The screen on my 17" MacBook Pro...

[Jeff Kilgroe]

...is screwed up! It's all staticky and flickery and has randomized pixel noise and strange colors. It's all F'd up and unusable. WTF????

Now I'm backing it up and have an appointment at the <cough> "Genius" bar tomorrow morning so I can get someone to look at the thing and fix/replace it. Grrr....

 

[Tom.Wong]

screens are one of the first things to go on a mbp. did u try using the a displayport adapter to a reg monitor to make sure it's not ur vid card?

 

[christopher witzke]

might be a loose cable.... I've had that happen to me. Easy fix.

They can get loose if the mbp gets bumped pretty hard.

 

[Jeff Whitehurst]

My 17"macbook pro had some weird screen glitches once, I went into Energy Saver prefs and switched from using my 9400m(better battery life) and 9600m GT(better performance). The problem has never reoccurred even after I have switched back and forth between cards numerous times since then. Sounds like your glitches are much worse, but maybe worth a try.

 

[Scott Miller]

How old? I have a 4 year old or so one and there was a known problem with the logic board and Apple replaced it free. But again, it is the older model and was a nown Nvidia/Apple problem. ANd the Genius bar knew nothing about the program, as I had to print out their own note and bring it in to get it fixed.

 

[Tom.Wong]

How old? I have a 4 year old or so one and there was a known problem with the logic board and Apple replaced it free. But again, it is the older model and was a nown Nvidia/Apple problem. ANd the Genius bar knew nothing about the program, as I had to print out their own note and bring it in to get it fixed.

jeff rarely keeps a computer when it can be upgraded to a new one

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

jeff rarely keeps a computer when it can be upgraded to a new one

Haha... Unfortunately, it's the current model. I bought it about 6 months ago. Definitely something in the connection between the screen and system. I backed it up and pulled my RAM from the system, putting back the stock 4GB that came with it. Checked the connector on that end while in there. Didn't fix it. I think it's a problem in the ribbon cable itself as the severity of the issue ranges from non-existent to totally not-usable depending on where the screen is positioned. Have 2.5 years of AppleCare left on this one, I'll let them fix it.

 

[Steve Sherrick]

...is screwed up! It's all staticky and flickery and has randomized pixel noise and strange colors. It's all F'd up and unusable. WTF????

Now I'm backing it up and have an appointment at the <cough> "Genius" bar tomorrow morning so I can get someone to look at the thing and fix/replace it. Grrr....

Hehe. That's funny. Jeff going to the Genius Bar is like Nolan Ryan asking if he can play in a little league game. To see the faces on the poor soul that realizes pretty quickly how outmatched they are.

 

[Brett Reynolds]

Had the same symptoms....Logic Board

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Hehe. That's funny. Jeff going to the Genius Bar is like Nolan Ryan asking if he can play in a little league game. To see the faces on the poor soul that realizes pretty quickly how outmatched they are.

Hehe... Sometimes it's better to just let them do their thing, even stroke their ego a bit. I've actually found the Genius Bar guys at my local Apple Store to be rather competent and easy to work with.

Not that troubleshooting this is a huge task, it's probably the screen assembly, which is unserviceable on these models -- they have to replace the entire screen with the clamshell hinge and cable components. It's nearly a $500 fix, but covered under warranty. The other possibility is it could be an issue with the logic board, more specifically with the connector there. The GPU is fine as running to an external display doesn't show the problem and the multi-color static and its response to motion on the clamshell hinge is usually indicative of a cabling or connector issue anyway. They said for this particular configuration, if it's the logic board, they will just swap me a new system. But they're going to try the screen replacement first. Had to order it and it will be there monday or tuesday -- as the replacement ones they had in stock were all glossy...

One thing that was curious, when they ran the hardware diagnostic on my system, the trackpad failed. It seems to work just fine an there's never been an issue, but two separate attempts returned the same result. So, my gut feeling is they're going to end up swapping the system out for a new one. The guy at the Genius Bar agreed with me, but he couldn't just swap it based on that and they have to follow protocol and attempt to fix the screen issue first.

So now I get to do the wait and see what happens game...

FWIW, they said this issue of mine is the most common hardware issue they see with current Macbook Pro systems. 2 out of 3 times, replacing the screen fixes it... Otherwise it's a logic board fix. For the 2011 unibody models they try to swap rather than do a logic board replacement, if Apple approves it. I guess the logic board replacement takes longer than they want to deal with and their service guys are swamped. Also better for the customer to just start fresh with a new system if they can get away with it.

 

[Chris Hagan]

I had similar issues on an old PowerMac G5. Turned out to be a bad graphics card.

 

[Steve Sherrick]

I had the Nvidia issue with my 2007 MB Pro. It was fixed at Nvidia's expense, so not a big deal.

As far as the Genius bar, there are some good folks who work there for sure. I've had a couple of really cool people help me out, one even getting me an iPhone 4 even though they were technically out of stock.