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Wed, 9 Sep 2009

MacBookPro Screen Issue

— SjG @ 1:20 pm

So, in the middle of working on something, the balance of luminiferous ether in the universe must have come unhinged, because every other column of pixels on my screen went black:

View at full resolution to see detail

View at full resolution to see detail

I tried the usual tricks, to no avail. I figured it was a hardware connector issue, so got an appointment at the Apple store. However, to my annoyance and chagrin, the problem has proved intermittent. It “cures itself” and then recurs. This supported my theory that it was a connector issue, or so I thought.

The Apple Genius, however, taught me a trick to reset the graphics subsystem: shift + control + eject

The last time the problem arose, this trick *did* cure it.

So the question is – is my graphics card going south? Is this some bug in recently installed software (Snow Leopard, the new version of iStat Menus, or Final Cut Express)? Could it be entirely due to my attitude? Or was the reset cure also a coincidence? Only time will tell.


3 responses to “MacBookPro Screen Issue”

  1. My laptop has been doing the crazy screen thing. It used to solve the problem on it’s on but it has one its recent flip out. Did you solve your laptop screen problem if so how and what in the world is going on.

    Thank you for your advice! 🙂

  2. SjG says:

    In the end, I took it to the Apple Store, and they replaced the graphic daughtercard. And then they replaced the motherboard. They seemed pretty perplexed by the whole thing, since it passed the graphics test on at least one occasion. My only advice is to check to see if you’re covered under the NVIDIA recall/settlement.

  3. Thank you for the heads up on the settlement.. My laptop hits the requirements for the recall. So I guess I will just suffer through it till the Dec hearing.

    I’m not under warranty anymore, do you have any guess of a round about number mac might charge to replace a motherboard and graphics card? Thanks so much for the advice.

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