Sebastian Kox

Q: Internal screen vertical interlaced

Just out of nowhere my internal screen now and than turns out vertical interlaced. Either with black or white lines, alternating between normal screen at one vertical pixel row and a black/white line on the other. Like the interlace filter from the old days.
It's seems quite random, no heating issues or special software and the MBP is mostly sitting on my desk.

The mac keeps on functioning and the external display doesn't show the problem.
PR-ram/SMC reset didn't resolve the problem, it just stops and shows up again after a while.
Any idea's what could be wrong? I saw another post covering the same problem, but it wasn't solved.

Thanks!

Sebastian.

MBP 15" 2.6, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 2, 2010 7:45 AM

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Q: Internal screen vertical interlaced

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  • by Sebastian Kox,

    Sebastian Kox Sebastian Kox Mar 6, 2011 3:50 PM in response to picturix
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    Mar 6, 2011 3:50 PM in response to picturix
    Yeah, I have the exact same problem. Screenshots are fine, external monitor is fine as well.

    I too replaced my screen (actually switched screens on two identical machines) and the problem did occur again but not as often as before. Instead of the white lines I had earlier they now are pink.
    The other machine where my old screen is on is working without any problem.

    It's strange that changing screens on my system didn't resolve the problem entirely, but it sure made an improvement. Before the problem occurred for hours per day, now I've only seen it three times and just for a few minutes.

    I don't think it's the display data cable/led driver board because my old display is working perfectly on the other system. Maybe it's more related to the logic board or the display connector or some other connectors getting loose.

    What system are you on exactly?
    I'm on a MacBookPro4,1 / 2.6 / GeForce 8600M GT 512 MB

    Let me know if anything progresses!
  • by picturix,

    picturix picturix Mar 7, 2011 5:54 AM in response to Sebastian Kox
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 7, 2011 5:54 AM in response to Sebastian Kox
    Hi,

    my system:

    MacBookPro 4,1 IntelCore 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz
    Serial W88147QRYJX
    GeForce8600M GT
    April 2008

    I think your experience is really strange.
    I only replaced the panel itself, not the whole screen. The display data cabel and the leed driver board was still the same.
    I am considering going to an apple store, unfortunately the next store is about 40 miles away. And I do not have the receipt anymore.
    Anyway...
    If the logic board is defect, it does not make sense to me to repair it, unless apple pays for the logic board.

    Chris
  • by DougBarned,

    DougBarned DougBarned Mar 7, 2011 8:20 AM in response to Sebastian Kox
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    Mar 7, 2011 8:20 AM in response to Sebastian Kox
    My specs are the same:

    I'm on a MacBookPro4,1 / 2.6 / GeForce 8600M GT 512 MB

    The lines are green today... at least they were for several hours. Now they are white again. I've plugged an external in via the DVI output and that is unaffected.

    I'm in the process of making sure everything is backed up (including bootcamp) and then I might try a fresh install of 10.6 to see if it makes any difference. Probably won't get around to that though.

    Will update after my Genius Bar appointment
  • by picturix,

    picturix picturix Mar 7, 2011 10:50 AM in response to DougBarned
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 7, 2011 10:50 AM in response to DougBarned
    Hi all,

    @DougBarned
    After I made the decision to replace the panel, I saved all my data on an external hard drive and did a fresh install of the system.
    During the first start of the new system I had a normal screen for approximately 5 min., then it turned back into the wired interlaced picture.

    Chris
  • by bazzaa,

    bazzaa bazzaa Mar 7, 2011 12:46 PM in response to Sebastian Kox
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 7, 2011 12:46 PM in response to Sebastian Kox
    Same issue. MB134, early 2008, GT8600M GT. Started from yesterday.
    Annoying. It usually takes several restarts until problem is gone.
    Screenshots aren't affected. External monitor works just fine.
    SMC reset doesn't help.

    Just installed fan control, increased fan speed and waiting - probably overheating?
  • by Sebastian Kox,

    Sebastian Kox Sebastian Kox Mar 8, 2011 1:23 AM in response to bazzaa
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 8, 2011 1:23 AM in response to bazzaa
    Extra cooling didn't have any effect for me, it happens when it's at 30ºc as well.
    And restarting doesn't help either, I had it occur while starting up, and even in the hardware test.
  • by bazzaa,

    bazzaa bazzaa Mar 8, 2011 5:50 AM in response to Sebastian Kox
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    Mar 8, 2011 5:50 AM in response to Sebastian Kox
    Have somebody tried to boot under Windows or Linux?
    As I understood, Mac OS X reinstallation (with partition reformat) doesn't help. Haven't tried to reinstall Mac OS 10.6 yet, but upgrade to Lion dev. preview doesn't help as well.
    Yesterday was a "issue-free" day (having fans running with ~4000rpm and avg. temperature ~40C), but it was rather unusual light workload for my lap: browsing and movies only.
    I'm considering to install Ubuntu to see whether it is MacOS/kext issue or not. I believe not, but will give a chance to try anyway. I'm currently waiting for problem to appear again
  • by DougBarned,

    DougBarned DougBarned Mar 8, 2011 10:26 AM in response to bazzaa
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    Mar 8, 2011 10:26 AM in response to bazzaa
    I've tried under Windows via Bootcamp — same issue appears.

    Tried Apple Hardware Test from my install disc and got the following error:

    4vdc/1/40000003: VideoController

    Appointment is tomorrow - will let you know what happens
  • by Sebastian Kox,

    Sebastian Kox Sebastian Kox Mar 8, 2011 11:09 AM in response to DougBarned
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    Mar 8, 2011 11:09 AM in response to DougBarned
    That'll probably the Nvidia problem. I think our problem is different, I tried the hardware test again to be sure, and it says that everything is ok.
  • by DougBarned,

    DougBarned DougBarned Mar 9, 2011 1:18 AM in response to Sebastian Kox
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    Mar 9, 2011 1:18 AM in response to Sebastian Kox
    That's odd. It presents itself in the same way, as in my screen looked like your photo. Same symptoms, different disease maybe...

    Annoyingly, it's behaving itself today. Hope it goes weird again later when I'm at the store.
  • by bazzaa,

    bazzaa bazzaa Mar 9, 2011 3:29 PM in response to DougBarned
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 9, 2011 3:29 PM in response to DougBarned
    DougBarned wrote:
    Annoyingly, it's behaving itself today. Hope it goes weird again later when I'm at the store.


    Any update? What did they say?
  • by picturix,

    picturix picturix Mar 9, 2011 6:13 PM in response to bazzaa
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 9, 2011 6:13 PM in response to bazzaa
    Hi all,

    funny news from my MacBoiok pro. Slowly but surely my impression is that this f... little computer try to make fun of me.

    I have made a reservation for the genius bar in the Apple store at Lancaster for tomorrow morning. I already installed a new system, which did not help, but have not done an upgrade until today. Why upgrade, with the new system the computer is in its original state. Anyway, the Apple people advise to do an upgrade, so here we go.
    After I restarted the computer when the update was done, the problem was still there.
    Thereafter I have run the hardwaretest again,... and guess what... , at the moment I press the start button to initiate the hardware test, the screen flipped back to normal. BTW the hardware test was...........NEGATIV.
    Pure coincidence ?
    Whatever... I think I go to the Apple store anyway, they can check the hardware, and I can check the new MacBook pro..... :-))
  • by DougBarned,

    DougBarned DougBarned Mar 10, 2011 2:01 AM in response to picturix
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 10, 2011 2:01 AM in response to picturix
    Sorry couldn't update yesterday — they took my mac!

    Update: They've taken it in for repair. Will be replacing my motherboard and testing it...

    It was behaving itself all of yesterday. The guy said it passed all their in-store tests (which I thought was an odd thing to say because it said on screen FAILED in white text with a red background :/ ) but because I took a print out of some photos showing it being broken (http://design-is.co.uk/MBP-Fail.jpg) with me, he said it was probably just starting to break, which doesn't always show up. I have to wait a week

    Then we'll see how it goes. I did optimistically ask if this was one of those things they could just give me a shiny new mac for — sadly no.
  • by Ben Haines,

    Ben Haines Ben Haines Mar 10, 2011 4:08 AM in response to DougBarned
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 10, 2011 4:08 AM in response to DougBarned
    Quick update, I posted a month back with the same issue. Took my MBP 17" to the Genius bar in Covent Garden (UK) and the test only failed on the very last issue (link bandwidth I believe).

    They took it in for repair, replaced the motherboard/logic-board and all has been well since. All in 12 hours, free of charge (covered under the extended warranty for the NVIDIA issue)... I'm a very happy customer!
  • by DougBarned,

    DougBarned DougBarned Mar 18, 2011 5:30 AM in response to Ben Haines
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 18, 2011 5:30 AM in response to Ben Haines
    It took a week, but my mac is now back with me — working fine now it seems. Work invoice shows they tried 2 different motherboards ... which I thought was weird. No bother for me though as it was covered and therefore free.

    I'll drop back if anything goes wrong / it starts showing artefacts again.

    Good luck to all else!

    /Doug
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