Late 2008 MacBook Pro 17" frozen with pink and green pixels

Question

dean200180 Author

Level 1

0 points

Late 2008 MacBook Pro 17" frozen with pink and green pixels

Hi all,

Hope someone can point me in the right direction with my Macbook Pro problem. I have a late 2008 version of the 17" MacBook Pro. I've been using it today and it's been completely fine. that was up until I was uploading my recent holiday photos to iPhoto. I left it to upload and came to check on it after 5 minutes. I found the program had frozen and pink and green pixels were spotted all over the screen.

I turned the laptop off by the power button. When I started her up again I found the white screen with the pink and green pixels everywhere and apple logo appear. It starting booting and then just stopped. the screen froze and nothing was working. I've tried booting up in safe mode and again it just freezes.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated as I'm lost without my computer. I've included a photo I've taken if the frozen screen.

Many Thanks,

Dean.

Posted on Aug 25, 2014 2:57 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Aug 25, 2014 3:01 PM in response to dean200180

Might be a hardware issue.

Run the Using Apple Hardware Test

Reply

Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 25, 2014 3:09 PM in response to dean200180

According to MacBook Pro (Early 2008 and Late 2008) - Technical Specifications you have a model with

NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor with dual-link DVI support and 512MB of GDDR3 memory

Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors
DVI output port
VGA output using included DVI to VGA adapter
Built-in iSight camera

The 8600M GT has several recalls for GPUs, which had a 4-year free repair from date of purchase. It may be too late in your case. You can find the recall notices via internet search if you want to.

You should run the AHT -Using Apple Hardware Test

Please see MacBook Pro: Distorted video or no video issues

Reply

Answer 3

dean200180 Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 25, 2014 4:06 PM in response to dean200180

Thank you for your quick responses. Unfortunately the computer was purchased from a friend in 2010. He set up the computer for me and was never given any start up disks. From reading your links it seems I need this to access the AHT mode. :-(

Is there here another way or should I take it to an Apple store?

Thanks.

Reply

Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Aug 25, 2014 4:36 PM in response to dean200180

1. Please identify your Mac model using How to identify MacBook Pro models

2. Once you have it identified, please see this page - https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest.

You have a MacbookPro 5,1 which seems to have the AHT available at the second link.

Reply

Answer 5

dean200180 Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 26, 2014 7:49 AM in response to Loner T

Thank you. I have looked and it seems I have the early 2008 model not the late version.

I have downloaded the DMG file. I am not too great on the technical stuff so could you advise on what I need to do next. Should I burn the DMG to a DVD and insert upon start up?

Many thanks.

Reply