Huge screen tearing on MBP 2012 w/ 10.8.4 (non-retina)

[Soulstorm]

Hello, everyone, I thought I should post this here, to see if anyone else is having this issue.

Today, I realised that sometimes I get this screen tearing, shown at the images attached below. The mouse is moving, everything works properly, but the screen looks just like the images.

It's not a screen issue, it is a software issue. The first screenshot is taken with my phone, and the second one is a screenshot by pressing command-shift-3 . If it was a problem with the hardware, the screenshot would have looked fine. Probably the software thinks that this is the way things should be rendered!

If I log out, the screen tearing disappears. This thing has happened to me 3 times now over the last hour, while I was visiting heavy web pages in Safari. The first time this happened, the computer was waking from sleep.

Has anyone else seen or heard about this problem?

 

[DianeK]

This is happening to me too. Please refer to my post of a few days ago: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1606226/
I have a 2011 iMac.

My situation is slightly different. I have yet to get a display that looks like your image on the left (and gosh I hope I never do). What I get is what you got after you took the screenshot. I have to reboot to get my entire desktop back. The first couple of times it happened was when I woke my computer from sleep so now I have sleep set to never. But the last few times has been after I wake up the display from sleep. And once it happened while everything was awake and I just started losing patches as I sat and watched in horror.

As you will have read in my linked post, in the last incident I got my desktop back by cmd+shift+4 and dragging from the top left corner to the lower right corner of the entire display so didn't need to reboot. Next time it happens (as I am sure it will) I will try cmd+shift+3 and see if that brings it back or whether it was the dragging action that brought it back.

I am confused about your statement that if it was a hardware issue the screenshot would have looked fine. Do you mean fine = what your cellphone captured, or fine = what the desktop should normally look like?

OSX 10.8.4 has been a huge PITA!

 

[Soulstorm]

This is happening to me too. Please refer to my post of a few days ago: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1606226/
OSX 10.8.4 has been a huge PITA!

Exactly. After updating to 10.8.4 I have had lockups in both my computers (iMac 2011 and MBP 2012). After installing the 10.8.4 combo update (sometimes this helps) I haven't experienced any lockup, but today, this happened.

I have now booted into Windows 7, and I am playing some demanding games (Call of Duty, Skyrim on max) and I haven't experienced any glitch yet. I haven't played much, though.

As for my last statement, I meant that if, for example, it was a display panel issue, then the screenshot would have looked like it should, without the display glitches. However, a failing graphics card could give warnings such as the one I'm seeing now, couldn't it?

Do you have Perian installed? If you do, uninstall it and see if the problem persists... I have uninstalled it, rebooted, and I have yet to experience a problem.

 

[DianeK]

I'm not very tech-savvy so please forgive "simple" questions

Since my screenshot action restored the desktop display, are you suggesting then that I have a hardware issue? I guess I don't really understand how screenshots actually work.

I don't have Perian installed.

 

[Soulstorm]

I'm not very tech-savvy so please forgive "simple" questions

Since my screenshot action restored the desktop display, are you suggesting then that I have a hardware issue? I guess I don't really understand how screenshots actually work.

I don't have Perian installed.

Actually, I'm not suggesting anything for your case. I brought the screenshot example as a means to understand where this problem lies. In my case, I thought that a "hardware" issue cannot be caught by a print-screen function (which relies only in software functionality). Example: If you break your display panel into pieces, and you still take a screenshot, the screenshot will display OK, although you will not be able to see it in this computer (because you will have smashed your screen)!

 

[DianeK]

Actually, I'm not suggesting anything for your case. I brought the screenshot example as a means to understand where this problem lies. In my case, I thought that a "hardware" issue cannot be caught by a print-screen function (which relies only in software functionality). Example: If you break your display panel into pieces, and you still take a screenshot, the screenshot will display OK, although you will not be able to see it in this computer (because you will have smashed your screen)!

OK, I think I get it...the software is actually generating an image based on what it thinks the display is supposed to be showing (regardless of what it is actually showing) whereas your cellphone camera took a picture of what was actually displayed. So in your case, the software-generated image was still not correct (leading you to wonder about a software issue) whereas for me the software-generated image was what the desktop was supposed to look like.

So the mystery is what was the mechanism involved with my screenshot generating action causing the actual display to correct itself? Not that I necessarily expect you have the answer but maybe someone can explain it...you may have noticed no one responded to my initial reporting of this.

Anyway, it certainly is a head-scratcher. Kinda like my graphics card gave itself a head-slap and said "oh yeah, that's what I'm supposed to be showing - oops" when the software completed the screenshot?

 

[chrfr]

As for my last statement, I meant that if, for example, it was a display panel issue, then the screenshot would have looked like it should, without the display glitches. However, a failing graphics card could give warnings such as the one I'm seeing now, couldn't it?

Correct. Often, a failing GPU will record the artifacts in a screen capture.

 

[DianeK]

Correct. Often, a failing GPU will record the artifacts in a screen capture.

So any ideas on what is going on with my machine, please?
Diane

 

[Soulstorm]

So any ideas on what is going on with my machine, please?
Diane

I think we should visit an Apple Service centre as quick as possible.

 

[DianeK]

Soulstorm: Did you ever get this fixed/resolved?
Diane