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Late 2008 MacBook Pro screen went color crazy then black on reboot

E

ezsobre

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 18, 2007
49
2
Hi. I've got a late 2008 mb pro running latest version of 10.8. I stepped away for a few minutes when I came back the screen was flickering I many colors. On reboot it stays black, but you can hear the hard disk cycle and the white light in front lights up. The caps lock button works. It seems the computer itself minus the screen is functional. I tried the usual tricks, pram, safe mode, unplugging, pulling the battery, but the screen stays black. Any suggestions? I have an appointment tomorrow to get it looked at. Many thanks.

UPDATE--I let it rest for ten minutes then started up again. The screen was grayish with rainbow lines running vertically on three places, as in attached photo.
 

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Last edited:
ezsobre said:
Hi. I've got a late 2008 mb pro running latest version of 10.8. I stepped away for a few minutes when I came back the screen was flickering I many colors. On reboot it stays black, but you can hear the hard disk cycle and the white light in front lights up. The caps lock button works. It seems the computer itself minus the screen is functional. I tried the usual tricks, pram, safe mode, unplugging, pulling the battery, but the screen stays black. Any suggestions? I have an appointment tomorrow to get it looked at. Many thanks.

UPDATE--I let it rest for ten minutes then started up again. The screen was grayish with rainbow lines running vertically on three places, as in attached photo.
Click to expand...
Looks like the LCD went bad or more likely the LVDS (display data) cable. Will likely need a new screen assembly if apple is going to fix it, probably around $200.

Does it work on an external monitor?
 
Ok I've got it connected to an external monitor. That works.
 
Last edited:
ezsobre said:
Ok I've got it connected to an external monitor. That works.
Click to expand...

Then it's not your graphics card :) (thats a good thing!). Hopefully at this point it's just the cable thats broken, not the backlighting circuitry. If you shine a flashlight on the screen, can you see some of the lines you posted on the first pic? Or is the display just blank?

Either way, Apple should look at it. I can't quote you a repair though, but it's *probably* going to be around $200-300 from apple.
 
The display is just dark. It did that rainbow lines thing last night but hasn't done so since
 
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