Macbook Pro 17 Anti-Glare LCD Problem

You should definitely call applecare and tell them that you're having the problem with the new screen, and that you'll want to get it replaced when you have a break in your schedule long enough to work without it.

then, if it were me (and I've done similar things) until you know that they've figured out what causes this, and THEN arrange to get it fixed... tell them it might take a while for you to send it in, and find out if there is any limit on getting the work done-- sometimes even if your apple care is expired they will honor a report filed before the expiration.
but to be safe-- get the long apple care!

Today, I took my antiglare to my local apple store, where a genius bar member verified the screen issues, and now I have a pending return/replacement! Thank you Apple! I believe it should take about a week to receive the 2nd replacement.

I am praying that this time there is pure uniformity and no verticalness.

Angus,

I concur with you on your observations. Yes, when the laptop is very hot and blowing hot air onto the LCD, the LCD will have vertical black lines. Once I turn on my room air condition, the laptop cools down and everything is back to normal.

I have changed my laptop 4 times and I'm fed up with the LCDs Apple provides. Question is will this be a long term LCD problem for me. It will be my problem if something goes bad with the LCD in future. Again I think this is really unfair.

I'm having the same problems with my new Unibody 17" antiglare. The first one they sent me has screen model 9CAC and has the same light leak pattern as some people have here. The second one they sent me has a different screen model 9CAD and the strange light patterns are different. I do professional graphics and video work and I cannot have screwed up light patterns on my screen distracting me while I'm trying to work.

I went to the Apple Store and they are contacting the engineers to see if they can come up with a solution. I'm very frustrated that their high end laptop has such a crappy screen. If the third one they send me has a screwed up screen I'm going to be very angry, I don't understand why they are shipping these laptops with screwed up screens.

I've attached photos of the screens with the specs and model numbers. My advice to anyone doing any kind of professional graphics work would be do NOT buy one of these machines until they get the screen problems worked out.

Bob - this coincidence is amazing - it further verifies the fact that many units suffer from this display defect. Just like you, the first machine I received was a 9CAC and it exhibited similar vertical paths and distorted lighting. The replacement was a 9CAD and also exhibited similar patterns as well. Based on your photos, the symptoms your notebook has is identical to what I experienced.

I am currently awaiting my 2nd replacement (3rd Antiglare) - I hope to God things are worked out by now. Best of luck with your Antiglare units everyone!

Just an update, the image I posted for the second machine was after cold boot, so I decided to take a picture of it while hot, and you can see the two signature black auras above the fans. Here's the updated picture, as well as a photo of both machines side by side at the same time, I call it "Double Fail".

One way to get your machine running hot is to utilize the processor to the max. I do this by opening the Terminal and using this command: "Yes > /dev/null & Yes > /dev/null" (without the quotes). This maxes out both cores, and the machine gets pretty hot.

I went into the Apple Store to see if their Anti-Glare machine had the same problems, but there is so much light in the store it was impossible to tell if the screen had the problem. I dropped off these new pictures, but the guy handling my case was not in, so I have not heard back from Apple on what their engineers think of all this. After reading all these posts about how many other people are experiencing this problem, and the fact that their replacements continue to have the same problem, I'm skeptical about having them send me a third laptop because the chances are it will have the same problem. I will cross my fingers for you Evenness, but I have a feeling your third laptop will have the same defect.

I find it hard to believe that a company that claims it makes higher quality computers than everyone else is shipping laptops with screens that have these defects. "2.3 million pixels of perfection" yeah, right. Phil Schiller said during the keynote - "This is the best display we've ever shipped in a notebook." More like the WORST display I've ever seen in any computer in my life.

I'm going to ask if there is a way to apply the $3200 towards a Mac Pro, and buy a display from a different company.

Those pictures are very over-exposed, such that a black screen, which in reality is grayish due to some expected amount of backlight bleed, is bright blue. I don't doubt that there is indeed backlight bleed, but my 9CAC screen does not appear as bad.

Here's a pic of my matte 9CAC MBP at full brightness. Behind it is the venerable Dell 3007WFP-HC 30" display for reference in terms of exposure and evenness.


This pic is a little over-exposed compared to what I actually see with my eyes.


This pic closely matches what I see with my eyes.

Phil Ta- Try maxing out the processor cores for half an hour so the machine is hot. I think you will find different results, you should be able to see the two dark black vertical lines over the fans.

The way to max out the processor cores is to go into the Terminal and type "Yes > /dev/null & Yes > /dev/null" (without the quotes). After you are done with this experiment close the Terminal and it will kill the "Yes" processes.

At any rate, I've had enough of this defective screen nonsense. I've had Apple start the process to credit me the money towards a Mac Pro.

I have read that typing the terminal command you suggest does NOT max out the processors, it's only a myth according to some posts from developers I read online.

Here is a direct quote from the post:
"BTW, the idea that "yes > /dev/null" somehows races the processor is totally absurd. A processor has many functional units that aren't utilized by yes, AND yes is also IO-bound. Why do people keep spreading this myth?"

The quote above is from the following link:
http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-205238.html

Hope this helps...

I have got the same screen 9CAC on my second replacement MBP17 and thankfully I have not had any of the flickering problems I had with the other unit. Seems to me maybe the 9CAC screen is the solution... BTW, my screen looks exactly like yours when full brightness is turned on... So far I have not seen any light leakage or flickering problems (as least yet) like the other screens have.

Hopefully the problems has been fixed for good.... and please everyone with a 9CAC screen feel free to post your findings and let us know if you have any of the flickering problems or light leakage like the other screens....

Thanks...

Perhaps a bit OT but since you all probably have MBPs with Anti-glare screens....the biggest thing holding me back from buying a new MBP with anti-glare screen is that I am a bit afraid that it will be much dimmer than the the glare one. As this is a laptop for work, I dont really care about black levels etc but I am a brightness junkie always hammering the "increase brightness" on my laptops thinking that it must be on power save or something because it is so dim, only to realize it isn't....

Any truth to this or am I just being silly about this? I have yet to find an apple store in Sweden having MBP with anti-glare on display so I can't just see for myself and decide....

The glossy and anti-glare LCDs are almost identical from the factory (they're made by Samsung and LG) except for the outermost layer which can be glossy or matte. The glossy screen has an additional glass panel on it when Apple assembles it. The LED backlight should be nearly identical too, and so should the brightness. I've owned both glossy and matte versions for a day or two, and the matte was actually a bit brighter.

So Phil, if you had the option to keep one of then, and only one, which one would you keep?

I kept the anti-glare.

I originally went with the gl assy thinking I might be able to tolerate it, as I did enjoy my old gl ossy MBP (without the super shiny extra slab of glass). However, I could not handle the reflections. Whether I was sitting in a dim room or a room with windows and sunlight, my eyes were constantly distracted by the reflections of wall behind me and my face or body. The reflections were much brighter and more noticeable compared to the old glossy that didn't have the extra glass.

I then bought the anti-glare. Comparing the two side-by-side, the glassy did have a tiny bit of extra zing or sharpness; color and saturation were nearly identical. However, I attribute the extra zing the glossy LCD that lies behind that extra slab of glass in the glassy MBP compared to the matte LCD used in the anti-glare MBP, since the glossy screen in the old MBP had the same extra zing to the image without requiring an extra piece of glass in front. Why Apple decided to do that I have no idea.

Essentially, that extra piece of glass does nothing for image quality but add needless reflections. The extra sharpness is inherent to the glossy finish of the actual LCD, not the extra glass covering it! Plus, there was a speck of dust behind the glass on my glassy MBP which made the LCD appear to have a big blob of dead pixels. I did not want to deal with that or have dust get in between there and become more of a problem later down the road on like the iPhone which accumulates dust over time.