Q: display anomalies

hi there,yes just go to the website below. It's been recently puttogether forthis soul purpose! Ithas lots of links that you will find useful. Please let as many other people thatcould be effected by this problem have it also!
D

http://macbook-pro-issues.webs.com/

I have problems with my screen. It displays these weird colors at its worst:

http://img263.imageshack.us/i/img0478px.jpg/

And sometimes it works fine but if I restart the computer the problem appears again. I can connect it to my TV and then I have a perfect picture on my TV.

Can it be this problem:?

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

Hi Arkaska,

From the photo, it's not typical of the ATI issue... and if you say you can connect to your TV fine it would suggest that it's the actual LCD as opposed to the GPU or graphics card... Having said that, what model do you have? Is it an early MacBook Pro with the ATI X1600 graphics card... You can find that out by going Apple -> About This Mac -> More Info -> and select the item Graphics/Displays if you have the ATI X1600 it will say something like ATY or ATI in that info' block... Also, if you select Hardware at the top it will tel you the Model Identifier... Let us know...

It's the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT card. The thing is that if I connect the computer to the TV the screen on the laptops starts working as well (I know it sounds weird but that is what's happening). I replaced the logic board last summer but then the screen was just black when I started the computer so it's not exactly the same thing now.

But it shouldn't be the LCD if it starts working when I connect to the TV, right?

Hi Again,

Hmmm, well it's certainly not the ATI X1600 problem that's for sure, as you have the GeForce card!!! And it doesn't 'look' like the kind of screen a GPU issue would display...

BUT, it is very strange... that when you plug the TV in the actual LCD comes back to life?!?!? Are you actually unplugging the TV connector from the laptop or leaving the connector plugged in and just detaching the TV lead(s) from the connector? Try unplugging everything from the actual laptop, mouse, power supply etc. and see what happens then... Could be that the connector is making the laptop 'think' the TV is still plugged in when it isn't?!?!?

John

I didn't really get what you meant there but i connect the TV with DVI-HDMI and unplugged the DVI connector. Now that I disconnected it the screen works and if it stop works I'll just plug it in and it works again.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

This actually concerns my graphic card and not the ATI X1600

Hi A,

OK, so yes you're unplugging the connector from the laptop completely... So no DVI-HDMI plugged into the laptop, you work on it for a while... then the screen goes weird, you plug the DVI-HDMI connector back in and the screen comes good again, both on the TV and on the laptop LCD... Has the screen ever gone wierd with the DVI-HDMI connector plugged in? Could be the internal connection for the DVI-HDMI socket...

I'm no expert here though... anyone else???

You're probably over the 90 day warranty that came with the logicboard replacement but it might be worth taking back to the Apple Centre who did the replacement and seeing what they say...

Can't be any more help than that, sorry...

J

It can take a little while before the laptop screen begins to work after I plug the TV in.

The link i provided says Apple has an extended warranty for 3 years. So last time they replaced my logic board it was on warranty even though the computer was over 2 years old.

Hi A',

Yep, take it back and see what Apple say...

Do keep us posted...

Although geared more for the ATI X1600 issue, but also for general MacBook Pro issues you might take a look at this site and become and consider becoming a member...

http://macbook-pro-issues.webs.com/

J

Message was edited by: John0

So the computer started working perfectly yesterday and it has worked since then so it seems like the problem resolved itself. No point in calling Apple when I can't show the problem anymore.

We'll hear from you again soon

Sorry but that's most probably a faulty LCD screen in your MBP. It's not the GPU, it's the screen physically damaged.

I had the exact same thing in a Toshiba laptop. It can fail if you start playing with it, moving the MBP around or bending the cover. Most often such screens can be "positioned" so that the screen still works. Like in "just don't you touch it anymore!".

Although it works now, with time it should unfortunately fail again. But I can't know that for sure of course.

Seeing as other people keep posting in this thread I just want to suggest to the most desperate that turning off Quartz Extreme fixed all glitches and lockups for me. My well beaten Macbook Pro is getting me through the wait for the next, i5/i7, revision. Then again, I mostly work with audio, and don't play games, but do use an external display with no problem.

and my "fix" was to uninstall snow lep and start all over. i wouldn't really call that a fix....

I don't know if you agree with me but I think I've got not one, but two solutions.

The first one is to basically install FanControl and set it to 40/75 with 2500 rpm, but that's just gonna get you rid of constant lockups. Sometimes when your notebook is hot and doing some hard work it might lock up and there's nothing you can do about it. Well, actually you can...

Replace the effing thermal paste. That's the second one. Apple did a very bad job at applying it. While I was browsing this thread I encountered several cases when this procedure didn't help. I'm not saying I'm 100% sure, but I am very confident that the problem is a thermal paste applied in a wrong way or just a wrong paste itself.

The reason why I'm saying these things with such confidence is because I've been investigating the problem for quite a while and all the symptoms are almost exactly the same. I can almost confirm that this is neither software nor hardware failure - it's engineering problem.

And last word of advice - don't agree to logic board replacement right away. Try replacing the thermal paste on both CPU and GPU, at least see if that works. And if you don't know how to do it properly, let pros from Apple store or whatever handle it. The process of disassembling the computer is pretty dangerous with unskilled hands.

P.S. Sorry for my english, it's not my native language.