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New MacBook Pro mid-2012 changing screen temperature?

upsguy27

upsguy27

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 25, 2007
1,209
19
Utah
I just got the new (non-retina) MacBook Pro a few days ago, and I've noticed that at random times while in Mac OS (Mountain Lion, so that might have something to do with it) the screen temperature changes from the default warm to a much cooler, blue temperature. Going into the display settings shows that the actual color profile didn't change at all, and none of the profiles restore the warm default temperature. A restart will make the change disappear and revert to the warm tone, however, simply continuing to use the computer in the blue tones will eventually revert it back to warm on its own. This is not only annoying, but makes working in color-dependent programs like Photoshop very hard. Why is this happening?

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Upon closer investigation, it seems opening Photoshop itself causes the screen to change temperatures, and closing it reverts to the warm. I'd blame Photoshop, but the screen has changed temperatures previously while Photoshop wasn't even running.

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Third edit: okay, it seems there are certain apps that trigger the screen temperature change. Photoshop, The Sims 3, and others I haven't discovered yet. Is there some sort of auto-screen change setting introduced in Mountain Lion?
 
M

Moriarty

macrumors 6502
Feb 3, 2008
436
208
upsguy27 said:
I just got the new (non-retina) MacBook Pro a few days ago, and I've noticed that at random times while in Mac OS (Mountain Lion, so that might have something to do with it) the screen temperature changes from the default warm to a much cooler, blue temperature. Going into the display settings shows that the actual color profile didn't change at all, and none of the profiles restore the warm default temperature. A restart will make the change disappear and revert to the warm tone, however, simply continuing to use the computer in the blue tones will eventually revert it back to warm on its own. This is not only annoying, but makes working in color-dependent programs like Photoshop very hard. Why is this happening?

----------

Upon closer investigation, it seems opening Photoshop itself causes the screen to change temperatures, and closing it reverts to the warm. I'd blame Photoshop, but the screen has changed temperatures previously while Photoshop wasn't even running.

----------

Third edit: okay, it seems there are certain apps that trigger the screen temperature change. Photoshop, The Sims 3, and others I haven't discovered yet. Is there some sort of auto-screen change setting introduced in Mountain Lion?
Click to expand...

I run Snow Leopard on my old Macbook and have a similar thing if I load Warcraft 3. Not necessarily a problem with Mountain Lion... though I could never figure what was going on there either. The programs could be forcing the OS to load a custom ICC profile, but I can't see how that could be anything but detrimental if you're using a calibrated display already.
 
upsguy27

upsguy27

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 25, 2007
1,209
19
Utah
Moriarty said:
I run Snow Leopard on my old Macbook and have a similar thing if I load Warcraft 3. Not necessarily a problem with Mountain Lion... though I could never figure what was going on there either. The programs could be forcing the OS to load a custom ICC profile, but I can't see how that could be anything but detrimental if you're using a calibrated display already.
Click to expand...

It doesn't make any sense because I had just been running this same build of Mountain Lion a week ago with the exact same Photoshop app on a Mac Mini and this was never an issue... It seems to happen with any "intense" app, such as Photoshop, Aperture, iMovie, Final Cut, etc. Weirdly, when I first started using this computer, this never happened when opening those apps.
 
M

Moriarty

macrumors 6502
Feb 3, 2008
436
208
upsguy27 said:
It doesn't make any sense because I had just been running this same build of Mountain Lion a week ago with the exact same Photoshop app on a Mac Mini and this was never an issue... It seems to happen with any "intense" app, such as Photoshop, Aperture, iMovie, Final Cut, etc. Weirdly, when I first started using this computer, this never happened when opening those apps.
Click to expand...

Yeah rather odd. Though I just started up Warcraft 3 to check if it was still doing that, and it still does (I recently reinstalled everything). But it only does that if I don't have my external display plugged in. Everything is fine when the external screen is plugged in and Warcraft 3 opens my default on that screen. Perhaps you may get the same behaviour here?

I have no idea how to fix it, but at least you're not the only one with the problem. Perhaps try calling Apple, seeing as you have valid phone support?
 
T

thomaskc

macrumors 6502
Aug 19, 2010
347
0
I mean that in windows and I assume also in osx, you can set/set the color profile used by the monitor. Eg. srgb or what ever, maybe certain programs force a different profile than what the default osx desktop profile is? Then you would see a change in colors depending on the profiles.
 
Winter Charm

Winter Charm

macrumors 6502a
Jul 31, 2008
804
270
upsguy27 said:
I just got the new (non-retina) MacBook Pro a few days ago, and I've noticed that at random times while in Mac OS (Mountain Lion, so that might have something to do with it) the screen temperature changes from the default warm to a much cooler, blue temperature. Going into the display settings shows that the actual color profile didn't change at all, and none of the profiles restore the warm default temperature. A restart will make the change disappear and revert to the warm tone, however, simply continuing to use the computer in the blue tones will eventually revert it back to warm on its own. This is not only annoying, but makes working in color-dependent programs like Photoshop very hard. Why is this happening?

----------

Upon closer investigation, it seems opening Photoshop itself causes the screen to change temperatures, and closing it reverts to the warm. I'd blame Photoshop, but the screen has changed temperatures previously while Photoshop wasn't even running.

----------

Third edit: okay, it seems there are certain apps that trigger the screen temperature change. Photoshop, The Sims 3, and others I haven't discovered yet. Is there some sort of auto-screen change setting introduced in Mountain Lion?
Click to expand...

This happened to me while running TF2 under BOTH SL and Lion. So, its nothing new.... maybe more apps can use their own color profiles now?
 
iPhone1

iPhone1

macrumors 65816
Apr 2, 2010
1,152
423
If you use gfxCardStatus and switch between discrete and integrated only you can see a pretty dramatic change in the temperature of the color profile.

Very annoying and something that did not happen to me while running the developer previews of ML.
 
T

tmanhart

macrumors newbie
Jul 31, 2012
1
0
Mountain Lion Color Switching Fixed

Had the same problem as those that posted above. I tried creating new color profiles (via ColorEyes Display). But opening iPhoto or turning on Teleport made the color switch.

As a last resort I reset the PRAM (Macbook Pro 17 Early 2011) and it fixed the issue.

Hope this works for others.

Update: It only worked till I rebooted. And I could never repeat any success by resetting the Pram.

I reinstalled lion (not a complete reformat) just a reinstall. It worked. I've rebooted several times. The color switching issue has not returned.
 
Last edited:
J

jonnyr78

macrumors member
Feb 18, 2008
75
67
Hmm, I havea similar problem, with the rMBP in Mountain Lion I can't change color profile; if I do after a second it switches back to some 'default' profile. Very strange :confused:
 
J

jpost-design

macrumors newbie
Feb 8, 2014
2
0
Check auto launch apps

I just had this problem, and was searching for help.

In particular, the color temp of my monitor was changing when different apps launched. For example, I noticed it every time I launched Photoshop CC.

Resetting the auto launch apps via system preferences seems to have fixed it for me. Chrome somehow got set to autolaunch, and I believe was messing up the monitor color.

Quick guide here on stopping programs from auto-launch:
http://machicolate.wordpress.com/20...chrome-from-opening-automatically-on-startup/

I also logged out and back in, and that may play some part as well. However, logging out and back in without disabling the auto launch of Chrome made no difference at all. So that has to be connected.
 
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