'Dim' spots along bottom of LCD display?

[peanutismint]

Bit of an epic tale here:

Basically, whilst installing a new hard disk drive, I managed to damage a connector on the cable that goes to my Bluetooth/Wifi/iSight (i lost all three). At the same time I noticed dim/dark spots along the bottom of my LCD display, almost as if alternate LEDs in the backlight weren't coming on (a bit like the lights you'd see on the front of an old theatre stage!). It's more noticeable on light backgrounds, and when the display brightness is dimmed down...

Anyway, I replaced the defective cable (i had to remove the glass covering my LCD display, my heart was in my mouth....) and now the Bluetooth/Wifi/iSight works perfectly again, but the dim spots on the screen are still there...

Is it possible that the backlight has been permanently damaged somehow? It's not a 'dealbreaker', and as I use my Macbook with an external display 75% of the time I don't really notice it much, but it obviously hurts the resale value somewhat....

 

[golgo1313]

does it look like tiger stripes along the bottom edge of the lcd screen? those are common lcd issues of mbp. i had it in my 15" uMBP. sent it in for replacement. came back with another problem, but less problematic as before, so i decided to live with it.

 

[peanutismint]

Should have probably attached pics first but basically it looks like this:

Not too noticeable but on a light background it's worse....

That can't be normal??!

 

[asleep]

footlights

 

[peanutismint]

footlights

Exactly what I thought!

Any ideas why??

It's still under warranty until July so might just take it to the store, although I'm pretty sure my replacing a cable will void warranty... hope it's not an expensive fix!!

 

[dallas112678]

Exactly what I thought!

Any ideas why??

It's still under warranty until July so might just take it to the store, although I'm pretty sure my replacing a cable will void warranty... hope it's not an expensive fix!!

Well if its under warranty than it will be a no cost fix...Take it in, it is definitely not normal.

EDIT: Oh, just read that you damaged something while upgrading. Well you should always just take it in to see whats going on and i guess how much it will cost.

 

[Big-TDI-Guy]

It appears that the bottom row of LEDs are no longer lined up with the light guide / diffuser properly.

If you have a chance of warranty - in your shoes I'd try to take advantage of it - otherwise - I'd check the alignment of the light guide to the LED bar. (have not opened the current generation LCDs - so not 100% sure how the LEDs are arranged in respect to the LCD itself.

Edit - looking at the pattern - and mention of cable replacement - I'd verify your connectors / pins are all intact - it looks like an emitter set is out - given the equidistant spacing.