Screen tearing, white boxes in Flash

[digitalpencil]

The last two days i've been experiencing some bizarre issue with my laptop.

Basically, all embedded Flash objects will flicker white boxes during playback, especially in video playback. This isn't an issue simply with youtube and affects all other flash video sites (myspace, google etc). It affects both Safari/FF and i've updated all browsers and plugins without resolution of the issue.

I'm also getting what I understand to be referred to as screen tearing. Certain documents/sites affect this worse and it seems to happen more when i scroll the screen. So basically, as the screen content is updated, the pages become fractured, randomly rendering image chunks over the top of each other.

I've had trouble grabbing screen shots of the issue as it flickers so fast, it's difficult to catch it when the tears and boxes occur but i've been successful in grabbing a few which you can see below.

I'm not sure if this an issue with the 8600M GT i've been hearing about but others seem to be suffering similar problems with this/Quartz.

I also understand that Apple have recognized the issue are issuing repairs for affected units.

See: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9292022
and: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377



What do you guys think? Is my card screwed and what's my best bet for taking it in to get repaired, how long will i be without it? I have Applecare.

I've been having a load of issues lately.. the screen is developing LCD mura where small spots are letting through more backlight, my superdrive's ****ed and refuses to spin up, simply ejecting the disc. I've already had the battery replaced under warranty, what do you guys think will happen given the sheer number of problems i'm having?

I take very good care of my machine and i've got to say i'm a little bit pissed that it's failing on so many parts.

 

[bloo]

i had the same issue with 3 different mbp's. they swapped it out each time and each time i came back able to replicate the problem.

after enough bitching and moaning, they offered to upgrade me to the next revision and bump me to the next specs whenever it came out.

i originally bought a base model penryn and now have a 2.53 unibody

 

[digitalpencil]

i had the same issue with 3 different mbp's. they swapped it out each time and each time i came back able to replicate the problem.

after enough bitching and moaning, they offered to upgrade me to the next revision and bump me to the next specs whenever it came out.

i originally bought a base model penryn and now have a 2.53 unibody

Good to know. And did they say the graphics card was at fault?

Given the fact that the dvd drive is dead, the lcd wants replacing and the fact that the graphics card is soldered to the logic board the only salvagable parts i can think of are the ram, HD, casing, trackpad/keyboard etc.
The thing is, i'm not overly struck on the new design and I really don't want the new glass display.. I guess i'll just have to take it in and see what they say as to how long i'm going to be without it as i need this machine for work..

 

[winninganthem]

Wait until 10.5.7.

For a little bit in 10.5.5, the screen tearing issue was completely gone for me, and then it came back with the next update. I'm hoping 7 fixes it completely.

For now, the issue is very intermittent. If you can bear it, log out and log in again every time you get that issue to have your computer recorrect itself. What I have found also is that after about 4 days without restarting my computer, the screen tearing issue disappears. If you can bear possible tearing for 3-4 days, maybe try this out and see if it goes away after being on for a while (just sleep when you're not using).

Also, this thread may help - http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7740469. A lot of other people have the problem too, so I guess that's a little reassuring.

This issue really irritates me too. I hope this helps a little bit.

 

[alphaod]

Good to know. And did they say the graphics card was at fault?

Except it's entirely Adobe's poor implementation of Flash on OS X.

 

[digitalpencil]

Except it's entirely Adobe's poor implementation of Flash on OS X.

How can that be the case when the same tearing effect occurs upon documents without Flash? It seems to simply occur upon faster image refresh, hence the scrolling issue.

I don't think this has anything to do with Flash (which i'll agree is a real resource hog under OS X) but a lot to do with Nvidia's chipsets and now, after reading more into the issue, some problem with the thermal paste and expansion and shrinking as a result of heating/cooling, affecting numerous G84/G86 chipsets. It seems that under 10.5.5, the card was underclocked to prevent overheating and these issues arising. It seems they are now appearing again in 5.6 but underclocking the card is not a solution anyway.

I'm glad to see that Apple have at least held their own investigation and are honouring their products despite Nvidia's duplicity on the subject but i'm getting kind of pissed off here.. It's one thing after another with this laptop, i'm going to have to get the screen, dvd, and now the logic board replaced..


@winninganthem: thanks for the tip. i very rarely reboot my machine anyway and doing so has unfortunately not resolved the issue but thanks for the discussions link, it seems many people have been suffering the same problems, i'm just apparently late to the game

 

[alphaod]

How can that be the case when the same tearing effect occurs upon documents without Flash? It seems to simply occur upon faster image refresh, hence the scrolling issue.

I only have that issue when using Flash and only in OS X; no such in Windows. I read that OS X's implementation of Flash was *****, so that's the conclusion I made. I hope it's not your GPU or chipset, but if it is, hopefully Apple will take of it without hassling you.