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Lines on Screen - MacBook

H

HarryVB

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 10, 2008
3
0
Hey,

This has just started happening literally tonight, and its worrying to say the least. Every now and then, it seems to be when switching between programmes, I will get these horizontal lines on the screen, that seem to made up of a programme background as opposed to solid colour (see picture). My MacBook doesn't freeze, they just occupy the screen and disappear after about 30 seconds.

However the latest lines seem to have stuck on the desktop, pictured below;

2agw1hc.png


I've read up on resetting PRAM & NVRAM, is this necessary? I desperately want to avoid any sort of data loss.

Thanks and please help,
Harry

UPDATE; Just re-booted MacBook and the lines have dissapeared, but it's not to say there not going to come back. Any insight into what causes this would be great. Thanks :)
 
Looks like video data corruption.

What model MacBook do you have and what GPU is it using? Was your MacBook running hot when this happened?

How old is your MacBook? If it starts happening more often I would call AppleCare and see what they say about it.
 
Its a 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, OS X - 10.5.4, Graphics Intel GMA X3100

Yeah my Mac was baking at the time, It had been on a while as I was processing photos. I'm guessing that didn't help! Its pretty much new, only about 4 months old (bought in May). Since I have rebooted it hasn't happened again, which I hope is a good sign.
 
OMG maybe the Intel Northbridge used crappy solder too!

This looks like video corruption due to poor cooling.

And please use tIMG tags.
 
HarryVB said:
...

However the latest lines seem to have stuck on the desktop, pictured below;

I've read up on resetting PRAM & NVRAM, is this necessary? I desperately want to avoid any sort of data loss.

Thanks and please help,
Harry

UPDATE; Just re-booted MacBook and the lines have dissapeared, but it's not to say there not going to come back. Any insight into what causes this would be great. Thanks :)
Click to expand...

I had that problem (or some similar one) a few days ago. Turning off hardware graphics acceleration using Quartz Debug caused the problem to (temporarily) go away until I quit Quartz Debug or re-enabled hardware acceleration, so I'm pretty sure the problem was the GPU. The problem disappeared after restarting and has not returned. I have no idea why; heat probably wasn't an issue. I am confused.
 
Thanks for everyone's response.

So far it hasn't happened again, and I have had no trouble booting my Mac up or waking it from sleep. Any chance it might be a one off, because of overheating? Or once you've had the lines is it always going to be an issue...
 
Constant problem

Hi,

ok I joined this site today because I came to look information of the problem described above.

I moved from Windows pc to Macbook (white) in January 2008. It had 1 GB memory and 120 GB hard drive. Bought it from authorized dealer in Hong Kong and it was the current model that was on sale at that time. I upgraded it later to 4 GB, BUT it has happened before and after the upgrade.

I ran into these screen issues since then and hoped that (and thought) that the couple of first updates from Apple that came out for these Macbooks would have dealt with this issue as they contained graphics card fixes. Now, this didn't happened. (I am surprised how often Apple has provided fixes to Os and their Macbooks and none of them to this day has removed this issue from me.)

What happens is this: I use my computer, no games played or no graphical work done. Just browsing internet, having Skype and aMSn and netnewswire open and Transmission and iTunes. Last night once again it started from corrupting the desktop image. It "cleared" when one wiped around with any open application window only to be returned while later. Then it corrupted whole Firefox window once again. And then as usual it spread to whole system making in necessary to reboot. (As side note this time first time ever the actual boot sequence stopped and I had to do hard boot by pressing the power button 8 seconds).

This has happened almost weekly ever since I bought the maschine in January 2008. I have never bothered to take it to show in Finnish Apple store as I have always hoped that "this week Apple releases a fix". I have never actually pinpointed any reason why this happens. (Havent actually looked the iStat temperatures as was talked here...And what ever the temps, I dont think it should happen anyway)

So is this something new to the boards and there is no idea what is wrong? Should I take it to Apple store where they ofcourse wont see it with their own eyes as it happens randoomly and only thing I have is screen caps.

:-(

ps. Ofcourse I should take finally action about this only two weeks before I move out of the country to a place where there is no official resellers/fixers...:-( But the last nights first time I needed hard boot broke the camels back (I have had to do hard boot several times before all of which has definetly lead me to think that there is gotta be some problem with OS X or I have seriously a monday piece of crap in my hands...)
 
mine are red

they cover the whole screen top to bottom blink when the cursor is near
and also when not. They're their when I start cold, and after I've been on

for a while. They were gone for a day then came back. I do mostly digital
imaging so it really sucks. I just bought the

Macbook 2.0 gig duo last week through gainsaver.
Now I have to pay another 50 bucks to ship it and insure it.
Of course gainsaver is completely

perplexed. I paid 25 for an
extra super duper diagnostic, over the basic free one since for the extra

bread they supposedly let it sit for 24 hours before testing it...
Ok maybe it wasnt crazy when they checked it, i also payed insurance,

another born every minute why
dint I read the friggin terms? anyhoo theres my story
 
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