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17" MBP unibody lines on screen!

A

apersianboyCOM

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 28, 2008
328
0
London, UK
I was burning a film using roxio toast 9 and then as soon as it started encoding the DVD I saw these streaky lines appear on the screen similar to the ones you see on heart beat machines in hospitals! I was running the laptop using the power adaptor with the higher performance energy setting.
As soon as the burn was completed it disappeared and everything is back to normal... should I be worried?

9lcoya.png
 
apersianboyCOM said:
I was burning a film using roxio toast 9 and then as soon as it started encoding the DVD I saw these streaky lines appear on the screen similar to the ones you see on heart beat machines in hospitals! I was running the laptop using the power adaptor with the higher performance energy setting.
As soon as the burn was completed it disappeared and everything is back to normal... should I be worried?

9lcoya.png
Click to expand...

Never seen anything like that.. I think since it only happened while using toast, I would think its ok. But keep your eye on it.
 
Its so weird... I just tried watching some 1080p HD trailers and they looked absolutly fine... and right now theres no sign of the lines any more!
 
Oh dear the famous lines, thats a broken graphics card, phone Apple, get your laptop replaced immediately for free.

Its because the graphics card was put under strain and since its broken, thats how the strain shows, normally a persons computer just becomes jittery for a while but yours actually shows the lines, in a few months and a few intensive tasks later those lines wont go away and youll be stuck with them forever, and the only way to get rid of them will be to go onto the 9400 card all the time. Apple wont have a problem swapping this laptop for you, just phone them.
 
apersianboyCOM said:
Its so weird... I just tried watching some 1080p HD trailers and they looked absolutly fine... and right now theres no sign of the lines any more!
Click to expand...

This could be purely a software issue. I get similar fragments when I use VLC on my desktop PC. If a movie is playing, and I minimize VLC, some strange artifacts appear on the desktop wallpaper, somewhat similar to what your pictures show. If VLC is closed, they disappear. I would investigate further before going to exchange. However, if you start seeing it with different programs and under different conditions, I would take it to the Genius Bar.
 
kastenbrust said:
Oh dear the famous lines, thats a broken graphics card, phone Apple, get your laptop replaced immediately for free.

Its because the graphics card was put under strain and since its broken, thats how the strain shows, normally a persons computer just becomes jittery for a while but yours actually shows the lines, in a few months and a few intensive tasks later those lines wont go away and youll be stuck with them forever, and the only way to get rid of them will be to go onto the 9400 card all the time. Apple wont have a problem swapping this laptop for you, just phone them.
Click to expand...

That sucks. I've only had it for less than 2 days!
 
apersianboyCOM said:
That sucks. I've only had it for less than 2 days!
Click to expand...

Yeah I know, ive just tried doing the exact same thing on mine (Burning a movie in Roxio Toast 9) and not got those lines at all, so it must be your computer, however its better you've found this problem in the first 2 weeks than later when you cant get the computer replaced. I heard they're getting them in some stores now, so perhaps pop into the Regents Street store to get it changed? Kick up a fuss as well and complain about how you were delayed getting it and now its broken and you want a free bag/software/game/accesory such as adaptor :)

I have to be honest it could be your choice of background causing this issue (jokes :p)
 
kastenbrust said:
Yeah I know, ive just tried doing the exact same thing on mine (Burning a movie in Roxio Toast 9) and not got those lines at all, so it must be your computer, however its better you've found this problem in the first 2 weeks than later when you cant get the computer replaced. I heard they're getting them in some stores now, so perhaps pop into the Regents Street store to get it changed? Kick up a fuss as well and complain about how you were delayed getting it and now its broken and you want a free bag/software/game/accesory such as adaptor :)

I have to be honest it could be your choice of background causing this issue (jokes :p)
Click to expand...
Did you do it on the higher performance option? I just burned another DVD on the better battery life option and didn't get the lines at all.

Yeah your right... I will call them tomorrow. It sucks though because I got the 7200RPM HD so it will probably take forever to come in again :(

lol I changed the wallpaper because the lines were more evident on this one!
 
apersianboyCOM said:
Did you do it on the higher performance option? I just burned another DVD on the better battery life option and didn't get the lines at all.

Yeah your right... I will call them tomorrow. It sucks though because I got the 7200RPM HD so it will probably take forever to come in again :(

lol I changed the wallpaper because the lines were more evident on this one!
Click to expand...

It didnt happen on the better battery option for you because that uses the 9400 card and thats probably not broken. Its only likely one card is broken, both would be a serious freak accident. Anyway i heard they have all versions of the 17" in store, 7200 Drives, 8GB RAM and SSD ones, just not the Matte versions. :)

Not sure if regent street has them yet, but most stores in the US do, so i guess they will.
Dont forget to push for a freebe, they always give in when you ask for the Store Manager.
 
kastenbrust said:
It didnt happen on the better battery option for you because that uses the 9400 card and thats probably not broken. Its only likely one card is broken, both would be a serious freak accident. Anyway i heard they have all versions of the 17" in store, 7200 Drives, 8GB RAM and SSD ones, just not the Matte versions. :)

Not sure if regent street has them yet, but most stores in the US do, so i guess they will.
Dont forget to push for a freebe, they always give in when you ask for the Store Manager.
Click to expand...

Ok cool, will call up regents street tomorrow to check if they have it then I''ll go in!
last question... because I ordered online what proof/receipt do I need to take in? should I print out the invoice?
 
Not always but take pictures and maybe do a small video of it happening just to play it safe. Remember to have everything the same when you bring it in so the tech can duplicate the results. I went through two iBooks giving bad video back in the day and the third was the charm (happened the same day I got them).
Good luck with it :)
 
Is there a way all of us with the new Uni 17” MBP’s can duplicate this using some other method? Then we can help you determine if it’s really a software issue or not? Plus you would be helping us to diagnose our MBP’s before our 14 days are over.

Do you notice these artifact lines when switching from the 9400 to the 9600 and back again? I noticed someone else said this when switching over and over again between better and high performance. I’m just wondering if there’s a faster, easier way for us to test this without encoding

When you saw this were you burning a DVD? Ripping a DVD? Or encoding a DVD (making it smaller)?
 
kastenbrust said:
actually it should, a proper intensive graphics card benchmarking app should make the lines appear on the screen if the graphics chip is broken.
Click to expand...
What would you recommend? Is there anything free that can stress the graphics chips to see if we have this problem before our 14 days are up? Thanks
 
Try ati tool...I know its an nvidia chip, but it works. It will do a stress test on the gpu and scan for artifacts. Run it until the gpu temp peaks say 80-90 celsius steady then watch it closely for say 5-10 mins (overall test for about 20mins) it will report when it sees issues. http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/ . Good Luck.
 
apersianboyCOM said:
I was burning a film using roxio toast 9 and then as soon as it started encoding the DVD I saw these streaky lines appear on the screen similar to the ones you see on heart beat machines in hospitals! I was running the laptop using the power adaptor with the higher performance energy setting.
As soon as the burn was completed it disappeared and everything is back to normal... should I be worried?
Click to expand...


when you get another mbp17, check for stuck pixels also.
use the backgrounds here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/658365/

good luck.

paul
 
toyotaoffroadca said:
Try ati tool...I know its an nvidia chip, but it works. It will do a stress test on the gpu and scan for artifacts. Run it until the gpu temp peaks say 80-90 celsius steady then watch it closely for say 5-10 mins (overall test for about 20mins) it will report when it sees issues. http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/ . Good Luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help. Is there anything you can recommend to monitor the GPU temp? I would hate to actually cause a problem by over stressing the chip.

Also, is there any paid application that “does it all” in terms of testing for hardware problems. Of course something that is really good, or I’ll just stick with the individual apps.

Thanks again.

(I just noticed the app in the link is for windows only, any for mac? Thanks)
 
AppleWorking said:
Thanks for your help. Is there anything you can recommend to monitor the GPU temp? I would hate to actually cause a problem by over stressing the chip.

Also, is there any paid application that “does it all” in terms of testing for hardware problems. Of course something that is really good, or I’ll just stick with the individual apps.

Thanks again.

(I just noticed the app in the link is for windows only, any for mac? Thanks)
Click to expand...

istat

monitors everything.
 
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