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CRAP!! Huge problem! GOD BLESS whoever helps me! Display issue!

M

matt1987

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 7, 2007
44
0
Okay, here's the situation.

I've recently been trying to get Windows to work on my computer, right? And today I restarted my Mac Book Pro and tried to get Windows to work and clicked on the little arrow under the Windows partition that pops up when you hold 'alt option'.

Only, when I did this, my display suddenly when all funky and the computer DIDN'T go into Windows but Mac OS X and now my entire display is ****ed! It's all rainbowy and not the beautiful Mac display it once was.

I deleted my Windows partition to see if this would help but it didn't seem to. I'd get a screenshot but I think you guys know what I mean. Where there should be a nice wallpaper of an ocean, the water is suddenly ugly blotches of purple, light blue, orange and everything looks ****ED UP.

Please tell me I can walk away from this...
 
matt1987 said:
Okay, here's the situation.

I've recently been trying to get Windows to work on my computer, right? And today I restarted my Mac Book Pro and tried to get Windows to work and clicked on the little arrow under the Windows partition that pops up when you hold 'alt option'.

Only, when I did this, my display suddenly when all funky and the computer DIDN'T go into Windows but Mac OS X and now my entire display is ****ed! It's all rainbowy and not the beautiful Mac display it once was.

I deleted my Windows partition to see if this would help but it didn't seem to. I'd get a screenshot but I think you guys know what I mean. Where there should be a nice wallpaper of an ocean, the water is suddenly ugly blotches of purple, light blue, orange and everything looks ****ED UP.

Please tell me I can walk away from this...
Click to expand...

Restart your MBP and hold down: alt/option + ? (command) + P + R
 
Repair permissions (in disk utility)

Change the resolution, then back again.
Was the windows disk an official XP SP2 (not one that came with a computer, "dodgy", media center etc)
 
hanschien said:
Restart your MBP and hold down: alt/option + ? (command) + P + R
Click to expand...


WTF does that do? Pardon my tone but I spend a fortune on this machine and now it's gone and done this.

I did what everyone else suggested, disk permission and all that and resetting the resolution but all the colors on my Mac still look like a rainbow of complete ****.

Oh ****...

And yes, it was an official Windows XP disk..
 
You didn't somehow press control-option-apple-8 did you? That inverts the colors on the screen... so your blue water would look orange. Pressing those keys again would switch it back.

EDIT: oh, and the suggestion of trying to press the option-command-P-R keys while booting is a valid one. It basically resets a small memory buffer inside of your computer - which may or may not help your situation, but certainly worth a shot.
 
Pressing it at the startup screen inverts or pressing it whenever inverts it?

My colors are messed, greens and staticy purples and oranges and...ugh, it looks like puke.

I just tried doing what you did now while posting but it didn't do anything. Do I need to do it at the start-up screen?

Wait, I just did that ctrl-alt-apple-8 thing and it inverted my colors but it inverted my already ****ed up colors so no, that's not it.
 
matt1987 said:
And so should I did that ctrl/option + p + r thing or is resetting my parameter ram possibly dangerous?
Click to expand...

No, not dangerous. Zapping the PRAM is a good idea for troubleshooting.

Screenshots are Apple-Shift-3

Does the screwey color start immediately at boot, or does it look normal until you login?
 
No risk in reseting the PRAM.

A screenshot is Cmd-Shift-3...but if you can also take a photo with a digital camera (if one is handy) and post that...as it could possibly be a physical problem.
 
I just tried that apple alt/option and p +r thing and nothing happened...unless I was doing something wrong. Should a prompt have come up or something?

Anyways, I'm going to try to get a screenshot.
 
matt1987 said:
How do I take a screenshot with a Mac?

And so should I did that ctrl/option + p + r thing or is resetting my parameter ram possibly dangerous?
Click to expand...

it's not dangerous at all... you might have to reset your date/time settings and a couple of minor things like that

it's actually: option + command + P + R

(or some people call the command key the "apple" key... it's the one with the Apple logo on it)
 
I just tried that apple alt/option and p +r thing and nothing happened...unless I was doing something wrong. Should a prompt have come up or something?

Anyways, I'm going to try to get a screenshot.

Okay I put one up.

Or I thought I did. How do I attach a screenshot to a post? Can I e-mail the pic to someone?
 
If we see the screenshot and colors are fine, then you can conclude it's a hardware problem. If the colors are b0rked in your screenshot image too, then it's gonna be a software problem.
 
And did you try Atari1356's suggestion of the control-option-apple-8? That's a good idea...the key to check for before you do it is that large portions of the windows would now be appearing black instead of white.
 
matt1987 said:
Should a prompt have come up or something?
Click to expand...
From Mac Help: "To reset PRAM, first shut down your computer. Turn the computer back on and immediately press and hold Command-Option-P-R until you hear the startup sound for the second time."

You'll know you've successfully reset your PRAM because a few of your settings will be reset to default (I forget what settings are stored by the PRAM).

A screenshot may not be helpful because it sounds like it could be a hardware issue, or at least a software issue that wouldn't manifest in a screenshot. Until I hear otherwise I'm going to go with atari1356's theory that you accidentally turned on the "Black on White" display mode from the Universal Access preference pane.
 
vinylator said:
If we see the screenshot and colors are fine, then you can conclude it's a hardware problem. If the colors are b0rked in your screenshot image too, then it's gonna be a software problem.
Click to expand...



Okay, I have a screenshot but it's too big to upload. Can I e-mail to someone?

Or can you tell me how I can quickly resize it without fuss?
 
TheAnswer said:
And did you try Atari1356's suggestion of the control-option-apple-8? That's a good idea...the key to check for before you do it is that large portions of the windows would now be appearing black instead of white.
Click to expand...

It looks like he did try that, but it didn't help:

matt1987 said:
Wait, I just did that ctrl-alt-apple-8 thing and it inverted my colors but it inverted my already ****ed up colors so no, that's not it.
Click to expand...
 
apfhex said:
From Mac Help: "To reset PRAM, first shut down your computer. Turn the computer back on and immediately press and hold Command-Option-P-R until you hear the startup sound for the second time."

You'll know you've successfully reset your PRAM because a few of your settings will be reset to default (I forget what settings are stored by the PRAM).

A screenshot may not be helpful because it sounds like it could be a hardware issue, or at least a software issue that wouldn't manifest in a screenshot.
Click to expand...

Um, excuse my ignorance but what is "Command"...The apple key? The guy before put a question mark in and I was hitting that. I'll try it again with the apple key.
 
apfhex said:
From Mac Help: "To reset PRAM, first shut down your computer. Turn the computer back on and immediately press and hold Command-Option-P-R until you hear the startup sound for the second time."

You'll know you've successfully reset your PRAM because a few of your settings will be reset to default (I forget what settings are stored by the PRAM).

A screenshot may not be helpful because it sounds like it could be a hardware issue, or at least a software issue that wouldn't manifest in a screenshot. Until I hear otherwise I'm going to go with atari1356's theory that you accidentally turned on the "Black on White" display mode from the Universal Access preference pane.
Click to expand...

Wait, I went into the Universal Access Panel and the circle besides BLACK ON WHITE is checked off. What do I do now, though? I choose grayscale and it still looks like shiz.

Lemme know please.
 
matt1987 said:
Um, excuse my ignorance but what is "Command"...The apple key? The guy before put a question mark in and I was hitting that. I'll try it again with the apple key.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's the key with the Apple logo

atari1356 said:
it's actually: option + command + P + R

(or some people call the command key the "apple" key... it's the one with the Apple logo on it)
Click to expand...

:D
 
matt1987 said:
Okay, I have a screenshot but it's too big to upload.
Click to expand...
Before uploading anything:

Is it a picture of your screen from another camera, or a screenshot taken by your Mac?

If it's the later - a screen capture - does it show the screwed up colors (which you could only tell if you could look at it on another system)?

Easier than resizing: if it's a screen capture (i.e., done with shift-⌘-3), then use shift-⌘-4 instead, which will give you crosshairs to use to capture a smaller rectangle. Do that, and attach the smaller image.

Or... open the original in Preview (should happen just by double-clicking it), then save as a JPG, but set the quality to as low as possible. Does that make it small enough?
 
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