Screen artifacting when cold, nVidia or display?

[Teej guy]

Whenever my SR 2.6 15" MBP is cold, the display is really trashed for a couple minutes until it warms up. This just started within the last couple of days.

Symptoms are:

-Flickering
-Screen goes negative in a sort of "wash" from the top to the bottom, image remains but slowly fades out until the whole screen is grey/purple.
-When the above symptom happens, sometime all
-Dotted pattern appears over image
-Lines when I move the screen

I've tried taking screen shots using command-shift-4 and they look fine.
Also, once the computer is warm, there are no further problems except the image shifting up or down with artifacts if I physically move the screen. This symptom completely goes away once the computer is hotter.

Do these points suggest a display/display connection issue rather than the nVidia problem? I've gone through that twice, but both times it was the completely dead blank screen issue instead of the artifacting one.

Cheers

 

[velocityg4]

Most likely the video card.

 

[J&JPolangin]

...my Toshiba 1905-s303 does that also but its ~8 yrs old with an intergrated 32mb video card in it... I just figured it was the "old" display panel... once it warms up, there's no more issues.

 

[Teej guy]

Most likely the video card.

Even with the artifacts caused by moving the screen?

 

[velocityg4]

Even with the artifacts caused by moving the screen?

I figured you meant static ones. Perhaps it is the screen. Do you have any external monitors? The easiest way to check would be hook up an external display when the computer is cold. If there are artifacts then it is the GPU otherwise it is your LCD.

 

[Teej guy]

I figured you meant static ones. Perhaps it is the screen. Do you have any external monitors? The easiest way to check would be hook up an external display when the computer is cold. If there are artifacts then it is the GPU otherwise it is your LCD.

Ah, of course! Unfortunately I probably won't be able to do that for a week or so, but I certainly will try it asap.

 

[MacModMachine]

its the video.

i have never seen a monitor artifact...they get lines and bad pixels....but i have never seen one artifact.

bad video card...replace it up.

 

[Teej guy]

The more I think about it, the more I'm thinking it's the screen or the screen connector. Why would moving the screen produce lines/image shift on the screen if it was the graphics card?

 

[MacModMachine]

The more I think about it, the more I'm thinking it's the screen or the screen connector. Why would moving the screen produce lines/image shift on the screen if it was the graphics card?

it may be both by the sounds of it....the screen will produce lines, graphics card produces graphic "blocking" and "triangulation"

looks like your due for a replacement too...

 

[Teej guy]

it may be both by the sounds of it....the screen will produce lines, graphics card produces graphic "blocking" and "triangulation"

looks like your due for a replacement too...

Hmm, could be both, yeah.

I'm going to be aiming for a replacement. I'm going to push for a 17" since I need an express card slot. I've heard a case of someone being able to pay the difference between the replacement Apple offered and the 17" since they wanted a matte screen (before the recent update). Hopefully I'll be able to do the same, or I'll have a machine which is basically useless to me.

 

[MacModMachine]

Hmm, could be both, yeah.

I'm going to be aiming for a replacement. I'm going to push for a 17" since I need an express card slot. I've heard a case of someone being able to pay the difference between the replacement Apple offered and the 17" since they wanted a matte screen (before the recent update). Hopefully I'll be able to do the same, or I'll have a machine which is basically useless to me.

sure...your looking at him....

i had 15" replaced and paid 300 cad for a new 17" umbp....i recieved it about 2 weeks ago....apple bumped me up to the 2599 model and let me choose if i wanted to pay more for a even bigger 17"

here he is....crappy pic....bad lighting...lol

 

[Teej guy]

sure...your looking at him....

i had 15" replaced and paid 300 cad for a new 17" umbp....i recieved it about 2 weeks ago....apple bumped me up to the 2599 model and let me choose if i wanted to pay more for a even bigger 17"

here he is....crappy pic....bad lighting...lol

HA, fantastic! Glad you're enjoying your new machine, hopefully I'll be in the same boat soon...