Late 2008 MacBook screen issues

[Paquis]

I have a Late 2008 MacBook with 8GB of memory installed and a 500GB hard drive I installed last year. Over the 5 years I have owned it, this computer has received pretty heavy use and has been lugged all over the place.

The problem is with the screen. When I start the machine, black colors have a red pixelly 'shadow' to them, Finder alternates blue and white lines and I get a turquoisy blue on a number of other screens. I have installed no new programs or hardware int he last 10 months.

I have played with the colors but it doesn't really fix the problem.

Other than that, the MacBook works fine and I can access all my programs as well as the internet. However, the screen problems make programs such as Photoshop effectively unusable.

Is this my screen beginning to fail after 5 years of heavy use or is there a fix that I am unaware of?

 

[brdeveloper]

I have a Late 2008 MacBook with 8GB of memory installed and a 500GB hard drive I installed last year. Over the 5 years I have owned it, this computer has received pretty heavy use and has been lugged all over the place.

The problem is with the screen. When I start the machine, black colors have a red pixelly 'shadow' to them, Finder alternates blue and white lines and I get a turquoisy blue on a number of other screens. I have installed no new programs or hardware int he last 10 months.

I have played with the colors but it doesn't really fix the problem.

Other than that, the MacBook works fine and I can access all my programs as well as the internet. However, the screen problems make programs such as Photoshop effectively unusable.

Is this my screen beginning to fail after 5 years of heavy use or is there a fix that I am unaware of?

If the color problem happens with external displays it can have something to do with video card's BGA soldering. There are tutorials for re-soldering at home applying some kind of heating over the video's IC, but I would take it to a laptop repair shop. They'll charge you around $100-200, but at least you'll get some kind of warranty. Other possibility is a problem with connectors.