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

Screen Static on a Macbook

Z

Zuwxiv

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 30, 2007
31
0
I've had these strange bars and what appears like static on my screen every once in a while. I have a Santa Rosa macbook, software up to date - the only problem it's had was some power issue.

(The green/orange light rarely shows up on the charger; one day, it wouldn't turn on at all. Took it in to the store, they fixed it - something related to the power input. Works fine now, still doesn't always show the green/orange light on the charger.)

Anyway, here's some pictures of what it looks like. Has anyone seen this before? I'm using screencapping, so it's not something external.

This only happens once in a while, it will plague almost any open programs. PDF's, documents, and webpages seem particularly prone to getting glitched. Any suggestions would be appreciated; I just want to find out what might be wrong.

(I'm thinking that, even if it is something that Apple should fix, I might want to wait until June... Just in case there's another Macbook revision. ;) )

picture6eb5.png

That, believe it or not, is System Preferences during one of the glitches. I think it looks awesome, but I'd prefer it to be normal...

picture7sh1.png

Software up to date, but it kind of can spread across the screen.
 
dude i have this same problem. As you said it does not happen ALL THE TIME. But it does happen! Id love to find out what the issue is, i plan on taking it up to the apple store and see what they have to say.

your pictures made it easyer for me to explain to folks!

hope we can resolve this
 
iv done more searches on google. and apperently this fixes the issue.

heres a quote from the apple forum i found

Is secure virtual memory turned on? If so, turn it off.

I had this on two MacBooks with low RAM and secure virtual memory turned on. If you do searches on apple's forums you'll see that it's been encountered by lot of people using MacBooks and Mac Minis.

For me, turning off secure virtual memory fixed it. Apparently adding RAM will also make it go away.

go to security and turn off secure virtual memory. Im going to hope for the best. Apperently when there is to much ram being used, it will bite into the graphic memory. Which is strange because i have 4gb of ram.. but im hopeing this resolves the issue. i usually keep my comp on for a long time, and im running almost constantly at 3gb of ram being used. So maybe thats an issue. hopefully this clears it up.
 
I don't have secure virtual memory turned on, but thanks anyway. That does sound like it could help for some people.

I'm running a blackbook 2.2GHz with 2GB RAM - short of the 4GB model, it was top of the line Santa Rosa. I do have it on for extended periods of time - uptime is almost 5 days now (iStat menu rocks). CPU at 50 Celsius (it's a little chilly here, I'll note if it's unusually high next time I get the glitches) and RAM stats: 337MB wired, 951MB active, 482MB inactive, 237MB free. A couple light applications open.

I've also made a thread on Apple Support Discussion about this issue.

My battery seems to be pretty good, too. I lost my charger (there goes 80 bucks back to apple!) and had to do with 35% battery for two hour-long lectures at college. After both lectures, it was at 13% or so. That was wifi off, bluetooth off, screen backlight off when not in use, so I was pushing it real hard, but by those stats a fully charged battery could give me just shy of nine hours if I really had to push it.

Anyway, thanks for the input guys!
 
well the "fix" that iv found, has not worked! Its doing it again. Not as bad. im editing some video on imovie. since it seems to be continueing. i do think i'll pay a viset to the apple store and see what they can do
 
iv been doing some more researching.

it appears people have resetted their PMU, and even resetting the VRAM might even help. Iv done both ( the ram reset was for another issue, but resetting the PMU could be a good thing!)

Iv not had an issue thus far since doing it. But iv been shutting down more often. Iv had imovie opened for a good 4 hours editing stuff, while doing 400 differant tasks and nothing happened yet.. so i wonder if that fixed it.

I am giving this shut down the computer every night or every other night thing a try. then in a week im going to try to sleep it for a week and see if i get those issues because THATS when i get the issues. If i do get them, i will call apple back and they'll have to fix the problem.
 
I guess i'll post my story here, to help.

I eventually sent in my macbook to applecare with screen shots of the glitch.

4 days later my mac arrived at my house and they replaced: PCBA,MLB,BETTER,K36.

Almost 7days after getting the macbook back i have had zero issues! Before this logic board fix i couldnt go longer then 3 days without having to restart my computer because of the glitch.

Hope you guys can get your glitch fixed, i cant explain how happy i am atm!

take care, just wanted to give you guys and update
 
Display

I had a similar problem and the Apple store told me was that the display had failed and would need replacing. I could not afford to get this done at the time so I went home and got around the problem by moving my windows to other parts of the screen. One day I decided the screen was all covered in finger marks so I cleaned it with some spectacle screen wipes. A bit like a KFC cleaning wipe but for glasses. The interference miraculously vanished. I have had this problem recur and I just clean the screen with an anti static wipe and it's all okay again.
 
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