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Lines through screen

One of my relative has just replaced and passed her old MacBook Pro to me. Before she done so, she told me about that lines appear through out the screen sometime. First I thought that the monitor is broken, but when I open it up and when a line first appeared, immediately turned out that it has nothing has to do with the monitor: The mouse passes through the lines, the menus appears on top of the lines makes them blur a little, and when the lines appear on window elements that is scrollable, then the part of the line that is on the scrolling content will scroll too, as if the lines are part of the window elements and design.

So after I saw this I have a theory about the problem cause, and two possible solution:
The driver is incompatible, and it is not the proper version. (Also, in system profiler, it Chipset Model appears as “ATY,RadeonX1600”, I don't know, if that is normal.)

The possible solution:
1. I would like to update my drivers, unfortunately, there is none in system update, and cannot find one for download either. 😟 —Is there any possibilities that I found ANY?
2. Since the notebook originally was not shipped with Mac OS X 10.5, I should downgrade to 10.4, but I'm kind of unsure about this, since there are applications that I want to keep after the downgrade—regardless of it is compatible with that version of the system, since I can delete them after the downgrade (in my point of view)—but I want to avoid this. Is any part of this is possible?

Am I correct about the problem, and do you have any other idea to solve the problem?

MacBook Pro 15", Mac OS X (10.5.8), With ATI Radeon X1600

Posted on Mar 28, 2011 2:46 PM

Reply
11 replies

Mar 31, 2011 9:35 AM in response to macjack

Ok. It also turned out, that it time to time freezes on the graphical level. (I know that by logging on to it by ssh.) Unfortunately I could not make it come back, and always crashed in the end so far. I believe this issue is related.

I also noticed, that if I capture a Window-only screenshot, the lines will not appear. I'll send two images to demonstrate that. (I made a dozen picture to send two? ;P)

Actually, I couldn't find a way to upload it here, so I've made a Picasa album ( https://picasaweb.google.com/112026026582730088118/SupportPictures?feat=directli nk), where you can see the dozen pictures, but the two that I wanted to upload is
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/PTmYHb-ULMPc1yfQI_JfPQ?feat=directlink , and
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/GAPuhtFISVfzln83pwwmtw?feat=directlink .

Apr 1, 2011 12:44 PM in response to omacs

Since I'm started this thread, it does not feels appropriate to answer your question, since basically I don't have relevant information, but according to my experience over other OS-es (mainly Windows and Linux—OpenSUSE) and machines, it seems more of a driver problem rather than hardware problem—it is on software level. I personally don't know what to do though.

I would say probably tweak a config file, or applying a patch would do, but is there such solution?

If it is however a hardware level problem, then taking it for a repair, to replace the video card, should help.

That is my opinion so far.

Apr 3, 2011 11:25 AM in response to macjack

I could not made an OpenGL test with Cinebench, however this is the test result of OpenGL. (With the boxer's head in 800x600x32 window) https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5VJNChSb_NFNmE3MTIxZjctOGNhNy00MzQyLWI0NGYtZGY zYzE5NzQ5M2M2&hl=hu

It seems that the most supported version of OpenGL is 2.1.

I will look through they capability/further results later.

Apr 3, 2011 3:03 PM in response to Katakarin

Hmm... I've haven't used them in 10.5 but have in 10.6 and from the specs you'd think they'd be better in 10.5. Well, another puzzlement.

What I would do, since AHT checked out is work with it for a while, if there's no warranty time constraint on you. A bad graphics card will get worse but usually doesn't effect your ability to work (provided you can see what you're working on)


User uploaded file
-mj

May 2, 2011 4:07 PM in response to Katakarin

Yesterday this issue appeared for the first time on my Macbook Pro (late 2006) and the Apple assistance center told me that I have to replace the logic board for 740 euro.

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/1556/photo3bg.jpg

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/361/photo5co.jpg

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/3117/photo2tak.jpg


Speaking with the technician, I've understood that this is a common issue on this Macbook with this ATI X1600, and it is usually caused by heat.


What do you think about a class action? Maybe against ATI?


I've looked over the web and I've found the "Hagens Berman LLP".


This is their website and it is possible to tell them about our claim (there is a button on the left): http://www.hbsslaw.com/home/

Jul 8, 2014 10:45 PM in response to SergeGardien

I have the same issue too ( Macbook Pro from late 2006 ). The problem appeared when I used to watch videos using XMBC application. After watching video for 30 minutes to 1 hour, screen frozen and got horizontal lines grey and black.. the problem got worst but first time happened i resolved to by doing PRAM and I was very happy to resolve the issue ,, when it happened again I couldn't`t resolve it by PRAM any more.. is it confirm garphic issue or software ( XBMC may be ? ) issue ?

Lines through screen

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