I have had four MBP 17" of the 2009 variety this year so far. The first two had screens that identified as 9C98 in the display profile. They were nice screens, both of them, but the computers had other issues. The two most recent units have had 9C99 displays, and both have had faint grey lines across the screen, horizontally, with a one pixel distance between each line.
For a time, I had both a 9C98 and 9C99 screen next to each other and the difference was clear.
I have been unable to find anyone else reporting this issue, but I did find some reports of people with Macbook Airs that report this exact same issue. Photos of this screen anomaly are identical to what I've got on these glossy 17" MBPs. The latest MBP is the new 3.06 GHz, and was manufactured two months after the previous one. The one thing in common is the 9C99 screen.
The first MBP with this issue, it was exceedingly obvious, but with this second one it is far more subtle, and may only become noticeable to someone doing very critical work graphically. I find it most easily seen in the upper left quadrant of the display, with slightly darkened grey colors. The iPhoto window with the background set a little to the right of center between black and white is a good color for seeing the effect. It is quite evident in the default Aurora desktop image as well. Because the pixel density is high with these displays, the distance between every other line of pixels horizontally is not large so you need to be looking closely enough to differentiate.
This issue may be easily overlooked by many people, but I can't imagine how anyone working seriously with graphics could handle this.
I feel confident that all the 9C99 displays are going to have this, although there is clearly a variance in the visibility of this anomaly among the affected screens. I wish there was a way to get the 9C98 display, but as usual it's a crap shoot when you buy one of these computers. For each display, hard drive, and optical drive they seem to always have two models they use - one better and one cheaper.
I'd like to know if anyone else has noticed this in their unibody MBP 17"s, and what model of display you have. To find it, open System Preferences, choose Displays, click on the Color tab, click on the "Open Profile" button, scroll down to #13 'mmod', click on it, and in the lower portion of that window you should see Manufacturer, Model, Serial Number and Manufacture Date. Do you have model 9C99 or 9C98, and can you see the faint grey or whitish horizontal lines?
Thanks
For a time, I had both a 9C98 and 9C99 screen next to each other and the difference was clear.
I have been unable to find anyone else reporting this issue, but I did find some reports of people with Macbook Airs that report this exact same issue. Photos of this screen anomaly are identical to what I've got on these glossy 17" MBPs. The latest MBP is the new 3.06 GHz, and was manufactured two months after the previous one. The one thing in common is the 9C99 screen.
The first MBP with this issue, it was exceedingly obvious, but with this second one it is far more subtle, and may only become noticeable to someone doing very critical work graphically. I find it most easily seen in the upper left quadrant of the display, with slightly darkened grey colors. The iPhoto window with the background set a little to the right of center between black and white is a good color for seeing the effect. It is quite evident in the default Aurora desktop image as well. Because the pixel density is high with these displays, the distance between every other line of pixels horizontally is not large so you need to be looking closely enough to differentiate.
This issue may be easily overlooked by many people, but I can't imagine how anyone working seriously with graphics could handle this.
I feel confident that all the 9C99 displays are going to have this, although there is clearly a variance in the visibility of this anomaly among the affected screens. I wish there was a way to get the 9C98 display, but as usual it's a crap shoot when you buy one of these computers. For each display, hard drive, and optical drive they seem to always have two models they use - one better and one cheaper.
I'd like to know if anyone else has noticed this in their unibody MBP 17"s, and what model of display you have. To find it, open System Preferences, choose Displays, click on the Color tab, click on the "Open Profile" button, scroll down to #13 'mmod', click on it, and in the lower portion of that window you should see Manufacturer, Model, Serial Number and Manufacture Date. Do you have model 9C99 or 9C98, and can you see the faint grey or whitish horizontal lines?
Thanks