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Macbook Pro Screen Fading out. Anyone else seen this before?

H

henhowc

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 12, 2007
239
3
Los Angeles, CA
Hey Guys,

NOT A BRIGHTNESS ISSUE. Had to get that out...before anyone responded. lol

I've started to have a problem with my 2007 SR MBP. The screen starts to gradually fade out to this purplish color gray color. Most of the time it occurs when I open the lid and the computer wakes up from sleep or is powered on. Everything on the screen gets "washed away" although I know things are still working because the brightness and volume controls still work.

Tapping the lid for a bit behind the LCD seems to "shake" the screen back to its normal state. However, sometimes it'll go right back to the fading out behavior.

Unfortunately I don't have anything to capture it on video at the moment. I've taken pics but still shots don't really capture the problem well. Most of you would probably think its just a pic of my MBP with a boring background. :D And since I can't reproduce the problem on demand I have yet to take it in for an Apple Store. The best thing I could find online was the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWIc8Vf7QBE&feature=channel_page

My screen looks like its doing something similar to the above Youtube video. Although it has nothing to do with an external monitor. Anyone else experience this problem before?
 
is there a white loading bar running accross the bottom where the MacBookPro logo is?

I can replicate that, cause the fade out look, is what happens if the system has gone to sleep and someone removed the battery. When you try to power up, it'll load the memory content from the disk.

Or.. is your doing that ALL the time?
 
UlraNEO* i think your spot on here.

the problem sounds like the computer is going into "Deep Sleep" - which is where the contents of the RAM are saved to the hard drive so that the computer can return to its original state when the battery went fully flat.

it is likely that this setting could have been changed to make it "deep sleep" every time the computer is put into sleep.

the widget "Deep Sleep" will let you change the settings (by hitting the "i" button once you install it).

http://deepsleep.free.fr/
 
Ov3rlord Falc0r said:
Wait, so what exactly is "deep sleep"? I don't have this problem but I'm quite curious now! lol :eek:
Click to expand...

i briefly explained it above. it is mainly used automatically by the computer when the battery is about to go completely flat (i.e. have zero power left - normally when the computer turns itself off it still has power left to maintain RAM contents for a day or so).

it will save the contents of the RAM to the hard drive, when you power the computer back up by plugging it into the powerpoint it recalls the RAM and your computer will be usable from EXACTLY the same point you left it. you wont have to log in again, you wont have to open up the safari tabs + word documents.. because its all saved for you :)

the widget i linked to lets you change what sleep mode you want to use (quick sleep, safe sleep, deep sleep).
quick sleep - doesnt save RAM, just puts the computer to sleep normally
safe sleep - saves RAM contents but keeps the RAM powered, sort of a dual safety thing i guess
deep sleep - saves RAM and turns off the computer, i use this method when i want to save battery power, normal sleep will chew about 10% of battery per night.

deep sleep for mac is the equivalent to "hibernate' for windows, in most aspects.
 
I know what deep sleep is and I'm sure its not that. It does not have the loading bar across the bottom and its not a uniform gray screen (there's some vertical bars). Here are pics of what it ends up looking like. In succession:

photo.jpg

photo2.jpg

photo3.jpg


I'm wondering if its a loose cable or something since the "tapping" of the lid sometimes fixes it.
 
henhowc said:
I know what deep sleep is and I'm sure its not that. It does not have the loading bar across the bottom and its not a uniform gray screen (there's some vertical bars). Here are pics of what it ends up looking like. In succession:

photo.jpg

photo2.jpg

photo3.jpg


I'm wondering if its a loose cable or something since the "tapping" of the lid sometimes fixes it.
Click to expand...

oh, you have an 8600 GPU?? that could be the error then, take it to the apple store asap.! they are known for their problems and a lot of them called back.
 
I have something like that going on. My professor told me it's probably a loose wire under the display, but I don't really know.

My current (and hopefully, temporary) remedy for it is a small binder clip. What I recognized is that when I push the sides of the screen down (the 1/2 inch wide aluminum border) that the screen would come automatically back into focus and be perfectly fine. I just use a binder clip to hold the aluminum in place since I guess it's a little bent. Clip it on where the vertical bar shows up.
 
DoFoT9 said:
oh, you have an 8600 GPU?? thats the error then, take it to the apple store asap.! they are known for their problems and a lot of them called back.
Click to expand...

That was my first thought too...just seemed weird that I could "fix" the problem with the tapping. From what I read in the 8600m thread, the graphics corruption would require a reboot just to get the screen viewable again.
 
amabo said:
I have something like that going on. My professor told me it's probably a loose wire under the display, but I don't really know.

My current (and hopefully, temporary) remedy for it is a small binder clip. What I recognized is that when I push the sides of the screen down (the 1/2 inch wide aluminum border) that the screen would come automatically back into focus and be perfectly fine. I just use a binder clip to hold the aluminum in place since I guess it's a little bent. Clip it on where the vertical bar shows up.
Click to expand...

The vertical bars are everywhere though...(not to mention aren't consistent) :D
 
Looks like a loose or damaged cable to me.

Take it apart and check connections or take it to Apple.

Good luck.
 
Graphics card is having issues, and seeing about every 8600 cards have that issue, I'd say yours is having issues!
 
Anyhow the genius submitted the following as the issue:

Issue Description: distorted/garbled video on LCD, pinching the LH side makes image blur or garble more
Proposed Resolution: replace LCD and LVDS/ test, replace MLB if necessary, but test with NVIDIA test prior.

UrFatMom said:
Graphics card is having issues, and seeing about every 8600 cards have that issue, I'd say yours is having issues!
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure its not the GPU as tapping/pinching the LCD shouldn't be able to fix a hardware issue. External monitor displays just fine. I could be wrong though as they noted that they are going to perform the Nvidia test as well. We'll see in 3-5 days. I'm hoping they replace both the LCD and motherboard anyways. I'm getting tired of having to bring this sucker in every 6 months. :p
 
Sorry to revive this old thread, but did you ever find a solution to the problem? I have a computer that is doing the exact same thing, and it started after the hinges became loose. I opened the computer up and tightened the hinge screws, fixing the hinge problem, but the fading to gray is still there. It doesn't seem like it's a problem with the logic board because tapping the screen fixes it, so it's gotta be either somewhere in the hinge or the display itself.
 
Exactly the same issue here...loose hinges now screen intermittently fades

tightened screws on the hinges and that fixed the wobbly screen but the screen still fades. It can be fixed temporarily by torquing the sides of the screen. Could it be the cable that runs next to the hinge? (of course it could be!)
Has anyone ever replaced that cable and fixed this problem? I am not even sure if that cable is a separate part.

Thanks.
 
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