Lighting at bottom of my MacBook Pro screen is uneven

We are having this issue on a newer MacBook pro with touch bar...

Mine is doing the exact same thing. I don't see it all the time, but when I do notice the "spotlights" I've also noticed that the screen is dimmer even with the brightness turned all the way up.

paulfromspringvale wrote:

For some weird reason, doing a screen shot via Grab did not show any problem. I used my iPhone 4s, but he resolution came out a bit weird. There is no fountain of pixels running up the center of the screen. The trouble is confined to the bottom inch.

The fountain effect is called moire and it is a digital artifact inherent to digital sensors.

I had the same problem about 6 months ago with my older 15" Macbook Pro (the aluminum one without the black keys, essentially the model before yours). I have had the same issue during that time and after a few months my screen went pixelated and I couldn't access anything. I took it to my local Apple certified retailer and they had told me it's a common problem with the older macbook pro versions. Essentailly the graphics cards crapped out on mine. Luckily there was a common issue and at that time Apple covered that under an extended warranty ( you have to remember I have had this macbook for almost 4 years now and I had never purchased Apple Care). So basically the retailer (Small Dog Electronics) sent the macbook out and had Apple replace my graphics card for free. It was a $400 expense that was not charged to me.

However, now the same problem is occurring again. I have these evenly spaced "blotches" on my screen. This occurred as I took it out of my backpack from class and had restarted my mac just to refresh it from such prolonged use over the course of my exam studies. I'm not sure what's going on again, but I'll have to go to Small Dog Electronics again to see what's going on. I'm hoping that the graphics card does not burn out again or else I'd have to pay. It would be lovely if Apple covered it again at no cost, considering they replaced it already and it might fry in a few months already. I'll keep ya posted and you let me know the same.

Ironically, my MacBook Pro started with the spotlights at the bottom of the screen on February 28 as well. And, my MacBook will be four years old next month. Most annoying, especially considering I haven't used it extensively since I bought it.

This is one of the many reasons I recommend getting the AppleCare warranty extension on portables (not that it would have helped some of the posters in this thread). Thanks to that, my original Titanium PowerBook became Apple's nightmare and not mine; in the course of the supported period, it required 4 new screens and one logic board to address this very same recurring issue, the splotching of the illumination. It also ended up requiring two keyboards, one top case, two batteries and one DVD/CD drive as well, but that's another story.

I just started having this problem on my 15" aluminum Macbook Pro. It's about 4 years old and beyond warranty, but I'm glad to hear it's likely it'll be replaced for free. I had the logic board replaced for free last month.

The first thing I did when it happened was I did a restart. That seemede to fix it. It happened again this morning and restarting did the trick. I imagine at some point it won't work any more considering what i've read here.

I'll call Apple and see what they say. Thanks to all for posting here. I'll bookmark the page and post my experience with Apple.

The reason doing a screen grab would not show this problem is because I believe it is the actual LED backlight hardware that has the problem, and not something stored in the memory of the graphics system. What had to be done to fix this problem? I'm guessing some part of the display would need to be replaced, but I don't know if the LED backlights are replaceable independently of the whole display. It looks like maybe half of the LED backlights at the bottom of the screen are not lighting up. I'm seeing the same problem in a friend's 15" Macbook Pro (early 2011 model).

I have the same issue (MacBook pro 15", early 2011). If I open the lid and wiggle screen connector to motherboard (where cable coming from screen is attached to motherboard - it's bellow ESC key) the problem goes away. The problem is, that when I put the lid back on issue reappears after some time. It's only temporary solution and I am already tired of taking off the lid and wiggling the connector every couple of weeks... Seems like there is a problem with connector in my case.

Can you make a screenshot for us?

Apple store, Genius Bar road trip is my suggestion. I hope your MBP is still under warranty.

Ciao.

It appears to be some bleed through from the keyboard backlighting, but what do I know. As someone else wrote, get to an Apple Store. The fix is not something quick and easy.