Silver things are turning brown on Rev A. 1.6 MBA

[britboyj]

So I had an initial thread in Mac Software as I initially thought it was just a Safari 4 Beta issue.

(Original thread here)

But since then, it's spread from Safari 4 to my trash can and now to Numbers and Pages (It has not done anything to Keynote), the bottom panel (but not the top one) in Yahoo messenger... Even the silver navigation bar on the Apple website shows up as this weird metallic brown.

What's even weirder is that the trash can is the normal silver metallic when the OS first loads and then changes to the brownish one. No amount of messing with display settings helps. Resetting the NVRAM initially got everything back to normal, but then boom, it's all stuck.


What the hell is going on?

 

[patrick0brien]

-britboyj

What gamma are you set to?

Have you tried trashing your display preferences?

 

[britboyj]

-britboyj

What gamma are you set to?

Have you tried trashing your display preferences?

I've reset the NVRAM, I'm not sure where the display preferences are hidden so I can trash them. The one set I have remaining can't be deleted.

It's brown regardless of gamma. It's almost only specific frames within certain windows. (Notice the top bar with icons is still silver and the bar beneath it with the font selector etc. is brown, same thing with Pages)

 

[Insulin Junkie]

I've heard of LED screens discoloring and turning brown before. I'd say take it back to apple and let them give you a new screen.

Has your MBA over-heated?
Found this for you, it might be helpful.
http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=2767

 

[01jamcon]

I've heard of LED screens discoloring and turning brown before. I'd say take it back to apple and let them give you a new screen.

Has your MBA over-heated?
Found this for you, it might be helpful.
http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=2767

This doesn't sound like a hardware problem, it affects very particular items in the windows, so most likely some sort of preferences thing somewhere. The OP should take it to an apple store where they should hopefully have a better idea where to look.

 

[patrick0brien]

It seems to me that only certain screen elements are mis-rendering, which tells me the gamma is confused. Best way to eliminate this, or even just the doubt trash the preferences for:

com.apple.ColorSyncUtility.plist

and maybe com.apple.BezelServices.plist


These are located in HD:Users:YOURUSERACCOUNT:Libraryreferences

Probably wouldn't hurt to hunt in there for weird stuff too.

 

[britboyj]

It seems to me that only certain screen elements are mis-rendering, which tells me the gamma is confused. Best way to eliminate this, or even just the doubt trash the preferences for:

com.apple.ColorSyncUtility.plist

and maybe com.apple.BezelServices.plist

Alas, no such luck.

On one last hunch I created a test user account (creatively called "Test") which had the exact same problems immediately upon logging in. Since none of my display calibrations (now there is only one) are available to other users, I think this rules out the fact that it's simply a user-preference issue.

If you guys are as lost on this as I am, I think a Genius probably will be too...

 

[Insulin Junkie]

Well report back if the problem gets resolved, because I'm pretty sure (90%) it's the screen.

 

[upaymeifixit]

Wow this is a hard one.

I still think it's the graphics card. I would still take it to apple.

 

[britboyj]

Colorsync appears to be missing from my computer (alas) and I can't install the bundled software from my OSX Disc for some reason, so that's out.

Resigned that this is no longer a Safari issue, I reinstalled Safari 4 (because it's that awesome) and lo and behold, silver again, no issues opening new windows or anything.

Except loading cogs have a brown square around them, the trash can is still brown and Numbers and Pages are still having the same issue.

This is insanity. I could certainly go for a Rev B. right now (One repair for keyboard replacement, one for HDD and this would be number 3, I could possibly push for it)

Check out the cog.

 

[patrick0brien]

-britboyj

Well, it seems you've done all you can yourself. It is time to take it to the Genius, at least to get the record of the trouble ticket opened.

 

[britboyj]

The Geniuses were as shocked and confused as I was/you were.

The Genius I spoke to said he's seen the thing with the cog background being an off colour, as what's happening there is the OS isn't pulling the widget transparency info correctly, but he'd never seen it so widespread across different applications and users before.

We reinstalled the OS, to short avail (but as soon as we put something in the trashcan, brown again) and then he took it back, completely swapped out the HDD for a new one, set up and now... all seems fixed.

Truly a weird chain of events.

 

[Anuba]

Wow, that's gotta be one of the most left field issues I've ever seen.

Good thing you were able to demo the problem to a Genius... I can imagine how it would unfold if you were to describe this problem over the phone. The person at the other end would have immense trouble keeping it professional instead of asking what you've been smoking.

 

[RedTomato]

Surprised it lasted through an OS reinstall. Was that a reinstall after a complete format, or was it some sort of archive and install?