Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MBP display goes nuts

Am3822

Am3822

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 16, 2006
424
0
Groningen, The Netherlands
I was minding my own business, running matlab and plotting some stuff when suddenly this happens:



The display goes all jumbled (though I could still take the screenshots) and I had to turn the machine off.
 
Looks like maybe the graphics card could be going or the display itself. I'd say it's worth getting looked at asap.
 
I had something similar with my last MBP and was told that it was definitely a hardware issue ... most likely a faulty video card.

How old is your MBP?
 
I have that issue too. It's happened randomly, about a dozen times, since I got my new Penryn MBP in March. It only seemed to occur when I woke it up from sleep, and I'd have to do a hard shutdown and then restart to get things back to normal.

Fortunately for me, it occurred at the Genius Bar while I was there to have a completely different problem checked out. Figuring it was the graphics card, they ordered a new logic board for me, and I've since had it replaced. Picked up my repaired machine on Wednesday and everything seemed to be OK.

Then, I had another unrelated problem requiring me to return to the Apple store this morning. Voila! There it was again. Scrambled display and all that. The guy helping me was one of the two geniuses who saw the problem the first time. When I told him I bought the computer brand new in March, he said "that's not right, can I offer you a new computer?". New MBP is on order and should be in next week.

If you've got a new MBP, show your screen shot at the Apple Store, tell them my story and request a replacement.

Good luck!
 
I had something similar to that happen to me, literally a week ago. Of course, it was followed up with kernal panics and the computer was completely unusable. I can only guess that the graphics card died, but I had to have my logic board replaced.

June 07 SR MBP
 
I have a FEB 08 MBP (15.4"/2.4GHz/2GB). I think that this is the first time I've seen it happen on my machine, though there may have been earlier small-scale cases. I've tried to reproduce the problem, using the same application, but nothing has happened.

I'll definitely email the screen capture + pictures to the reseller I've purchased the mac from.
 
I have had similar problems with the aperture trial. Only with it. I spent one hour playing a QuakeSomething demo and nothing happened. Nothing happened with other programs doing a heavy use of the graphics subsystem.

Now I do not think it is a hardware problem (I used to think that). It is definitely a software problem that clearly shows how poor mem protection mechanisms are in MacOS kernel and, in particular, with the current implementation of graphics drivers (do you have a nVidia card?).

thistle
 
Since this is the Feb 08 revision, yes, I have the nVidia card (256M vram).

One odd thing is that although I had an external monitor plugged in at the time, only the main display became corrupted.
 
Am3822 said:
Since this is the Feb 08 revision, yes, I have the nVidia card (256M vram).
Click to expand...

I have the same card. Current drivers are bad, very bad. But I am not a technician so do not trust what I say.

The screenshot you show, similar to the one I posted weeks ago, is a classic of poor drivers: memory access on GPU does not offer any protection.

I used to get a lot of these when I started playing with linux and graphics configurations.

thistle
 
Am3822 said:
If it's a matter of a poorly coded driver, how come the other display remained fine?
Click to expand...

Repeat: I do not have any Truth. As I said, I only think it is a software problem. I would bet on it a maximum of 10 euro, nothing more.

Anyway, when using two monitors, graphics memory is split between the two. Corruption in one of the two parts does not affect the other.

I think that if it were a hardware problem, the entire screen (not just windows) would have been affected. And in both the monitors.

But you created a doubt in me. Were you in mirror mode?

thistle
 
Had a similar issue. Depending if your warrantee is coming close, just have it looked at to be safe. (Do it through Apple!)
 
I was not in mirror mode. The main display was at 1440X900 and the second one at 1280X760 (or something similar).

You do have a point there, about the corruption of the entire screen vs. corruption of the active window. I guess it's reasonable to assume that a hardware malfunction would not be so neatly delineated.
 
I am not sure whether or not in mirror mode the memory is split (I'd dare to say it isn't, in that case my previous messages would have been wrong).

But yes, in your case the memory was split and that explains why windows in one of the two monitors were fine.

thistle
 
I've recently had a few graphic glitches. They occured randomly, and were only visible for about 0.25 seconds. Will it get much worse over time?
 
ilifecomputer said:
Dell just released an update to the broken nvidia problem:
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/07/25/nvidia-gpu-update-for-dell-laptop-owners.aspx

The message solidifies information that the 8600m is also affected by this material failure. Some of the systems listed as affected (including the Vostro 1710, which has an optional 8600 as its only discrete option), have the card and I think we now have reason to be concerned. So, apple, what's going to happen?
Click to expand...

Sweet...when is Apple gonna say something?
 
ilifecomputer said:
Dell just released an update to the broken nvidia problem:
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/07/25/nvidia-gpu-update-for-dell-laptop-owners.aspx

The message solidifies information that the 8600m is also affected by this material failure. Some of the systems listed as affected (including the Vostro 1710, which has an optional 8600 as its only discrete option), have the card and I think we now have reason to be concerned. So, apple, what's going to happen?
Click to expand...

So Apple will probably put out a new EFI update to fix this?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back