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theryho

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 13, 2011
3
0
Sometimes when my MBA starts up from sleep, parts of the GUI have these weird pink TV static looking artifacts. Also when this started happening the majority of the mac icons in apps such as Finder and Safari are gone. Restarting the computer fixes the artifacts, but it does not fix the icons. I have pics below, the effects show up in screen shots.

I previously blamed this on a Finder extension I was using, so I reinstalled my OS, and made sure not to install anything like that. Now in a little more that a week both of the symptoms are back and now it randomly crashes with the "you have a problem" notice that is in many languages.

FYI This is a 2011 MacBook Air 4.1 with up to date Mountain Lion.

Do you think this is a hardware or software issue? I have a feeling that it is a hardmare issue with the video card. My friend thinks that I may have exceeded the number of writes on part of the SSD, and that part has worn out, but I don't think that this is the case. I know for certain it is not the screen.

I highly doubt this is a software issue, but I do frequently have to run a lot of things so it isn't out of the question. I ran Apple hardware test in both quick and long mode, but it didn't find any problems.

If this is hardware do you think that Apple will fix it for free? It is a 2011 model. If not, how much would they charge me?

Here are the artifacts. Behind the icons on Mission Control is a common place for them to show up, but lots of different GUI elements can do it. It varies each time it happens.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13042716/Errors.tiff

Here is the Finder with its icons missing.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13042716/Finder Issue.tiff

Thanks
 

zObsidian

macrumors member
Nov 25, 2010
53
0
I'm willing to bet it's the GPU. I've had similar "static" artifacts on an old iMac (which was repaired under warranty) and on PC GPUs. I'm not sure about the missing icons though.

I guess it doesn't hurt to go to Apple and see if they are willing to fix it, or at the very least get a quote though it'll likely be a lot to replace the logic board. Make sure you save the screenshot of the artifacts, it sounds like an intermittent issue that may not present itself when you show them your computer.
 
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