Screen Goes White, Negative, Then Black

[colin-walker]

I have a MacBook that's about 3 years old. Recently, the screen has begun to behave erratically.

At random times, the image will slowly become grainy, and then fade to white. Starting from the center and working outwards, the white image then becomes a negative. Finally, the negative image slowly fades to black.

During this process, I can't move the cursor or interact with any applications. After a minute or so, the black screen will suddenly resolve itself and return to normal.

This has happened to me a number of times while running OSX, but also while running Windows XP through bootcamp.

 

[Detrius]

Sounds like the lava lamp thing some LCDs do when they fail. If you had an external monitor connected, you'd see the computer is running just fine the whole time.

 

[colin-walker]

That's what it looks like. I've noticed that sound continues normally while this is happening, even though the cursor and all visuals become unresponsive.

I'm guessing this is a permanent problem, but do you know of anything I can do to limit it? So far, it appears to occur most frequently when the computer is coming out of sleep.

 

[Detrius]

Unfortunately, it's too machine-specific. Try pinching around the edges of the LCD. You may make it worse, or you may make it better. If it changes at all, it's definitely the LCD. Otherwise, there's still the incredibly slim chance it's the LVDS cable.

(and by "edges", I mean the metal frame part that you can't see--not the visible liquid crystal part)