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thebigmeowski

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 8, 2013
28
0
I wasnt doing anything special, just browsing around the web when this happened. My screen went very bright and it inverted the colors. The shortcut for inverting colors does not work. Have no idea why and how to fix it, but it got me really scared.
 

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DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,404
4,378
Delaware
If you restart to your Recovery partition, do you still have the washed-out screen? (Restart, holding Command-R)
 

thebigmeowski

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 8, 2013
28
0
Yes! Oh my god does it mean it's really a hardware problem?! I haven't done anything. It's retina early 2013, no problems so far.
 

thebigmeowski

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 8, 2013
28
0
How is it possible? It was so sudden it looked like something just switched by itself or was turned off; no weird things; it just changed all of a sudden...:( anything else I can try?

Edit: colors are back again, but it's still bright as hell.
 

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DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,404
4,378
Delaware
Yes, it sounds like a hardware failure.

You can take in for service, Apple should fix you up.

Just curious, last time I saw something like that occur some time after a liquid spill.
Strangely, that one took several weeks to appear, but it was an older model MacBook.
 

thebigmeowski

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 8, 2013
28
0
Yes, it sounds like a hardware failure.

You can take in for service, Apple should fix you up.

Just curious, last time I saw something like that occur some time after a liquid spill.
Strangely, that one took several weeks to appear, but it was an older model MacBook.

A liquid spill? On the screen? Well now I started to freak out maybe I was using to much stuff to clean the LCD, however I don't think its possible is it... I guess it is a hardware thing. Now that the colors are back I see ghost images of my long closed chrome tabs.
 

DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,404
4,378
Delaware
Not too likely that you had liquid in the screen itself.

But, the video, and the backlight power (which gives the screen brightness) all come from the logic board - which is pretty much all under the keyboard area. That area, which, of course, you are always touching, tends to be a vulnerable environment for many laptops.

You said the video is near normal, but still too bright? Is there any change as you turn the brightness down (should be f1?) The screen should go completely black when the brightness is off.

Take it in for service.
 

thebigmeowski

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 8, 2013
28
0
There is a difference when I adjust the brightness with f1-f2 however you can tell it's too bright either way; the colors are just off because of this "whiteness". The worst thing, I found this on YouTube and my screen does look like that only it doesn't change for the better when I try to push the edges of it. Well, I get it's hardware problem, but it really bugs me how could it happen, especially that it seems to be so random and yet I ask myself what did I do exactly. I hope they will fix it asap, howver i live outside the US and I fear it won't be so easy after all...
Thank you guys for your immediate help it means a lot:) and sorry for my chaotic responses I guess I was initially in quite a shock.
 

DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,404
4,378
Delaware
If you have Apple support in your country, you could certainly call Apple. They may have an option to ship it for service…

You didn't say if you have tried the various hardware resets…
Try both the PRAM and SMC resets. That Youtube video that you linked showed that some folks used a simple reset to get back to normal. It just takes a couple of minutes to do both, and it either helps, or no change...
 

thebigmeowski

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 8, 2013
28
0
If you have Apple support in your country, you could certainly call Apple. They may have an option to ship it for service…

You didn't say if you have tried the various hardware resets…
Try both the PRAM and SMC resets. That Youtube video that you linked showed that some folks used a simple reset to get back to normal. It just takes a couple of minutes to do both, and it either helps, or no change...

I forgot to mention in my last post, reducing brightness to minimum work as expected; the screen is completely black.
Yep, I have to wait till Monday and I'm calling them. I guess my last hope it's a software problem disappeared just now, because there's ghosting all over the place. It's really scary to be honest. Does anyone know what could cause such a thing in the first place? The only thing I can think of is that I travel with it, so maybe it could have been pushed too much of something? Ehh, now it's just me trying to think of a reason for all this...

Resetting PRAM (a few times) + SMC was actually the first thing I did. It helped with the inverted color schemes, but that's it. I guess I can restore it to factory settings, but I feel like it would just confirm the inevitable.


EDIT: apart from pram and smc is there anything else I can do to check? After performing them a few times I actually can see a difference. There's still a lot of white, colors are a bit off, no black at all, everything looks a bit washed out, yet I can see everything a lot more clearly than before (it used to look as if I was having a fog on my screen :O). However, I'm very unsure about the ghosting. Every window opened looks transparent to some extent showing other apps that are open; doesn't matter if they are minimised.
I took a photo, but I'm not sure it really shows...But then I can't really see, because even the photo looks a bit transparent ;o.
 

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DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,404
4,378
Delaware
I see you are using an appearance theme of some kind. Be sure to try removing (uninstalling) that theme completely, or setting your system appearance to defaults.
However, as you said booting to the Recovery partition still showed the same problem, then I don't expect that to help either - but you never know, software that affects the full appearance might be causing unintended issues, too.
The image retention (ghosting) that you see now is likely from your screen being over-driven. That will dissipate if you remove power, and let your MBPro sit powered OFF for 24 - 48 hours.

Did you contact AppleCare yet?
 

thebigmeowski

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 8, 2013
28
0
I see you are using an appearance theme of some kind. Be sure to try removing (uninstalling) that theme completely, or setting your system appearance to defaults.
However, as you said booting to the Recovery partition still showed the same problem, then I don't expect that to help either - but you never know, software that affects the full appearance might be causing unintended issues, too.
The image retention (ghosting) that you see now is likely from your screen being over-driven. That will dissipate if you remove power, and let your MBPro sit powered OFF for 24 - 48 hours.

Did you contact AppleCare yet?

Hmm, you probably mean my icons, am I right? Actually it's not a theme, I just changed the icons of some apps, that's all ;). Either way, I will remove them.

Earlier today, I noticed the screen started going back to normal (or I should say the blacks started to be more black than greyish), but now it's the same mess again. I will follow your advice and let it rest for 24 hours at least :D.

Unfortunately, there are no Apple Stores near me, only these 'Premium resellers' I can technically go to and ask, butI feel it would be better to contact Apple first? (since I purchased the computer via their Online Store).
It's Sunday afternoon for me here, but I'll call them first thing in the morning.

Again, DeltaMac thank you so much for your help, I must have been asking the most stupid questions and each time you answer me with such patience and understanding! Seriously, it means the world.
 

DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,404
4,378
Delaware
Something else I thought about….
Go to your System Preferences/Universal Access ("seeing" prefs), and make sure that "Enhance Contrast" is all the way to "Normal"
that's the Accessibility pane in 10.8 or newer.
 
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