My daughters spring 2008 MacBook Prohad start up problems today. The start up basically stopped and the display went to pink and white with a green apple logo. THe display was pixelated and start up stopped.
Not sure what this means or what can be done to fix it, any help is appreciated.
Dan
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Spring 2008
That is very likely hardware. Either the graphics card or the display or possibly the cable between the logic board and the display. It would be best if you took it in to an Apple Certified repair facility and get it diagnosed. The only other thing that may help is if you try and connect it do an external display and see if it has the same colors to it. If it does, then you can tell that it is the graphics card. PRAM reset may help if you hold down command+option+p+r. But like i said the best thing you can do is take it in for diagnostics.
logic board to monitor or the monitor cable has given up the ghost.
Could be as simple as the monitor cable but very unlikely since you are seeing solid WRONG colors. What you indicated would not be a monitor fault.
If logic board turns out at fault cost for repair and replacement would be superceded by replacing the 2008 macbook with a new/newer (refurbish or otherwise) model.
Thanks for the reply, she was able to restart, she may have pushed the shift key but it started and is working normally at the moment. In the middle of a backup currently.
Dan
Can I attach or upload a picture of the display in the failed mode?
Dan
Well the reason I said it could be the cable is because I have seen a customer that they dropped the computer and reseating the cable fixed it. However I do agree that it is rare. And can you see it malfunctioning beyond the apple logo? Like in her user?
yes, make a snapshot of the desktop image faulting with wrong colors and upload same.
Keep getting error messages trying to upload jpeg
What does it say more specifically?
That needs to be taken in for repair. That looks too bad to be a cable. I would say graphics card. Keep in mind that you could be spending from 300-800 maybe even more. But its your call if you want to repair it or get a new one. I would at least get it looked at.
Getting a new one would be more cost effective in the long run.
New is what I would likely do but it seems intermittent.
She was able to restart, she may have pushed the shift key but it started and is working normally at the moment. In the middle of a backup currently.
Dan
Your GPU is damaged. The failing NVIDEA is very common with your model. So much so, Apple had a free replacement program until Dec 2012. Unfortunately you will need a new logic board. This will cost $750-900. I suggest purchasing a new machine.
MacBook Pro: Distorted video or no video issues - Support - Apple
The problem may be intermittent, but your graphics card is damaged and will fail in the very near future and you will not be able to boot up your machine. I suggest macking up your data immedietely as the first step (which I failed to mention in my previous post).
2008 MacBook Pro display pink and white on start up
