Q: Scrambled MacBook Pro screen and external display not recognised.

Hello Norm,

Thanks for your fast reply. Will it cost me to have Apple take a look? I bought it in June 2011, and did not get Apple Care (which would have expired by now). Seeing the symptoms (if you can call them that), and having spoken to a couple of computer store employees, I would say I need a new logic board, which will cost me around €600 – €900. At that price point, I think I would consider using it until it dies completely, and getting a new Mac altogether.

I could try running Apple Hardware Test which came on the DVD when I bought my Mac, or could that potentially not find the issue?

Thanks for your help and support

Kind Regards

Moritz

Hi spudnuty,

Thanks for your reply.

With green, do you mean if it has a green tint? I just went through some of the photos which I took when the screen acted up, and saw that on one occasion, I did have a green tint on the entire display (had the same issue with a red tint also). The issue almost always occurs after waking the computer from sleep, or, on the second image, after restarting the computer in clamshell mode, finding that it goes to sleep once it has reached the login screen, and then opening the lid.

I have an external Mavericks partition, which I use for recovery purposes to boot to. The only problem is, that the scrambled screen is impossible to reproduce. I've continued using the computer for about a week now, and have never had the scrambled display (I'd have to use the recovery partition as my main OS for weeks to reproduce the problem). And yes, restarts fix the internal display, and the external monitor.

If it helps, I have a couple of videos showing some of the problems described above.

Thanks a lot for your help, in advance, it is very much appreciated!

Hi,

First of all, happy new year!

I ran Entrecheck, and got the following result.

Thanks for your help in advance

EtreCheck version: 2.1.5 (108)

Report generated 1 Jan 2015 04:52:03 CET

Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Click the [Adware] links for help removing adware.

Hardware Information: ℹ️

  MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) (Verified)

  MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,1

  1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core

  16 GB RAM Upgradeable

  BANK 0/DIMM0

  8 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

  BANK 1/DIMM0

  8 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok

  Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

  Wireless:  en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Video Information: ℹ️

  Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 512 MB

  Color LCD 1280 x 800

System Software: ℹ️

  OS X 10.10.1 (14B25) - Uptime: 15:22:0

Disk Information: ℹ️

  Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series disk0 : (128.04 GB)

  EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

  Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>  [Recovery]: 650 MB

  Macintosh SSD (disk2) /  [Startup]: 126.80 GB (13.93 GB free) (Low!)

  Core Storage: disk0s2 127.18 GB Online

  WDC WD7500BPKT-00PK4T0 disk1 : (750.16 GB)

  EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

  Macintosh HD (disk1s2) /Volumes/Macintosh HD : 749.81 GB (213.38 GB free)

USB Information: ℹ️

  Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

  Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub

  Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

  Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

  Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️

  Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper: ℹ️

  Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions: ℹ️

  /Applications/VMware Fusion.app

  [not loaded] com.vmware.kext.vmci (90.4.19) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.vmware.kext.vmioplug.10.1.26 (10.1.26) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.vmware.kext.vmnet (0194.56.92) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.vmware.kext.vmx86 (0194.56.92) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.vmware.kext.vsockets (90.4.24) [Support]

  /System/Library/Extensions

  [not loaded] com.mice.driver.Wireless360Controller (1.0.0d12 - SDK 10.8) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.mice.driver.WirelessGamingReceiver (1.0.0d12 - SDK 10.8) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.mice.driver.Xbox360Controller (1.0.0d12 - SDK 10.8) [Support]

  [loaded] com.protech.NoSleep (1.4.0 - SDK 10.10) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.wdc.driver.1394HP (1.0.11 - SDK 10.4) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.wdc.driver.1394_64HP (1.0.1 - SDK 10.6) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.wdc.driver.USBHP (1.0.11) [Support]

  [not loaded] com.wdc.driver.USB_64HP (1.0.0 - SDK 10.6) [Support]

  [loaded] net.telestream.driver.TelestreamAudio (1.0.5 - SDK 10.6) [Support]

Launch Agents: ℹ️

  [not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Support]

  [loaded] com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist [Support]

Launch Daemons: ℹ️

  [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Support]

  [running] com.mice.360Daemon.plist [Support]

  [loaded] org.cindori.TEAuth.plist [Support]

User Launch Agents: ℹ️

  [loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Support]

  [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Support]

  [running] com.spotify.webhelper.plist [Support]

User Login Items: ℹ️

  iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

  NoSleep Application (/Applications/Utilities/NoSleep.app)

  Flux Application (/Applications/Flux.app)

  smcFanControl Application (/Applications/smcFanControl.app)

  Activity Monitor ApplicationHidden (/Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app)

  AppTrap Application (/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/[redacted]/Library/PreferencePanes/AppTrap.prefPane/Contents/Resources /AppTrap.app)

  iBetterCharge Application (/Applications/iBetterCharge.app)

  BetterTouchTool Application (/Applications/BetterTouchTool.app)

  SpeechSynthesisServer Application (/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks /SpeechSynthesis.framework/Versions/A/SpeechSynthesisServer.app)

  Spotifree ApplicationHidden (/Applications/Spotifree.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

  FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

  Flash Player: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

  QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

  AdobeAAMDetect: Version: AdobeAAMDetect 2.0.0.0 - SDK 10.7 [Support]

  Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10

User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

  WebEx64: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

Safari Extensions: ℹ️

  Adblock Plus [Installed]

  Sessions [Installed]

3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

  AppTrap  [Support]

  Flash Player  [Support]

  NoSleep  [Support]

  XBox 360 Controllers  [Support]

Time Machine: ℹ️

  Skip System Files: NO

  Auto backup: YES

  Volumes being backed up:

  Macintosh SSD: Disk size: 126.80 GB Disk used: 112.88 GB

  Destinations:

  4 TB LaCie RAID [Local]

  Total size: 4.00 TB

  Total number of backups: 46

  Oldest backup: 2014-11-08 23:46:40 +0000

  Last backup: 2014-12-31 10:48:36 +0000

  Size of backup disk: Excellent

  Backup size 4.00 TB > (Disk size 126.80 GB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

      9% WindowServer

      9% sysmond

      2% Activity Monitor

      1% fontd

      1% Finder

Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

  687 MB iTunes

  429 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

  412 MB Safari

  309 MB com.apple.MediaLibraryService

  223 MB mds_stores

Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

  8.96 GB Free RAM

  5.37 GB Active RAM

  996 MB Inactive RAM

  1.86 GB Wired RAM

  2.18 GB Page-ins

  0 B Page-outs

Diagnostics Information: ℹ️

  Dec 31, 2014, 01:30:37 PM Self test - passed

  Dec 31, 2014, 08:07:22 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mtmd_2014-12-31-080722_[redacted].cpu_resource. diag [Details]

  Dec 30, 2014, 11:19:36 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/iPhoto_2014-12-30-231936_[redacted].cpu_resourc e.diag [Details]

  Dec 30, 2014, 06:12:43 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/iTunes_2014-12-30-181243_[redacted].cpu_resourc e.diag [Details]

  Dec 30, 2014, 04:56:37 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.MediaLibraryService_2014-12-30-165637 _[redacted].cpu_resource.diag [Details]

  Dec 30, 2014, 11:41:16 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Serato DJ_2014-12-30-114116_[redacted].hang

  Dec 29, 2014, 06:32:16 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/backupd_2014-12-29-183216_[redacted].cpu_resour ce.diag [Details]

  Dec 29, 2014, 10:54:03 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/iTunes_2014-12-29-105403_[redacted].cpu_resourc e.diag [Details]

Hi spudnuty,

I have the Thunderbolt drive connected right now, and just woke my Mac from sleep to find that my external display is giving me "No Signal" again. I did a clean install last weekend. I only have this issue when I have the display daisy chained via my WD MyBook Velociraptor Duo (to be honest, I'm not sure now, but it seems like it...). When I don't have the drive in the chain, I don't think I ever get the no signal issue. What's weird, is that the Status LED on the drive is happily blinking away (and I can hear the usual disk access clicks).

The problem is that it could be the Displayport cable, the screen or the TB drive. It's probably not the TB cable, as the drive is still writing data.

Don't know if it's related, but lately, I've been hearing a whining noise coming from the screen's power supply. Is that a bad sign, or should I not worry about it?

Thanks a lot for your help!

Hi spudnuty,

I did a clean install, and it was fine... For a while... Now, Preview can't open PDFs, scanned via Image Capture (400 and 600dpi – below is fine). They show up scrambled. In addition to that, I edited a 4K time-lapse, and I got some graphics glitches (screenshots attached).

I did a clean install, and opened the PDF, and it was still scrambled (I think that points to a hardware issue). After receiving some advice at an Apple store, I installed the RAM that my Mac was shipped with. Opened the PDF and it was still scrambled (this was, however, not on the clean install partition). For reference, it opens fine on a Mac running Mavericks, so it's not corrupt. I scanned about 10 PDFs to test, and they all open scrambled in Preview. In Quick Look or Photoshop CS6 they're fine...

Something I noticed today. I was looking through some screenshots that I took a couple of days ago. Then I scanned another PDF and opened it. Within the scrambled parts, I could see bits of the screenshots that I had been looking at earlier (two screenshots below).

I think I can safely say, that the scrambling is sometimes related to GPU intensive tasks (like editing the 4K time-lapse). On another occasion, I was using the blur brush in Aperture, and the screen would flicker from pixelated to normal (like a burst of normal – scrambled – normal etc).

I might send it in this weekend for a diagnosis, and then decide what to do. Might consider replacing it, but then 4 years isn't particularly old for a MacBook Pro, right?

Thanks again for your help, it is very much appreciated!

Hi Spudnuty,

Thanks for your fast reply. I'm running 10.10.3. Unfortunately, I won't be able to run Aperture in Mavericks, as I have the newest release and I can no longer download an earlier version from the MAS.

The SSD is configured as a Fusion Drive, so I guess 4 GB are free (from what I've read about how Fusion Drives work). I'll take it apart tonight and see if that helps.

There have been issues with the Samsung 840 Pro? I did have one die on me after a year, but this one has been fine...

Once again, thanks for your help, it is very much appreciated.