MacBook Pro display flickering with red/green pixels

[avernet]

Sometimes the LCD display goes into this mode where in some areas you see red and green pixels flashing. I have taken a few pictures, which obviously don't render the flashing effect, but give you an idea of what it looks like:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/avernet/sets/72157623725239284/show/

• This is a MacBook Pro pre-unibody
• The graphic card is an ATI Radeon X1600
• I ran the TechTool Deluxe tool to test the video RAM (and everything else), but it didn't detect anything wrong
• I have never seen this when the laptop is connected to an external monitor
• This doesn't happen that often; say 1 times out of 10, usually after the laptop comes out from sleep. The issue stays for a few minutes and then goes away until next time, so I am unlikely to have the problem when I go to Apple Store for service
• My warranty expires 10 days from now, so I am pretty eager to find a solution to this problem

Is this a known issue? Any recommendation on how to solve this?

Alex

 

[kousuke18]

Looks like the video card is about to die. I suggest you bring it to a apple store, i'm sure they will have a way to test it.

 

[iLog.Genius]

Looks like the GPU is about to go. By any chance, do you find your MacBook Pro warmer than usual? If I remember correctly, the ATI X1600 had problems with cooling. If you're comfortable with hardware, you might want to clean the fans and see if anything changes but right now it looks like the GPU is gone.

 

[avernet]

@kousuke18, yes, looks like it. I took an appointment for tomorrow morning, and will post a follow-up.

@iLog.Genius, not impossible, but somehow I doubt that this is a heating problem as it happens mostly just after I turn the laptop on, typically after it has been off for the whole night. So if it is related to heat, it could be the other way around: it happens when the laptop is not warm enough.

Thank you guys for the feedback!

Alex

 

[iLog.Genius]

@kousuke18, yes, looks like it. I took an appointment for tomorrow morning, and will post a follow-up.

@iLog.Genius, not impossible, but somehow I doubt that this is a heating problem as it happens mostly just after I turn the laptop on, typically after it has been off for the whole night. So if it is related to heat, it could be the other way around: it happens when the laptop is not warm enough.

Thank you guys for the feedback!

Alex

Yeah, most likely not related to heat but just something to look into if it was applicable but seeing how it's happening on bootup where temperatures would be relatively cool, the GPU but be going.

 

[avernet]

I took the laptop to an Apple Store, even though I could not reproduce the problem there, they believed me and took the laptop in for service. I was told that I should get it back in 5 to 7 days. So far so good!

Alex

 

[teej808]

I am having the same thing happen

Could you tell me what Apple did to fix it, Please.

 

[avernet]

@teej808,

Very simple: I took the laptop to an Apple Store and they replaced the motherboard (which they like to call logic board). I had no problem whosoever since then.

Alex @avernet