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MacBook Pro Screen Fault?

M

Moff

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 27, 2008
9
0
I purchased a MacBook Pro around a week ago.

It's a MB134X/A

I have been really happy with this product until last night when all of a sudden I started to get black lines through the bottom of the screen.

I shut down waited 30 seconds and turned my shiny new Mac back on. This seemed to resolved the problem until now. Now not even turning the unit off and back on will fix this. When I turn the brightness all the way up it is less noticeable but at low to medium brightness you can really see it.

The problem is intermittent.

Has anyone else experienced this problem or knows the cause?

How did you over come this problem. I don't really want to have to send it to Apple if it's a hardware fault as I believe I could possibly be waiting awhile to get it fixed.

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

I have attached some screenshots.
 

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Forgive my ignorance but is that the new MBP or the old one? If its the old one I would say that is the graphics card failing which is happening all over the place. I had a Macbook Air which was replaced by Apple 4 months ago as it was having trouble playing movies so they replaced it with the MBP. Well I have been havinf issues with the graphics so Apple is replacing it as we speak with the new MBP. So I would call them up and replace it for the new one.....be stern not rude and let them know how dissapointed you are in it. Good Luck !!!!
 
I had that happen to a MBP in May and there are thousands of cases of this issue online too. I brought it in to the Apple Store in NYC 14th St and they said they would repair it. After a week, I got a call from the technician who told me there was nothing they could do and that this would be fixed with a firmware update in the future. I returned it to Amazon because I felt the technician was very vague and I didn't want to deal with problems down the line.

Even if it's just occasional, I would recommend returning it because nobody knows what the issue is and Apple is apparently NOT committed to solving it given how long the problem has been around.
 
My week old but old model MacBook Pro has that exact same issue. It seems to do it more when the screen is cold, first thing in the morning. I took mine back to the Apple Store and fired it up from cold to demonstrate it. I don't think they knew exactly what the fault was, but because it is within 2 weeks of buying it, they offered to replace it with a new one.

Apple are now out of stock of the old model though, so they've offered to replace it with the new model MacBook Pro.

Mine has a faulty battery too by the way.
 
Moff said:
It's the old one.

It's not actually doing it now.

I'm afraid when I go into the shop they wont believe me.
Click to expand...

next time it does it, open system profiler so it shows your serial # and such and take a sceenshot of it. if it's intermittent, that should be enough proof.
 
This is supposedly a well known issue with the Penryn MBPs, so you should take a picture of it and take it into the store to get a replacement.
 
I'll leave it off so its cold and take it to the Apple store in Sydney, as that's where I'm located.

Would it matter if I bought it from an Apple reseller?

I do know if I take it back to the reseller they will tell me they have to send it back to Apple but won't give me a replacement on the spot.


The whole reason I bought the old model at a discounted price was because I wanted the matte finish. I also really like the keyboard on the old model.

I'll let you all know what Apple tell me later on this afternoon.
 
I went to the Apple Store and the person I spoke to was not supprised at all when I showed him a photo of the problem. He admitted it is a common problem.

I made an appointment for later this afternoon at the Genius Bar..

Fingers crossed.
 
Were you using Photo Booth?

For my curiosity, were you playing with Photo Booth just before it happened?

It happened to my MBP 2.5 Core2 Duo that I bought in February 2008. The Genius Bar ordered a new display, I kept the computer until it came in, and the Genius Bar guy installed it. I was only without my computer for three hours one morning. It hasn't happened since.

Apple is good about replacements. Give them a chance.
 
They could not swap it over for me because they had none left.

They are going to replace the screen and it should be ready for me to pick it up on Sunday.

I asked what would happen if the new LCD had dead pixels and I was told that they would replace it again.

I was told I would walk out a happy customer.

I have never had such a great experience with any other retailer, it was awesome

I highly recommend shopping in Apple stores to anyone.

:D
 
I was also given the option to pay an extra $600 and get the new model.

I would have done it except I just dont like the glossy screens and in my opinion the new keyboards feel cheap and tacky.
 
ski2moro said:
For my curiosity, were you playing with Photo Booth just before it happened?

It happened to my MBP 2.5 Core2 Duo that I bought in February 2008. The Genius Bar ordered a new display, I kept the computer until it came in, and the Genius Bar guy installed it. I was only without my computer for three hours one morning. It hasn't happened since.

Apple is good about replacements. Give them a chance.
Click to expand...


I had used Photo Both once... the day I bought the unit.
 
Those dark bands showed up on my brand new MBP display when I sat it too close to my desktop PC monitor. The problem was that I have an old CRT monitor that I use for graphics work and the two aren't compatible I guess. Now I keep my MBP and my CRT monitor at least 3 feet apart. :p
 
MBPDiva said:
Those dark bands showed up on my brand new MBP display when I sat it too close to my desktop PC monitor. The problem was that I have an old CRT monitor that I use for graphics work and the two aren't compatible I guess. Now I keep my MBP and my CRT monitor at least 3 feet apart. :p
Click to expand...

I was told at the Apple Store it was to do with a fault with the tube or something. It has something to do with it being cold.
 
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