10 dark vertical lines at base of display

Question

10 dark vertical lines at base of display

All of a sudden, my early 2008 MBP has 10 dark vertical lines at the base of the display that gradually disappear by the middle of the display. No matter how many times I close and open the lid, or restart the machine, the lines do not disappear. There was a string from 2008 on this same problem, but it seems it was resolved for the users by closing the lid. No such luck for me. Does anyone have a suggestion of what to do? It might be a coincidence, but it occurred after I downloaded the last Maverick security update.

MBP early 2008; OS 10.9.4; 2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo; 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM; Nividia GeForce 8600M GT 512 MB; 250 GB SATA HHD

Posted on Jul 11, 2014 4:10 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jul 11, 2014 4:39 PM in response to Karen Akiyama

Take a screenshot of the display. Do the lines appear in the image?

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Answer 2

Jul 11, 2014 5:04 PM in response to Linc Davis

Now this is curious: there is no distortion in the image of the screenshot. I took four of them, and each one is a clear picture. When I move the screenshot flush to the bottom of the screen, however, the 10 vertical dark shadowy lines appear. All ten lines are equidistant: there is about 1" between each line, and each line runs a little more than 1/4" wide. The lines begin to fade out at about 3 1/2" from the base of the 15" screen.

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Answer 3

Jul 11, 2014 5:14 PM in response to Karen Akiyama

Artifacts that show up in a screen shot are in the frame buffer, and the display Hardware is faithfully reproducing them onto the screen.

Artifacts that are NOT in the screen shot but ARE on the screen, are caused by your Display Hardware.

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Answer 4

Jul 11, 2014 5:39 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

In other words, my notebook will soon become a desktop computer tied to an external display. If I wanted to repair the MBP, would it mean replacing the display itself? Or an equally expensive H/W repair? Or a less expensive H/W repair?

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Answer 5

Jul 11, 2014 5:45 PM in response to Karen Akiyama

If you have access to the Genius Bar at an Apple Store, your appointment for an evaluation is FREE, (in warranty or out) and there is no obligation to have them perform any work for a fee.

They can advise you what they think the problem is, and what would have to be swapped to accomplish the repair, and what their flat rate repair price would be.

My experience has been that if they can actually FIX the problem in a few minutes (like maybe loose cables), without using parts, they will do that. Also for Free.

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Answer 6

Jul 11, 2014 6:00 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks, Grant! I will make an appointment at the Genius Bar and hope for the best. You've been very helpful.

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