Color is off on my MBP 17" display - cool/purple bias won't go away

Hello,

I have a little more info concerning this issue from the MacBook Pro Service Manual. According to the manual this problem of colour shifting on the display (it does not matter what colour the display is e.g. green, or purple/blue) generally involves the cable connecting the display (LVDS) and/or a logic board failure. The Manual states that the following steps should be taken:

*Display has repetitive patterns or shifted color pattern*

1. Check for the latest System software update

2. Check the LVDS connection is fully seated on the logic board.

3. Replace the logic board.

The other issue that people were reporting in relation to the colour shifting was a dimmed display. According to the manual, this part of the issue involves several things including the LCD panel, the LVDS cable, inverter board and/or the logic board. The manual states that the following steps need to be taken to address the issue:

*No display, or dim display, but computer appears to operate correctly*

1. Remove any connected peripherals.

2. Make sure F1 key is not stuck down.

3. Press the F2 key (with the fn key pressed and not pressed) to increase the screen brightness settings.

4. Reboot the computer—hold down the Control and Command keys and press the Power button to restart the computer. Or, press and hold the Power button for 5 to 10 seconds to shut down the computer, then press the Power button to restart. Let the system run for an hour, so the panel can warm up.

5. Verify inverter cable and LVDS cable connections are seated properly and that the cables are not damaged.

6. Replace inverter board.

7. Replace the display rear housing (which includes the inverter cable assembly, or replace separately if available).

8. Replace LCD panel.

9. Replace logic board.

So all told this is a fairly serious issue. I hope that this info helps users who may still be experiencing this problem.

Regards,

PoliSciGuy

I would suggest giving SuperCal a try! All of these MBPs seem to come standard with a blueish or greenish tint to them out of the box!

Using the Apple profile calibration was no help. I needed something that allowed me more control over GAMMA values, as well as being able to take an existing profile and EDIT it so that I can only worry about tweaking the areas of the profile that still needed some work.

SuperCal does all of this, and best of all IT IS FREE! (Honor System Shareware)

Check it out!

http://www.bergdesign.com/supercal/

hi,

given what the service manual says i would suggest taking it in and getting Apple to exchange it (depending on how old it is). most people in this post have tired calibrating their screen in one way or another to no effect. if you can not get the display to work using the Apple software (as it should) you have a major issue and should just take it in.

regards,

polisciguy

First of all I am curious as to why you bought a Glossy display if you were concerned with color accuracy? Those are known for being inaccurate with color and not recommended for professional applications involving graphics and photos.

Contrary to what a lot of novice users on here claim, it is pretty common knowledge with seasoned Mac users that these MBP displays are not properly calibrated out of the box.

I have a new 15" 2.8ghz with the Matte screen that also looked washed out and over-saturated using the default profile. Unlike your machine which tended toward the purple/magenta side, my machine tended toward the blue/green side.

I have had very good success using a free software calibration tool called SuperCal.

http://www.bergdesign.com/supercal/

While some might say that this is a poor excuse for using a hardware calibration tool like a Spyder 3 Elite, I was very pleased with the results I got after only about 30 minutes of fiddling. While not spot on with my hardware calibrated Cinema displays, it was 100x better than it was out of the box!

Because I do intend to use this machine for professional graphic work in my job, and there is still room for improvement, I have gone ahead just this evening and ordered a Spyder 3 Elite. I hadn't realized that the price of these calibration tools had gotten so affordable.

With 6 Macs in the house and nearly double that number of displays, I figured it made sense to own one of these things at this point! lol!

I will be curious to see how much better this machine will look after a hardware calibration vs what I ended up with using SuperCal.

And just a disclaimer here based on some trouble a novice user got himself into after reading my previous thread and trying SuperCal...

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME, if you have no experience calibrating your Apple display using the calibration tool provided in SYSTEM PREFERENCES!

Message was edited by: Sir Macsalot

hi,

in my case the machine was DOA. if you read further back in the posts on this thread you will see that engineering said that if the unit does this it is defective. this is supported by the repair manual. and please note that the sections of the manual does not state one needs to use a colour calibration tool to try to remove the colour pattern.

also, many users in this thread had no luck calibrating their display no matter what they did. also, one should never have to buy a piece of hardware to get good colour. and here I make a distinction between calibrated for pro use and for consumer use. but suffice it to say that ones word or iwork documents should not have a colour tint.

so in short, if one sets the display to a gamma of 2.2 or 1.8 and a native white point, and the display still appears discolored, it should be returned or repaired.

regards,

polisciguy

Thanks for the report!

I guess I will find out tomorrow if my machine has the same problem. After using SuperCal my display looks pretty darned good. I don't see any tint in any direction now and when physically put up next to my Cinema displays, it looks about the same using Photoshop's color palette.

I decided to go ahead and order the Spyder 3 Elite after considering your suggestion that these hardware calibration tools are no longer hugely expensive. I have always wanted to own one of these since I have so many machines here. 3 laptops, and three desktops, 2 Cinema displays and 3 21" SONY graphics grade CRTs.

Makes sense to me to have a calibration tool around.

Thanks again for putting the bug in my ear about using a hardware tool instead of only relying on SuperCal and my eye. ;o)

I will be curious to see how much better I can get all of these displays with this thing. It would be nice to be able to get everything here to have as close to the exact same color profile as technically possible.

I guess I will report back on what Apple says when they check this 15" MBP out tomorrow.

Cheers. :o)

Hi,

sbd. asked for a 9CAD-profile. I did one today with a Spyder2, medium ambient light and some other parameters ( http://www.pjmb.de/uploads/LP171WU6-TLB1-9CAD.zip). This is the first time I tried such a thing and I am very happy with the result as the blue-tint "went away". If somebody likes profiles with other parameters for that display, please drop me a note,

Andreas