just curious if the mba screen problem has been fixed?

[ClancyNYC]

Hi all, I'm a long-time lurker. You guys have helped me through many Mac purchases, but this screen problem has me stumped.

I'm on my third MBA rev. 2. All three were week 44, screen 9C9A and had the lines to varying degrees. Happily, this latest MBA doesn't have the flickering - no more headaches - but it does have a bit of reverse backlight bleeding at the bottom of the screen. Because I've also seen the lines on three display machines, I think I'm just going to be happy with a flicker-free screen.

Applecare told me they are investigating the video card.

 

[macbook123]

Alright I tried. I think it's more of a camera problem than anything. I'm using a Sony DSC W-120.

Do you have lines or not? It seems there's no clear trend towards horizontal lines, just similarly horizontal and vertical ones, which may just be an artifact of the photo. Same with Toddfather, who says above he has the lines, but I can't see predominantly horizontal structure in the pictures. Can everybody add to their postings whether they see horizontal lines by eye or not? Thanks all, this is extremely helpful in my decision making whether I should buy an Air now or hold off.

 

[michaelffm]

Just recieved my MBA 1,6 HDD - this flickering is terrible!
I've read about it but I've never had any idea how terrible this is
I cannot look 10 Minutes on the screen without getting sickness.

Apple should really do something because I think there are many people ready to sue Apple because of this (and I understand this completely! This is a horror machine )

 

[Cynicalone]

Do you have lines or not? It seems there's no clear trend towards horizontal lines, just similarly horizontal and vertical ones, which may just be an artifact of the photo. Same with Toddfather, who says above he has the lines, but I can't see predominantly horizontal structure in the pictures. Can everybody add to their postings whether they see horizontal lines by eye or not? Thanks all, this is extremely helpful in my decision making whether I should buy an Air now or hold off.

No lines and no flickering. I have one of the first late 08 airs (1.86 ghz 128GB SSD).

 

[michaelffm]

If you watch the test image and then set the display colors to 32768 colors you'll notice the flickering a lot more.
It's hard to see and I think every MBA has this issue but not everyone can see it.
The lines are really only visible if your're trying to find them - the flickering is only visible if you know what you have to look for but then there is really a difference between the MBA displays and other displays

I'm wondering if someone has the technical equipment to measure the screen refresh rate

 

[ninjadex]

I took these at VGA setting because I could not get the others to upload...

Believe it or not, but I do believe I see very slight evidence of the lines in these pics. It might not be quite as bad as some other units though.

 

[The Toddfather]

...Same with Toddfather, who says above he has the lines...

I do not have the lines.

 

[The Toddfather]

Believe it or not, but I do believe I see very slight evidence of the lines in these pics. It might not be quite as bad as some other units though.

A VGA pic on a forum. I have the machine in front of me and there are no lines.

Just curious, do you hear voices too?

 

[ninjadex]

A VGA pic on a forum. I have the machine in front of me and there are no lines.

Just curious, do you hear voices too?

No need to be like that. It's not like it was some personal attack.

It's just that I know what to look for, and I do see some slight evidence of the lines.

 

[Ironic]

A VGA pic on a forum. I have the machine in front of me and there are no lines.

Just curious, do you hear voices too?

I also posted a picture, clean and clear, Voices, that was a good one,

 

[h1d]

He's touchy, so let's talk as every MBA is perfect except the 50 out of thousands. He can't coordinate, so we might have to just for the few to get the thread going.

 

[mhnajjar]

I took the MBA I posted pictures of which earlier to the Apple store and the salesman "specialist" was and he said "I have never seen this issue before on any computer, but I remember seeing it on LCD TVs". Then he brought me a replacement, however, the store manager suggested that a genius "stupid dumba$$" takes a look at it first. After 30 minutes, the salesman came from the back and told me that everything is within specs and that I am seeing things

Apple sucks and I do not like Apple as much as used to. I have never had any issue with any of all the tons of PCs I used before from Gateway, Dell, HP, Sony, Acer, LG and even the ones I belt myself!

In addition, the whites are YELLOW on my MBA screen and they noticed that also, but they tried to calibrate it to convince me that there is nothing wrong with it even though that I compared it to two MBAs in the sore (rev A & rev B) and both had the same model and manufacturing date and yet they refused to replace it and said that it is within specs.

I also found out that the revA had the save screen as the revB and showed the guys at the store the flickering test compared to a white MB and they were telling me this is NORMAL with LEDs LOOOOOOOOOOL.

Apple employees are worse than McDonald's fryers and they no nothing about their products.

Now an Apple fanboy will come here and try to attack me and say that NOT all Apple employees are like that, well that is correct that NOT all are bunch of jerks, yet they do not know anything about the issues that the consumers are facing and they always pretend that there is nothing wrong with our machines as if we are on drugs

I will get rid of this revB MBA and never by an till they fix all their inner issues so they can fix their machines and produce something useable. This AIR is giving me headache every time I try to read something on this sucking striped screen.

 

[michaelffm]

I've showed my flickering MBA 8 people so far. Only 4 of them could see the flickering (for me it tooks about 10 minutes to recognize it) but - and that's the point - ALL of them complained about headache after using the MBA for a while.

 

[ashowkati]

I just got mine in and it indeed has the grey lines and massive light bleeding across the entire top and bottom.

I'm heading to my local Apple store tomorrow morning to get it replaced, hopefully I'll have better luck, one of my 2 issue should prove legit. I did call ahead tho, the concierge said that they do have my 1.6GHz/120GB model in stock now and she even scheduled me in for an appointment so "they would hassle me". It made me feel pretty good about it.

The only thing I'm worried about is if it will actually solve the problem. What if they change it out and it's the same. I'll make sure to open it at the store to make sure. At this point I'm not so sure I'm gonna be devastated since it's just my "spare" second computer (i also own a 24" iMac,) so I'm not terribly concerned with the issue.

Can someone who successfully swapped it out provide their testimony. Was the problem solved?

 

[LeonX]

Can someone who successfully swapped it out provide their testimony. Was the problem solved?

There is no one on this forum yet who successfully replaced an unit with that issue. I tried it myself last night at a reseller store here in Germany. They confirmed the problem and insisted it is a problem with the NVIDIA grafics card and that they believed it will be fixed by a firmware update. I dont know about that, as I previously said I still believe in a hardware issue and so Im giving the lappy back. Anyway if they make it I am the first in line to buy a new one.

ps. mod, could you pls delete all the posts stating again and again that there are no issues? and maybe you could ask the people to stay away from this thread. I ingnored them until now but I am getting sick of arguing....

 

[ashowkati]

The thing that is irritation about the lines (at least on my MBA) is that they are at a slight tilt, like 10-15 degrees. If it were just perfectly horizontal, it would be more bearable.

 

[mhnajjar]

Guys, the problem is on the screen itself 100%

I hooked up my MBA revB to the 24" LED ACD and everything was PERFECT. This means that the lines are on the screen itself and that there is NOTHING wrong with the nVidia card.

 

[robeddie]

I've showed my flickering MBA 8 people so far. Only 4 of them could see the flickering (for me it tooks about 10 minutes to recognize it) but - and that's the point - ALL of them complained about headache after using the MBA for a while.

Honestly people. If you see the lines, or see flickering... just give up on the Air.
It's my assertion that the way 'some' LCD's are made, 'some' people will notice those things. Maybe another screen that has a different refresh rate or pixel density won't bother you, but it WILL bother someone else.

I've said before, on ANY screen if you really concentrate, you'll also see the 'dots' the pixels that make up the screen ... or some OTHER artifact! For instance some kinds of LCD's have a 'glistening' quality to the pixels (the HP LCD I use at work has that). If I decided that bothered me, I wouldn't get a laptop (or desktop) with that kind of screen.

Those 'lines', I believe are just a result of the mechanical structure of this kind of screen. And especially if you fixate on trying to see them, and you spend all day reading about them, it's going to bother you. I notice faint lines on my screen when I really look closely and angle the screen so I'm looking at it at an upward angle. But when I'm playing a game, surfing the web ... I totally forget about it ... that is, until I stop by here and read this forum with the same 20 people discussing back and forth about these lines.

Trade in your MacBook Air and don't get another one. If the issue hurts apple sales enough... maybe they'll have a different screen in the next generation, or maybe they'll stop producing the Air altogether.

 

[robeddie]

It seems Apple indeed has become the 'GOTCHA' company.

You were ready to upgrade your old white Macbook, partly because the crappy plastic was spontaneously breaking apart.

GOTCHA!

So you got excited when the new Macbook was announced, only to discover - no firewire.

GOTCHA!

You decided to buy it anyway, figuring you don't use firewire that much really, and then discover that the screen is dimmer, has a far worse viewing angle, and much worse contrast than the Macbook Air or Macbook Pro screen.

GOTCHA!

So, you decided to buy a Macbook Air, only to discover that this screen has faint grey lines on it.

GOTCHA!

So, you finally decide to bite the bullet and get a Macbook Pro, but then remember that it, like the Macbook, has a super glossy glass screen that makes it annoying to use in a variety of light, including outdoors (after all, isn't that why we get a laptop in the first place, to use it everywhere?)

GOTCHA!

Dejected, you decide to look at closeout, previous model Macbook Pro's with the matte screen. The price is great, but then you remember, that GT8600 card is supposedly faulty.

GOTCHA!

 

[Ironic]

I took the MBA I posted pictures of which earlier to the Apple store and the salesman "specialist" was and he said "I have never seen this issue before on any computer, but I remember seeing it on LCD TVs". Then he brought me a replacement, however, the store manager suggested that a genius "stupid dumba$$" takes a look at it first. After 30 minutes, the salesman came from the back and told me that everything is within specs and that I am seeing things

Apple sucks and I do not like Apple as much as used to. I have never had any issue with any of all the tons of PCs I used before from Gateway, Dell, HP, Sony, Acer, LG and even the ones I belt myself!

In addition, the whites are YELLOW on my MBA screen and they noticed that also, but they tried to calibrate it to convince me that there is nothing wrong with it even though that I compared it to two MBAs in the sore (rev A & rev B) and both had the same model and manufacturing date and yet they refused to replace it and said that it is within specs.

I also found out that the revA had the save screen as the revB and showed the guys at the store the flickering test compared to a white MB and they were telling me this is NORMAL with LEDs LOOOOOOOOOOL.

Apple employees are worse than McDonald's fryers and they no nothing about their products.

Now an Apple fanboy will come here and try to attack me and say that NOT all Apple employees are like that, well that is correct that NOT all are bunch of jerks, yet they do not know anything about the issues that the consumers are facing and they always pretend that there is nothing wrong with our machines as if we are on drugs

I will get rid of this revB MBA and never by an till they fix all their inner issues so they can fix their machines and produce something useable. This AIR is giving me headache every time I try to read something on this sucking striped screen.

As too the yellowing seems like i saw that too after the update, it took me 5 minutes to change it back to white, now its fine.

 

[sychee]

As too the yellowing seems like i saw that too after the update, it took me 5 minutes to change it back to white, now its fine.

What is your color setting? Pls share your color profile. Thanks.

 

[Ironic]

What is your color setting? Pls share your color profile. Thanks.

I posted it on one of the line threads already.

 

[The Toddfather]

...ps. mod, could you pls delete all the posts stating again and again that there are no issues? and maybe you could ask the people to stay away from this thread. I ingnored them until now but I am getting sick of arguing....

Actually someone asked for "those who don't have lines" to post pics to prove it. If honesty offends you, let me be the first to apologize.

 

[davnee]

Honestly people. If you see the lines, or see flickering... just give up on the Air.
It's my assertion that the way 'some' LCD's are made, 'some' people will notice those things. Maybe another screen that has a different refresh rate or pixel density won't bother you, but it WILL bother someone else.

Actually I did give up on the Air. But these "in spec" Apple apologias crack me up. We're talking about a $2,500 machine. A screen that causes headaches in a significant number of customers (not to mention looks like parchment paper) is not just the product of being an LCD. My LCD TV sure as heck doesn't make me sick or look like muddied crap from any viewing distance.

 

[Ironic]

I Love my MBA and would not trade it for anything(unless the new iMacs have a amazing design)