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Vertical 1 1/2'' stripe on macbook air screen

L

laboris

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 23, 2010
1
0
Hi there,
My 2 year old 1.6 GHz MacBook Air is scaring me. It permanently displays a vertical flickering stripe of about one and a half inches. I now some screen issues of the MBA are related to trouble with the hinges. However, my MacBook's hinges are working perfectly.
I would appreciate if anyone could give me a clue of what might be going on.
Thanks.
 
laboris said:
Hi there,
My 2 year old 1.6 GHz MacBook Air is scaring me. It permanently displays a vertical flickering stripe of about one and a half inches. I now some screen issues of the MBA are related to trouble with the hinges. However, my MacBook's hinges are working perfectly.
I would appreciate if anyone could give me a clue of what might be going on.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

First, does it show up on screen shots? If so, please post it up so we can diagnose.

If it does not, then the issue is likely to be related to the LCD or the hinge connections, as you hinted to. If this is the case, the only advice I can give is that you ought to bring the computer into the Apple Store or some other repairer and see if it can be fixed.
 
I've had this and fixed it

I had this problem on my MBA. I took the kit into an Apple Store and they diagnosed the display and defective and in need of replacement and this was priced at £600 sterling. I took it home, cried and began to work around the strip of interference while I decided whether to give this device a Viking funeral or get it done. Quite by chance I decided to clean the display with a cleaning wipe that I had bought from an Aldi store, made for cleaning spectacles. The screen came up like new but to my relief and amazement, the display went back to normal! Every few months is starts to go again, I wipe it with one of these wipes and it's fine again. The trouble I have now is that the strip has returned and I have run out of wipes! This is clearly (no pun intended) static so go down this route.
 
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Thank you!

I registered just to say thank you for that tip. You may have just saved me anywhere between €300 and €600. I have exactly the same problem on my first generation Macbook Air. Vertical stripe of flicker appeared right down the middle of the display today. I was about to despair and bring the thing down to the Apple reseller near my home, taking on the surely huge repair fees, but your tip with wiping the screen helped. The stripe is gone, hopefully for a long time :)
 
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Simple repair for MacBook Air LCD trouble.

Bornslippy123 said:
(snip)Quite by chance I decided to clean the display with a cleaning wipe that I had bought from an Aldi store, made for cleaning spectacles. The screen came up like new but to my relief and amazement, the display went back to normal!
Click to expand...

I too was woeful about the very same symptom and was about to incur great expense in repair, then happened upon this and gave it a try. Voila! It worked. My tech says rubbing the surface with a cloth likely triggered a restoration from a bad connection, simply through pressure on the screen. Whatever. All I care about is that it works again with no costs in repairs. My MBA also had no signs of hinge damage.

BTW, I used a standard eyeglass cleaner spray (directly on the screen, small amount) and a standard eyeglass cloth. I'll bet anything would have worked, probably even a moistened tissue.

Thank you, and I hope others benefit in the same way. Mine is one of the earlier MBA's with the tapered edges rather than the newer ones with edges having plug-ins.
 
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So strange

In all my years of computing I have never been so skeptical and then so astonished by a fix...

Literally just cleaned the screen with a damp tea cloth before wiping it dry, and the static strip has completely gone! I can't even get it to come back after days of not being able to get rid of it :eek:

Thank you! :)
 
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Omg!!!

So, my girlfriend just had this same problem and we were sure that we were in for some good old fashioned over-priced repairs. So like anyone with a internet connection and a lap top, I G-Searched the issue, and like magic:eek: I found this thread. YOU GUYS ROCK, cause we followed the instructions, rubbed the screen and like magic it problem was fixed. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!

Because of this post I just signed up for MacRumors. THANKS AGAIN!!!!

-Ken Cole:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
 
laboris said:
Hi there,
My 2 year old 1.6 GHz MacBook Air is scaring me. It permanently displays a vertical flickering stripe of about one and a half inches. I now some screen issues of the MBA are related to trouble with the hinges. However, my MacBook's hinges are working perfectly.
I would appreciate if anyone could give me a clue of what might be going on.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Here's a clue.

There's something wrong with your laptop. Take it in for service.
 
Vertical 1 1/2" stripe gonzo!

That "clean the screen" fix is EPIC. I'm a bit of techie with "roots" in Apple computers going back to the Apple II and this resolutions stands out as the best "you've got to be kidding me" solution to date!

I was so skeptical, the only reason I tried wiping the screen (with a soft cloth) was because it was finger printed up anyway, so nothing to lose.

I did have my MacBook Air hinges warranty replaced a few years back (OS X 10.5.8) so was leaning towards "oh well, no fix is forever", assuming the screen blurring was related.

Well done and sincerest of thank-yous!
 
This happened to mine when I cleaned the screen with a slightly too wet paper towel, and some water seeped into the the bottom of the screen. Scary to see stripe, but it went away after a day or so. Now I make sure the cleaning tissue is not too damp!
 
Bornslippy123 said:
I had this problem on my MBA. I took the kit into an Apple Store and they diagnosed the display and defective and in need of replacement and this was priced at £600 sterling. I took it home, cried and began to work around the strip of interference while I decided whether to give this device a Viking funeral or get it done. Quite by chance I decided to clean the display with a cleaning wipe that I had bought from an Aldi store, made for cleaning spectacles. The screen came up like new but to my relief and amazement, the display went back to normal! Every few months is starts to go again, I wipe it with one of these wipes and it's fine again. The trouble I have now is that the strip has returned and I have run out of wipes! This is clearly (no pun intended) static so go down this route.
Click to expand...

Wait, what material did you use?
 
Same issue in 2015

Hi,

I have been using my MBA (late 2012) for more than 2 years now. A week back, while I was installing some new software, I started noticing that there is a band of altered colors/hues on the right side of the LCD display. I thought that it must have been because of the software. After troubleshooting for a week, I have come to the conclusion that it is a hardware issue (hinges, most probably). I have attached screenshot of the details of the computer, screenshot of the desktop (which is clean) and a photo of the aberration taken using a phone.

http://imgur.com/a/CJajU

I'm in Mumbai, India. Please suggest my next step of action.

Regards,

K
 
Bornslippy123 said:
I've had this and fixed it

I had this problem on my MBA. I took the kit into an Apple Store and they diagnosed the display and defective and in need of replacement and this was priced at £600 sterling. I took it home, cried and began to work around the strip of interference while I decided whether to give this device a Viking funeral or get it done. Quite by chance I decided to clean the display with a cleaning wipe that I had bought from an Aldi store, made for cleaning spectacles. The screen came up like new but to my relief and amazement, the display went back to normal! Every few months is starts to go again, I wipe it with one of these wipes and it's fine again. The trouble I have now is that the strip has returned and I have run out of wipes! This is clearly (no pun intended) static so go down this route.
Click to expand...



You saved me! I can't believe it!! I was ready to toss my MacBook Pro into the ocean (I'm on vacation at the beach). I'd backed up everything onto an external I bought because I knew this laptop was dying. I'd backed up every single file, a zillion photographs, the classes I teach, my writing class stories. But then I remembered I hadn't downloaded the iPhoto files. So I spent the morning organizing them in a folder and had just a few files to go. Then my husband walked into the house, distracting me, and I didn't bother to drag this last huge file onto the external. When I finally sat down to do it, the whole screen had grey and white fat horizontal blocks. I was desperate, tried restarting over and over, I spent an hour, almost hysterical, hopeless, praying for it to start just once more! I finally grabbed my mini iPad and defined the problem in the Google bar. And There You Were!!!! The PERFECT answer. Thank you thank you. Brilliant! All I used was a damp paper towel with water!!! You are a genius:). Made my day, my week, maybe more :) Really thank you! Mara
 
I wonder if some connector isn't coming loose, and wiping the screen puts pressure on it and reseats the connector.

Anyway, Mara, you should back up all your stuff regularly anyway, regardless of whether or not you think your computer is dying. You never know what might happen.
 
I have the same stripe on my 27" Thunderbolt Display. Its a vertical green stripe of 7.5 cm width appearing in the middle. It appears on some days, on other days there is no stripe. I tried to wipe. I even tried to wipe after removing the front glas. Unfortunately is does not influence the stripe.
 
motrek said:
I wonder if some connector isn't coming loose, and wiping the screen puts pressure on it and reseats the connector.

Anyway, Mara, you should back up all your stuff regularly anyway, regardless of whether or not you think your computer is dying. You never know what might happen.
Click to expand...

It is definitely a lose connection! I tried her trick and it wasn't wiping the screen but pushing on the apple behind the screen that caused my son's display to correct itself! I had used it all evening with out a problem until.... I cleaned the screen! And then the annoying vertical bar he has been complaining about appeared! I read Mara's "cure" and thought if it can cause it on his computer maybe it can cure it. but it was actually pressing on the apple on the back of the screen that caused it to right itself! weird!
 
It's weird that the vast majority of these positive replies follow the same format, and are all by accounts with 1-2 posts that joined on the day they made their post in this thread... :oops:
 
i was looking for a solution which is why I tried it. I do not think it is a solution, but it allowed me to find where the loose connection is. if I can deal with it until mid October when he is out of school for almost a week, then I can get it fixed.
 
OK, so I just did this and it worked. Crazy. BUT THANK YOU.

But I think it had less to do with cleaning and more to do the pressure on the screen. I did not use cleaner, just a wet napkin. As soon as I pressed the screen, the vertical column went away
 
galaxygrrl200 said:
OK, so I just did this and it worked. Crazy. BUT THANK YOU.

But I think it had less to do with cleaning and more to do the pressure on the screen. I did not use cleaner, just a wet napkin. As soon as I pressed the screen, the vertical column went away
Click to expand...

It was definitely more of a pressure thing than a screen cleaning (though it can't hurt to clean it). I had followed the "anti static" cleaning route and it did not work to clear the 1.5" line. Apparently I wasn't using enough pressure. Gently pressing on the front and back of the screen however did help my situation.

MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008)
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Still running strong!
 
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Separate question. Is there a way to remove a post?? This started out as a duplicate post and was edited to pose the question.
 
Last edited:
Rynofly said:
It was definitely more of a pressure thing than a screen cleaning (though it can't hurt to clean it). I had followed the "anti static" cleaning route and it did not work to clear the 1.5" line. Apparently I wasn't using enough pressure. Gently pressing on the front and back of the screen however did help my situation.

MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008)
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Still running strong!
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1453795566][/doublepost]I had exactly the same vertical stripe. I cleaned the screen with eye glass cleaner ant the stripe disappeared. Thanks guys
 
poppiesinposies said:
[doublepost=1453795566][/doublepost]I had exactly the same vertical stripe. I cleaned the screen with eye glass cleaner ant the stripe disappeared. Thanks guys
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1456010949][/doublepost]I too have had a 3cm vertical band on my macbook pro screen and had noticed that pressure on certain parts of the screen helped to remove it temporarily. I've just cleaned the screen with a damp tissue and have a lovely clean screen and clear of the vertical band. Hope it stays away!
Many thanks for this help.
 
Hi I also had this problem, and possibly pushed to hard as it appears like a crack is underneath and line is getting bigger, definitely agree it has pressure, going to go for plan B today, this is great to have a forum thanks for all people that took time to do above comments!
 
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