Apple has announced an NVIDIA card problem (last updated Jan. 2009):

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377?viewlocale=en_US

The support article states:
"Distorted or scrambled video on the computer screen" or
"No video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on".

I'm having the same "stage lights" issue described in this discussion - but I wouldn't quite 'agree' with the description above. Is this repair for us, or did the poster list it erroneously?