Q: display anomalies

you guys found my "home page", well it's not mine but I thought it was fitting! lol

I hope that there is a final solution to this soon.

That said, those that are not under warranty and have gotten their computer fixed for the $300 price can you please make a note maybe in a seperate forum, that way we can use you as a "reference" if any of us try to get ours fixed.

Hello, all.
Add me to the list... exactly the same issues, since some months, so i'm glad to find that thread.
I had many others problems with that Macbook pro 1.83 GHz rev 1.1, but this one is getting worst day by day. Since months, I used smcfancontrols and others software each time I play or use intensive graphics programs, but it crash more and more.
I also remove the battery, as when removed, only one cpu is working, but that's not effective for a long time, and by the way, I didn't buy this computer to have it running at half speed
So, after reading the 23 pages here, and others threads speaking of the same issue, i'm quite deseperate. I have bought 10 macintosh in the last 14 years, so I really hope that Apple will do something, because this is a real issue. I will not buy 10.5, because my computer is already too hot (58°C now, running on one core only, and just typing that message)
(sorry for my bad english)

It's ummer here and with outside air temps reaching upper 80s I'm forced to using these blue jelly orthopedic cooling pads for my MacBook Pro, how ridiculous is that? They come in handy 10"x8" sizes of wich I bought three. They take turns with one resting under my MBP while the other cool in the freezer. I manage to keep temps low while having to work on my MBP, thank god I have my MacPro t work with!

sad to say - but when i read your post just now i thought "hey - great idea!" - i need not reiterate how frustrating it is to need to resort to such tactics to make my "top-of-the-line" $2800 machine usuable...
the good news is that by using all of the various and numerous strategies i outlined in my long post earlier i have finally managed to make my MBP usable a good 75% of the time. it's still dangerous to stream video or work on large Photoshop files or even use Exposé but at least it doesn't freeze up 3-4 times a day. and at least i live in San Francisco where i don't have to worry too much about temperatures above 70°!
BTW - i'm still trying to amass names and email addresses for our mailing list - if i can get enough i plan to take a different tack and start pressuring ATI to acknowledge the problem, since that seems to have been the key with the Nvidia case.
so *SIGN UP*
i figure we'd need at least 50-60 people in order to even begin to be taken seriously.
ok cheers,
bennett

Hmmm, gel pads - now there's an inventive mind! I just have mine propped up at an angle to allow air flow underneath and a fan (18") blowing onto it (it's winter here in Aus' but it still gets up to 30ºC+, i'm dreading Summer!)... Also Fan Control to ramp up fan speeds and iStat to monitor things... But yeah, bottom line we shouldn't have to resort to these kinds of limp along tactics to use the product we've invested in... I'm now noticing a lot more lockups, freezes, and 'black screens', so it appears to be a degenerative issue...?

I've yet to take mine into the AppleCare Centre as per the instructions of the Apple rep i'm talking to (it's a few hours drive away and i don't do the trip often, may be end of next week). So we'll see what they say... it's been hinted at that it's a 'known issue' with Apple tech, and it's been hinted that Apple will pickup some of the costs? But it's all a bit vague right now??

On a different note, what ever happened with the petition on theATypical site, there nearly 100 names up there now...? And, yes - ATI should be brought into the picture with this, Nvidia were up front and came to the party - may be ATI will?

To be continued...

Yeah the exact same thing happened to me. This was fine a month ago this just happened about 2 weeks ago and now. I called the apple specialist and they said it will cost me about $700+
I hope apple will realize this soon! Need my computer. I can't even do anything because once I turned it on the screen just crashes. pls add me to ur mail list tnx

Hi Joyce,
When you say this happened just a few weeks ago, were you getting the odd lines of coloured pixels, strange primary coloured shapes, and bits of the screen 'sheering', 'tearing'? Or is your MBP freezing at start-up, and how far into start up does it get? My screen will freeze or go black on occasion (alog with all the lines and artifacts) but only when it's been running for a while, never at or during start-up.

Following on from my post prior to Joyce.

I did take the trip to the AppleCentre.

Met by a tech who was at best, less than enthusiastic, almost disinterested. Seemed very blasé about my concerns for the general LCD quality, poor uneven illumination and the dust and scrud 'inside' the screen. And would you believe... in the short time i had there, only one instance of the display anomalies, to which the tech, again almost bored, said 'oh, yes i saw something but that could have been software'... Despite all the photos i showed him of previous examples. Got the usual, 'why didn't you deal with this under warranty, why didn't you take out AppleCare'... and then, 'well what do you expect, it is 3 years old'... WHAT DO I EXPECT!?! Sheez, like he thought it was normal to pay nearly $3,000 for a product and only expect to get three years out of it.


Anyway, i said i'd leave it with him and he would run it during the day and see what happened. Returned at the end of the day and he reported that nothing had happened. I do wonder how much attention he was paying, there thing do come and go on the screen... it's not like you just play a DVD and stream some video off the net for a couple of hours come back and there you have it, loads of little anomalies all lined up... Anyway, he said 'it might be software related', or something to do with a 'periphery device like my external HD'!?! Yeah right... but i'll do some testing, run if for a day with nothing plugged in and copy all my working files to the HD... we'll see...

But basically, not very happy with the whole process... especially the attitude. I'll see what the the guy at Apple PR has to say about it.

To be continued...

Yeah. a month ago this didn't happen. Althought I noticed that it the screen is slow but it didn't crash. But 2 weeks ago the screen just crashes showing diagonal checkered lines covering the whole screen. I had to restart it again. after I can still use it but then after a few minutes or so it does the same thng.
But now I can't use the computer anymore at all. when I turn it on u can see the diagonal checkered lines alng with An oversized apple sgn during startup. It doesn't even go to the desktop because after that the screen totoally look ugly and crazy. It has white nd black checkered lnes. It stopped working altogether.
This was 3 years old this June. So I guess this is the lfetime of the computer
I have An appt At the apple store today. Dnt have any warranty so do I have to pay fr something?

i guess i have the exact same problem...
can't believe i paid that much to have a laptop for less than 3 years...

here are some screenshots:


http://img208.imageshack.us/i/p1110048.jpg/
http://img413.imageshack.us/i/p1110049.jpg/
http://img514.imageshack.us/i/p1110050.jpg/
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/854/p1110051.jpg

Ok just got done at the Apple Center. They said that my computer have logic board failure or video card failure.
Thank God that I only need t pay $310 flat rate. I guess this is a normal problem and they recgnized it right away. I asked them but thy danced arond the question and didn't answer my question. But oh well I'm not cmplainng. I'm gonna get it n a 7-10 days at the apple store.

How old was your MacBook Pro? One-three years? It's becoming far too common in the industry and far too sad to have to pay to keep portables working past a year!

If there continues to be a great many of these manufacturing defects, someone needs to defend us customers to ensure that we're not buying something that costs hundreds and more to keep it working for more than one year, without forcing us to buy an extended warranty to keep it working well for three years!

With these GPUs, there seems to be more and more issues and its mostly related to heat... NVIDIA admitted to some, but unfortunately this ATI issue is NOT being admitted...

Now that many people just buy a new one, like I had to, or pay to get it repaired, then less and less people will make enough noise to get this addressed! This is not an Apple isolated issue, Dell, HP, etc all have their problems... so, this is not beating up Apple, but they need to make this right and get ATI to admit to this problem and fix these defective MacBook Pros! Just think of those that buy a used MacBook Pro only to have it crap out of them, the problem only compounds and makes Apple look worse, when it's ATI and NVIDIA's fault for crappy GPUs!!!!

I know somebody should definitely defend us because its seems a lot of people are affected. I had this computer for three years now.
Apple should admit this defect and refund our money for the cost of repair.
Maybe you should? lol. well, i guess its the ATI's fault and not really the apple.

As Apple and ATI are obviously unwilling to acknowledge anything in this regard, I contacted a lawyer that currently also has a case against apple on loose MacBook Air hinges. I know my MBP is 3 years old now, but this is not standard age wear .... it's a design flaw built-in!!!
Can't we simply ask to get our logic board replaced with the updated NVIDIA ones that work? Is that technicaly possible? If Apple would offer such a program for free I'm more than a happy camper!