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mchanxo Author

Level 1

5 points

Field of vertical lines all over Macbook Pro screen? (+ freezes, beeps)

Hello, everyone.

Here's my sitch: my MacBook Pro has really been acting out in terms of freezing with fields of vertical lines. Sometimes the screen will revert back to be free of the lines but remains unresponsive OR it shuts itself down and beeps. Sometimes it fails to wake up after sleep and when I attempt to power it on, it beeps. I took my Mac to a service provider and thinking it was a RAM problem, we ordered and put in new RAM. The problem persisted and then the logic board got replaced. Everything was seemingly fine and in working order when one day a kernel panic occurred and everything was happening all over again. I just brought it back to the service provider and we re-installed my original RAM that came with the Mac. It worked fine at first, but then the RAM beeps occurred again as well as the field of vertical lines that halt the whole system. At this point I'm simply confused at what could be the problem, as the Apple Hardware Test detected "no problem found," the PRAM/SMC have been reset, it booted up completely fine in safe mode, and I've run Disk Utility on Command + Recovery. The Apple Diagnostics tag also says that everything seems to be OK, but what could be the root of this problem??

Does anyone have any insight or suggestions on this? If so, please let me know. Needless to say, I'm tired of dealing with Mac issues when I really need it for schoolwork and such. (Sidenote: I also no longer have a warranty and for my logic board I got it replaced via an Apple Customer Care Code). Anyhow, many thanks in advance to anyone who might have some input on the matter!

PS. This is what it looks like. These pictures are from two separate occasions whereby the Mac froze and these distorted fields of vertical lines popped up.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Feb 13, 2014 8:32 PM

Top-ranking reply

PlotinusVeritas

Level 6

14,878 points

Posted on Feb 13, 2014 9:03 PM

I took my Mac to a service provider and thinking it was a RAM problem, we ordered and put in new RAM.

Your GPU has failed,

Contact Apple for appt. for full diagnostics and replacing the logic board.

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25 replies

mchanxo Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 26, 2014 2:29 PM in response to gn92

Hello,

As I told taxdawg260, what ended up happening was that I called Apple and explained my situation carefully and reiterated the numerous repairs I had already taken with the machine, which was a barely a year old. Ultimately, they decided that they would replace my machine. Thus, you could call and see if you can get in touch with a senior Apple representative and hopefully see what can be done in your case if you can explain it all. However, I would note as well that circumstances for this vary from situation to situation (as every case is different) and it's never guaranteed.

I'm sorry to hear that you are facing similar issues 😟 it's terrible, I know, and hopefully it all works out!

mchanxo Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 26, 2014 2:35 PM in response to taxdawg3420

Yeah, ever since I received my replacement unit, I have a fear in the back of my mind that the issue will happen again -- needless to say, my ordeal has made me eternally paranoid. However, fingers crossed with the hope that nothing wrong or bad will happen anymore!

Apr 26, 2014 3:21 PM in response to mchanxo

I also had this problem. It was on a 15" early 2011 MBP I'd bought in July, 2011 and this happened 3 1/2 months later, in November. The first time it happened it was late at night so rather than wait to go to the store I was on the phone with Apple. After two days of working off and on with the same tech by phone, he said someone higher up the chain would like me to contact him.

Apparently there had only been a couple of instances of the problem reported at the time. Big boss man hadn't seen or been involved in diagnosing one yet. After jumping through all of his hoops as we tried this and that, he wanted the machine. He had it all set up with the Apple store when I took it in and swapped it for a brand new late 2011 model and the store shipped the sick one to him.

I've had no problems with my late 2011 Mac 🙂

Debbie

May 27, 2014 11:41 PM in response to gn92

Hi gn92,

I have a 13-inch Mid 2012 MacBook Pro. I have the same issues that you described when picking up your MacBook, and it has been happening for about the past week. I've narrowed it down to a spot on the lower left of the Macbook (directly below where the left command key would be) it happens when there is some pressure on the back cover of the Mac in that area. Also getting the same vertical lines as mchanxo posted pictures above.

Same issues with the screen becoming unresponsive, and needing to hold the power button to force shutdown. I haven't had any of the beeping sounds when this happens. However, more recently now even if I sleep my Mac and then go to open the screen, but the screen stays black. The Mac is then really hot and the fans are spinning really fast and loud. I also have to force power off in these situations. It's sort of intermittant with that now, but seems to be happening more frequently.

I've read some other articles from Apple that reccommend to try doing a SMC reset and a PRAM reset:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379

I'm backing up my Mac to Time Machine and then going to try what those articles suggest.

Have you or anyone else had any luck/updates recently? I'm hoping I don't have to take it in to Apple because I'm out of warrnty, but it's looking like it's probably a hardware issue. 😟

May 28, 2014 12:05 AM in response to atennisninja

Here is a video that I posted to try to further show what is happening. Sorry for the poor quality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88C34bHZAd8&feature=youtu.be

May 28, 2014 3:46 PM in response to atennisninja

I would recommend taking it into the Apple Store for diagnostics. Even if you're out of warranty they will test your hardware for free.

I would also show pictures and/or videos you have of the issue to the genius. They may be able to work something out with you if it turns out to be the logic board. Major hardware shouldn't be failing after 1 year to 1.5 years of use. No guarantees but it doesn't hurt to try.

tintin94

Level 1

0 points

May 27, 2015 6:50 AM in response to atennisninja

This happened to me, too. Sometimes when I would adjust the monitor.

gk254

Level 1

0 points

Jun 12, 2015 1:06 PM in response to mchanxo

See my reply to similar post.

http://apple.co/1JOI0zK

hhillen

Level 1

0 points

Jul 19, 2015 11:39 PM in response to mchanxo

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but Apple is fixing all late 2011 models that have this particular issue (until 2016). I just picked up mine today and it works great again!

igbee

Level 1

13 points

Jul 25, 2015 9:31 AM in response to hhillen

I have a 2012 Macbook Pro 13" with the same symptoms as the original poster. For me it is related to RAM as suggested by the 3 beeps, but it is not the RAM itself. It is one of the RAM slots on the logic board. After taking one of the chips out I am running problem free for over a day (fingers crossed!). And that's running Yosemite on 2GB which is saying a lot.

The slot that was bad was the one closest to the keyboard. If there is RAM in that slot I can just tap on the computer and cause it to shut down. When there isn't RAM there, no problems. I can tap and nothing happens. Hope this helps someone....I'm not sure if I will take it to Apple even though the Applecare is up or just buy an 8gb chip and run off of just that.

Field of vertical lines all over Macbook Pro screen? (+ freezes, beeps)