MacBook Pro Color Profile Problem

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Level 4

1,121 points

MacBook Pro Color Profile Problem

I have a strange problem that occurs with my MacBook pro every now and then. I have been unable to isolate exactly what conditions cause it.

The issue is this. Every once in a while, the display will suddenly shift its hue a bit towards a washed out blue. All of the vibrant colors suddenly look like they have a pale blue cast to them. It is as though the incorrect color profile is set for the screen. Indeed, if I go in and change the color profile, or rather attempt to change the screen color profile, the machine beeps with no error message and no change of the screen image coloring. It is strange.

This is NOT a problem with the backlight, as the full range of brightnesses are available. It is definitely an issue with the color mapping.

The problem seems to occur when I have more than one user logged in and switch users. Sometimes, upon fast user switching, the user will be switched in, and a few seconds later, the washed out hues will appear over everything. This leads me to believe this is a software error.

Restarting the machine fixes the problem. I think it usually fixes itself after sleeping, but I have not verified this.

Is this a known problem? Anyone else seen this?

MacBook Pro 2.16 Ghz 7200 RPM 100 GB 256 MB VRAM, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on May 17, 2006 7:31 AM

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Answer 1

SkipHaughay Author

Level 4

1,121 points

May 17, 2006 7:52 AM in response to SkipHaughay

More clarification on this problem. The usual Display Profile is Color LCD. When this problem occurs, and I bring up the Display preference pane, the Generic RGB Profile is selected. I attempt to change the profile to something else, and the machine just beeps at my choices and does nothing. If I attempt to calibrate the display, it tells me that the profile for my particular display can not be found.

Logging out and logging back in fixes this.

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Answer 2

May 17, 2006 7:56 AM in response to SkipHaughay

Which model MacBook Pro? [EDIT] my bad, didn't see it in your original post

You mentioned that there is no error message when you try to change the profile; something is probably being reported to console though. Open Console.app (in /Applications/Utilities/) and see if anything is reported to it while you're experiencing these problems. If so, please post it here and I'll take a look at it.

Are you using the default profile that came with the machine or did you create your own by using the Calibration Assistant?

You might try opening Color Sync Utility (in /Applications/Utilities/) and verify or repair (if necessary) your color profiles.

Hope this helps....

Dual 2.7GHz PowerPC G5 w/ 2.5 GB RAM; 17" MacBook Pro w/ 2 GB RAM - Mac OS X (10.4.6)

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Answer 3

SkipHaughay Author

Level 4

1,121 points

May 17, 2006 7:57 AM in response to MarkDouma®

Hello Mark. I have the MacBook Pro 15" 2.16 GHZ, with the big display card, 2 gigs of RAM and the faster 100 GB hard drive.

I have not set up my own color profile.

I will check to see if something is being dumped to the console the next time this strangeness occurs.

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Answer 4

SkipHaughay Author

Level 4

1,121 points

May 19, 2006 6:57 AM in response to MarkDouma®

No message is being dumped to the console. When it gets into this state, the list of available display color profiles does not even INCLUDE the LCD profile.

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Answer 5

igrok-mac

Level 3

947 points

May 19, 2006 7:19 AM in response to SkipHaughay

I have the same problem on my iMacG5 which frequently has several users logged in. At some point, the generic profile is used, which results in a more washed out appearance than the one I've selected (which is one I built using the standard color profile app). The only way to get it back seems to be to reboot. It hasn't happened on my MBP, but I rarely do multiuser switching on it. I remember seeing discussion of this issue in the iMac discussion boards here so browse those to see if there's a better solution.

Mark

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Answer 6

SkipHaughay Author

Level 4

1,121 points

May 19, 2006 7:27 AM in response to igrok-mac

Interesting. Thanks for the advice. The tech support lady said she thought it was a hardware issue. I disagree with that assessment. I think multiple users is causing some sort of confusion with OS X, and what we are seeing is a privilege problem in the code.

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Answer 7

May 19, 2006 10:09 AM in response to SkipHaughay

This hint should help:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060103162354164&query=Dmproxy

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Answer 8

jelsas

Level 1

0 points

Jul 5, 2006 10:52 PM in response to SkipHaughay

I'm having the same problem with my MacBook. The hint from macosxhints.com temporarily resolves the problem, but I still get a blue-tinted screen sporadically after fast-user-switch

-Jon

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.7) 2G ram

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Answer 9

Jul 5, 2006 11:06 PM in response to jelsas

This is just a workaround. Only Apple can fix it. Unfortunately you'll have to run DMProxy from an admin account every time when this happens.

MacBook Pro 17" Mac OS X (10.4.7)

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Answer 10

Malk

Level 1

25 points

Nov 26, 2006 4:02 PM in response to SkipHaughay

I have a fairly similar problem, but I don't believe it is involved with fast user switching. I do have fast user switching on, but only one account, and the colour has gone blue-ish when I've been doing nothing related to user switching.

Opening display preferences is enough to change the colour back, I don't even need to select the colour profile tab. I do have a second (non-apple) display, could this be involved?

I have a 2.33Ghz Core2Duo MacBook Pro, graphics: 256Mb RadeonX1600

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Answer 11

Nov 27, 2006 4:44 AM in response to Malk

I bet you're all using MenuMeters, right? That's the culprit!

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