Odd LCD Backlight Behavior

[smeg36]

I just got a replacement MacBook Pro from Apple. I got a new one that had issues, and they sent a replacement. Everything seems to be working great on the new one, except I now have some odd behavior with the LCD backlight. If I leave the computer running, and turn the backlight all the way down to off, it will turn itself back on to the lowest brightness after a couple minutes. So it will turn off for a couple minutes, turn itself back on, then it will timeout and turn itself back off again. Any idea why this could be happening? Very strange.

 

[sporadicMotion]

I just got a replacement MacBook Pro from Apple. I got a new one that had issues, and they sent a replacement. Everything seems to be working great on the new one, except I now have some odd behavior with the LCD backlight. If I leave the computer running, and turn the backlight all the way down to off, it will turn itself back on to the lowest brightness after a couple minutes. So it will turn off for a couple minutes, turn itself back on, then it will timeout and turn itself back off again. Any idea why this could be happening? Very strange.

Have you turned off the auto adjust brightness option in the display settings?

 

[smeg36]

Have you turned off the auto adjust brightness option in the display settings?

No, it's turned on. But I've had that turned on with my previous 2 MacBook Pros, and if I manually turned the backlight off it stayed off.

 

[kidelnino]

I just got a replacement MacBook Pro from Apple. I got a new one that had issues, and they sent a replacement. Everything seems to be working great on the new one, except I now have some odd behavior with the LCD backlight. If I leave the computer running, and turn the backlight all the way down to off, it will turn itself back on to the lowest brightness after a couple minutes. So it will turn off for a couple minutes, turn itself back on, then it will timeout and turn itself back off again. Any idea why this could be happening? Very strange.

Did you unstick the automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes?

 

[smeg36]

I just tried it with that unchecked. It still happens. I've also noticed the machine is overall more slugish. It'll give more beachballs than the previous machine that was replaced did. But it's the exact same hardware with the same hard drive swapped directly in.

 

[sporadicMotion]

I just tried it with that unchecked. It still happens. I've also noticed the machine is overall more slugish. It'll give more beachballs than the previous machine that was replaced did. But it's the exact same hardware with the same hard drive swapped directly in.

can you post your console output?

 

[smeg36]

Here's the .log file. It seems like there's a problem with my new printer's software that I got with the new MacBook Pro. I'm going to reinstall the printer software and see if that fixes the error. But would that be causing this problem? Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[sporadicMotion]

Here's the .log file. It seems like there's a problem with my new printer's software that I got with the new MacBook Pro. I'm going to reinstall the printer software and see if that fixes the error. But would that be causing this problem? Thanks for the help everyone.

K, start by removing your lexmark drivers and parallels. When you're done, repair your disk permissions. Try that to start and report back.

 

[smeg36]

Ok, I uninstalled both, and the problem still occurs. I had the console open when the problem happened, and the message that coincided with the problem is this:

7/15/11 9:40:59 AM	com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[92]	(com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-[I]MYNAME[/I]@me.com-SharedServices[121]) Exited with exit code: 1

I don't have an @me.com email address though. To add to the oddity, if I press a button on the keyboard the screen will turn off again.

Edit-I just tried again, and this time no error coincided in the console with the issue happening.

Double Edit-Forgot to reboot after repairing disk permissions. The problem seems to be fixed. Now, how do I install my printer and parallels without causing more error logs in the Console?

 

[sporadicMotion]

Ok, I uninstalled both, and the problem still occurs. I had the console open when the problem happened, and the message that coincided with the problem is this:

7/15/11 9:40:59 AM	com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[92]	(com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-[I]MYNAME[/I]@me.com-SharedServices[121]) Exited with exit code: 1

I don't have an @me.com email address though. To add to the oddity, if I press a button on the keyboard the screen will turn off again.

Edit-I just tried again, and this time no error coincided in the console with the issue happening.

Double Edit-Forgot to reboot after repairing disk permissions. The problem seems to be fixed. Now, how do I install my printer and parallels without causing more error logs in the Console?

Just try one at a time with a restart in between. They should be fine now... but say something if it's not!

 

[smeg36]

Just try one at a time with a restart in between. They should be fine now... but say something if it's not!

Thanks for helping me figure this out. The problem reappeared after installing Parallels. So that seems to be the problem. There's no logs for Parallels in Console though. There aren't any error logs at all anymore. It isn't a huge deal, but is bugging me anyhow.

 

[nickcao]

i have the same problem, i dont have Parallels in my mbp.

 

[sporadicMotion]

Thanks for helping me figure this out. The problem reappeared after installing Parallels. So that seems to be the problem. There's no logs for Parallels in Console though. There aren't any error logs at all anymore. It isn't a huge deal, but is bugging me anyhow.

Have you tried Fusion? I prefer it to Parallels personally. As far as the console goes, make sure you have one of the sub categories selected to see any output.

 

[nickcao]

update i think everytime you use discrete graph card will cause the problem.

ps. im using 2011 15' hi end mbp

 

[sporadicMotion]

update i think everytime you use discrete graph card will cause the problem.

ps. im using 2011 15' hi end mbp

Anything's possible. Can you post your console output? Lets find out Other applications can do that as well, it doesn't necessarily have to be Parallels.

 

[nickcao]

update: i think i found the fault app.
after i quit gfxCardStatus, everything going fine.

update again:
think im wrong, still got the problem, when i running discrete graph card.

 

[nickcao]

Anything's possible. Can you post your console output? Lets find out Other applications can do that as well, it doesn't necessarily have to be Parallels.

 11-7-16 * ** *02:59:25	gfxCardStatus[3545]	The following notification has been triggered:
NSConcreteNotification 0x116300350 {name = NSApplicationDidChangeScreenParametersNotification; object = <NSApplication: 0x10021b0c0>}
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:25	gfxCardStatus[3545]	getMuxState was successful (count=1, value=0x00000001).
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:25	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Updating status...
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:25	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Intel HD Graphics 3000 in use. Sweet deal! More battery life.
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:25	[0x0-0x235235].com.apple.Console[3478]	Sat Jul 16 02:59:25 Liu-CAOmatoMacBook-Pro.local Console[3478] <Error>: kCGErrorFailure: _CGSLockWindow: Cannot synchronize window backing surface
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:25	[0x0-0x235235].com.apple.Console[3478]	Sat Jul 16 02:59:25 Liu-CAOmatoMacBook-Pro.local Console[3478] <Error>: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:27	gfxCardStatus[3545]	getMuxState was successful (count=1, value=0x00000001).
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:27	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Writing preferences to disk
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:27	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Successfully wrote preferences to disk.
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:11	gfxCardStatus[3545]	The following notification has been triggered:
NSConcreteNotification 0x1163007a0 {name = NSApplicationDidChangeScreenParametersNotification; object = <NSApplication: 0x10021b0c0>}
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:11	gfxCardStatus[3545]	getMuxState was successful (count=1, value=0x00000000).
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:11	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Updating status...
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:11	gfxCardStatus[3545]	AMD Radeon HD 6750M in use. Bummer! Less battery life for you.
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:11	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Updating process list...
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:13	gfxCardStatus[3545]	getMuxState was successful (count=1, value=0x00000001).
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:13	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Writing preferences to disk
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:13	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Successfully wrote preferences to disk.

 

[sporadicMotion]

 11-7-16 * ** *02:59:25	gfxCardStatus[3545]	The following notification has been triggered:
NSConcreteNotification 0x116300350 {name = NSApplicationDidChangeScreenParametersNotification; object = <NSApplication: 0x10021b0c0>}
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:25	gfxCardStatus[3545]	getMuxState was successful (count=1, value=0x00000001).
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:25	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Updating status...
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:25	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Intel HD Graphics 3000 in use. Sweet deal! More battery life.
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:25	[0x0-0x235235].com.apple.Console[3478]	Sat Jul 16 02:59:25 Liu-CAOmatoMacBook-Pro.local Console[3478] <Error>: kCGErrorFailure: _CGSLockWindow: Cannot synchronize window backing surface
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:25	[0x0-0x235235].com.apple.Console[3478]	Sat Jul 16 02:59:25 Liu-CAOmatoMacBook-Pro.local Console[3478] <Error>: kCGErrorFailure: Set a breakpoint @ CGErrorBreakpoint() to catch errors as they are logged.
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:27	gfxCardStatus[3545]	getMuxState was successful (count=1, value=0x00000001).
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:27	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Writing preferences to disk
11-7-16 * ** *02:59:27	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Successfully wrote preferences to disk.
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:11	gfxCardStatus[3545]	The following notification has been triggered:
NSConcreteNotification 0x1163007a0 {name = NSApplicationDidChangeScreenParametersNotification; object = <NSApplication: 0x10021b0c0>}
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:11	gfxCardStatus[3545]	getMuxState was successful (count=1, value=0x00000000).
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:11	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Updating status...
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:11	gfxCardStatus[3545]	AMD Radeon HD 6750M in use. Bummer! Less battery life for you.
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:11	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Updating process list...
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:13	gfxCardStatus[3545]	getMuxState was successful (count=1, value=0x00000001).
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:13	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Writing preferences to disk
11-7-16 * ** *03:00:13	gfxCardStatus[3545]	Successfully wrote preferences to disk.

Sorry, I should have been a bit more specific. If you look at the left of the console, you will see a subcategory at the top called "console messages." Click that, then

File>Save a Copy As... and upload the output file to here.

 

[nickcao]

Sorry, I should have been a bit more specific. If you look at the left of the console, you will see a subcategory at the top called "console messages." Click that, then

File>Save a Copy As... and upload the output file to here.

here you go. i clicked gfxCardStatus off and quit all app i was running, then run MplayerX again to make sure my mbp start using discrete graph card. then my macbook pro will be fine. after i start running gfxCardStatus again, the problem will show up.

thank you for all your help all the way.

 

[dkhanley]

I am having the same issue.

But in addition to this issue, after the 10.6.8 update when I use the expose to put my display to sleep (top right corner) the display wouldn't come back on after about 2 or three times in a row of doing this, but the keyboard lights up. I have to shut the lid, let it sleep, and pray my display comes back on and or push the power button, etc. to try to get the screen to come back on.

I was also experiencing battery life issues after the update to 10.6.8 but I found out the problem was a conflict with Parallels 6 and the Windows Applications folder.

Here is the thread I started on this: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1187192/