Vertical Lines on 13 in Macbook Pro

[meghmo]

My Macbook Pro is going on two years now (Mid-2009 model), and recently, my screen has started to flicker, and now vertical lines are sporadically appearing on my screen. This problem usually resolves itself when I move the screen. What exactly is going on with my computer? Will I need to replace something in it?
I took a picture of it, if this helps at all, and sorry it's sideways!

 

[miles01110]

Looks like a failing graphics card.

 

[squeakr]

Could be a loose or bad video connect cable. That would be my guess as you say it disappears when you move the screen.

 

[meghmo]

Looks like a failing graphics card.

Is this something I should be concerned about? And if so, what do I do if there's no Apple Store close to me while I'm at school? (The closest store is two hours away, and I have to wait until I go home for Thanksgiving to be within a very short distance of one.)
I've got the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card on my computer.

 

[squeakr]

Yes it is something to worry about, but nothing you can do anything about but call Applecare and arrange a pickup for repair, or wait until Thanksgiving. Unless you are very technically inclined and good at repairs (if it is a graphics card their is nothing you can do even if you are good as getting parts would be the battle then). Just use it normally and hope for the best (although it would be best to get it to service before it completely fails, as it then becomes a lot harder to troubleshoot.

 

[Risasi]

Damn you, Nvidia...

Because of their flawed chips (I got burned w/ my Dell XPS) I have a personal boycott against them.

Just have Apple look at it. Hopefully it's under Applecare? Even if it isn't you should cal them because of the class action lawsuit brought against Nvidia.

 

[thundersteele]

Damn you, Nvidia...

Because of their flawed chips (I got burned w/ my Dell XPS) I have a personal boycott against them.

Just have Apple look at it. Hopefully it's under Applecare? Even if it isn't you should cal them because of the class action lawsuit brought against Nvidia.

Yeah but I think those chips were only built into 2008 MBP models? It was the 8600 GT chip I think.

If you have applecare, just have apple repair it. I think in that case you can also use a certified apple reseller? Not sure.

If you don't have applecare, I would go with an apple store. They already have your money and want to keep you as customer, so they are more likely to offer a discounted repair.

 

[Risasi]

Yeah but I think those chips were only built into 2008 MBP models? It was the 8600 GT chip I think.

If you have applecare, just have apple repair it. I think in that case you can also use a certified apple reseller? Not sure.

If you don't have applecare, I would go with an apple store. They already have your money and want to keep you as customer, so they are more likely to offer a discounted repair.

8400M, 8600M, Quadro. And they kept pumping out the chips even though they knew they were flawed. I am still suspicious of the 9400's also. And I'm not the only one: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/07/apple-may-be-dumping-nvidia-graphics-for-next-gen-macs.ars

 

[meghmo]

I have Apple calling me via Express Lane service pretty soon, and thankfully, I have AppleCare. I'm somewhat glad that this is all happening now, instead of in August when my AppleCare expires.

Otherwise, if this can wait until Thanksgiving when I get to Richmond's Apple Store, then so be it. It's just strange that the vertical lines come on sporadically and then go away once I move my screen.

But is there a possibility this could be connected to a bad charging cable? I had to get mine replaced earlier this week because the magsafe connector got incredibly hot (which it had never done prior to Monday.) and my computer was having issues charging. When I took it into one of the repair shops Apple directed me to (since there's no store nearby) they determined my charger cable was bad, but everything else checked in okay on my computer.

 

[meghmo]

And I went to the Authorized Repair Shop in town and they told me I'd have to ship directly to Apple just because I was there on Monday getting a new charger. Sigh. Apparently it's policy to not do more than one service in a 30-day period.

I did the extended Apple Hardware Test, and it told me that there was absolutely nothing wrong with my computer. Therefore, I've come to the conclusion that it's a loose wire. If this is the case, how am I supposed to fix my computer?

 

[Risasi]

If it's a loose wire then let them fix it. You want that record on their books in case something happens a few months from now...

 

[Mersailios]

I'd say it's the display cable if it resolves itself intermittently when moving the display, a failing graphics processing unit would cause artifacts on the screen or the screen to go entirely blank with no resolution but to hard restart the computer. Hopefully it'll be taken care of promptly and you'll get your MacBook Pro back in working order soon.

 

[meghmo]

Now I have a horizontal line?
But I'm thinking that could be from my dock. I'm not sure though.

I'm going to have my Apple-savvy friend take off the bottom and look at it today. That won't void the warranty, right?

 

[mlhewitt]

Figure it out

My macbook is now having the exact problem as yours (as is the same model/year as yours)

Did you ever get the issue figured out?

 

[szarkupacka]

i think it is a LVDS cable problem.
My friend has a same issue, he will change the LVDS cable. if it fix the problem i will write here.