Common problem? Vertical stripes in backlight after usage

[2contagious]

Hi,

I noticed that every single MacBook Pro (17", 2010 and 2011 versions) that I have used so far has had some weird backlight problem where there are two thick vertical lines in the backlight that appear darker than the rest of the backlight. Now the thing is that this only seems to appear after the laptop has been running for a while (watching a movie or doing something else that takes a bit of performance). It's especially visible if you push the laptop's performance (e.g. use compressor to encode videos). These vertical stripes are only visible on black backgrounds / images, like backlight bleeding, although this does not look like backlight bleeding, but rather the oppposite.. there's less light coming through It seems that the issue is heat related (performance push = more heat). Did nobody else notice these problems?

see you,
chris.

 

[Jottle]

Good news (I guess). All of the mbp's exhibit this behavior in those two spots. It's actually the hot air from the fan exhaust hitting the screen, just as you suspect. Every unibody mbp I've owned has done this. Eventually, after extended intense usage and hot air expelling, those two vertical areas of the screen appear darker because of the heat. They go away after awhile because the screen cools down in that area. Basically, you can actually see exactly where the most heat is. To test, just turn your mbp on and I'm sure you won't see any of the vertical bars, then run something processor intensive to get the fans going for a good 20-30 min or so. Then turn the lights out in your room and put up whatever solid colored background shows these vertical bars the best. Then put your hand towards the bottom of the bars and feel the screen. You'll see that those areas are especially warm due to some of the fan exhaust air hitting the screen just a bit. Note that the two bars line up to where the fans are located as well. It's unfortunately, just part of how the mbp is designed.

 

[2contagious]

Good news (I guess). All of the mbp's exhibit this behavior in those two spots. It's actually the hot air from the fan exhaust hitting the screen, just as you suspect. Every unibody mbp I've owned has done this. Eventually, after extended intense usage and hot air expelling, those two vertical areas of the screen appear darker because of the heat. They go away after awhile because the screen cools down in that area. Basically, you can actually see exactly where the most heat is. To test, just turn your mbp on and I'm sure you won't see any of the vertical bars, then run something processor intensive to get the fans going for a good 20-30 min or so. Then turn the lights out in your room and put up whatever solid colored background shows these vertical bars the best. Then put your hand towards the bottom of the bars and feel the screen. You'll see that those areas are especially warm due to some of the fan exhaust air hitting the screen just a bit. Note that the two bars line up to where the fans are located as well. It's unfortunately, just part of how the mbp is designed.

Wow, that's a massive design fail. Antenna-gate was nothing
Apple should address this in a future update.. my father's MacBook Air does not have this problem.