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Weird Penryn MBP Video Card Problem

ArkabaS

ArkabaS

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 3, 2004
91
0
The Moon
Hey everyone,

I got my new 15" Penryn 2.4Ghz 256 VRAM MBP earlier this week and everything has been fantastic EXCEPT for one strange problem. This morning, I turned on the MBP and I was greeted to crazy colors on the display. I didn't have a chance to take a picture with my camera so I will do my best to explain. It was as if some of the colors became inverted (e.g., blue became purple, black became yellow) and also as if the colors were switched to 256 instead of millions. The screen was also flickering a bit. After about 3 minutes this all subsided.

I think this is a software problem. I took a screenshot and when I opened it in preview, the same regions of the screen were flickering but in miniature form (e.g., the dock on both the screen and screenshot were flickering in the same manner). It seems that this problem was color-specific and not localized to one particular region of the display.

Has anything like this ever happened to anyone else?

I'm going to call AppleCare today to get this sorted out.
 
Installed anything, like Application Enhancer?

I wouldn't bother calling Apple. If the problem has gone, then there isn't a problem anymore. If the screen still displayed dodgy colours then yes, by all means phone them.

I'd just let it slip and see if the problem ever reoccurs.
 
Something like this has happend to me twice today (and I got it yesterday).. It first happened after I woke it up from sleep, had to kill it.
The second time was after I played Quake 4 in OSX.

It looks like this... So not inverted colors but strange things going on.

http://www.thilander.eu/annat/temp/messed_up.jpg


Let me know what apple says about it of you call them.
Can it be that the card gets overheated?


edit:
Added some.
2.5-model
 
Avoid swearing in your filename ;)

The card won't have overheated. You on a uncracked version of Quake 4?
 
Kilamite said:
Avoid swearing in your filename ;)

The card won't have overheated. You on a uncracked version of Quake 4?
Click to expand...

haha, noticed that so I changed it =)

Well, I downloaded it for OSX but I have a legit product key (I bought it to windows so I had to..), so I did not have to crack it. It may have been "hacked", you never know.

The first time didn't have anything to do with Q4 though so.Maybe I'll call apple if it happens again.


Edit:
This doesn't happen when I play, lets say crysis (yep, legal :p) in windows on the same machine.
But I've noticed that the fans doesn't speed up so much when I play games (except for Crysis). Or I can't hear them at least, while idling both runs at 2000 rpm.
On my friends MBP (model before penryn) the fans go crazy just by starting a game.
 
Kilamite said:
Installed anything, like Application Enhancer?

I wouldn't bother calling Apple. If the problem has gone, then there isn't a problem anymore. If the screen still displayed dodgy colours then yes, by all means phone them.

I'd just let it slip and see if the problem ever reoccurs.
Click to expand...

No APE. I am being extremely careful with this computer. No Growl, etc.

I called AppleCare and this is what I was told: It could be a number of issues, most likely hardware because the screenshot I took had the same problem as the actual display. Moreover, when the issue went away, the very same screenshot appeared completely normal. He said that it has to do with me using the computer for so little time (under 10 hours total). Either the graphics card needs time to 'warm up' or the LCD needs time to 'burn in'. The Apple guy said he doesn't expect this to happen again. If it does again, however, he recommended that I come in for an inspection because it is most likely indicative of hardware failure.

The AppleCare guy also advised me to do the following: Unplug laptop from AC, take out battery, hold power button for 5 seconds to reset some system level stuff, re-plug in everything, and bootup. This didn't appear to do anything, but I don't mind because the problem hasn't occurred since I first posted this.


macthille said:
Something like this has happend to me twice today (and I got it yesterday).. It first happened after I woke it up from sleep, had to kill it.
The second time was after I played Quake 4 in OSX.

It looks like this... So not inverted colors but strange things going on.

http://www.thilander.eu/annat/temp/messed_up.jpg


Let me know what apple says about it of you call them.
Can it be that the card gets overheated?


edit:
Added some.
2.5-model
Click to expand...

Wow that look's awful. My display was nowhere near that bad. It is unlikely that the card overheated as it happened immediately after I first booted the computer.
 
Kilamite said:
Apple guy told you to reset SMC. More info: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303319

You could try resetting PRAM as well, since that controls the display's colour depth.

I wouldn't worry unless it happens again.
Click to expand...

Time to start worrying. It's happening again. Big time. After waking the computer from sleep, everything was fine for ~5 minutes. Then it started flickering again. Now it is doing it off and on every couple of minutes.

Here are some low quality photos that show what is going on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ArkabaS/BrokenMBP

I tried reseting PRAM, did absolutely nothing. Computer came back on, everything was fine for 3 minutes, then it started flickering.

F**k. Is this what I paid $2200 for???

Edit: I just noticed that tapping on the computer immediately to the right of the trackpad can induce the flickering... This is not terribly reproducible though and I am afraid to tap too hard.
 
Might just be a dodgy video card, or even the DVI cable.

I'd take it back to Apple and get a replacement.
 
I just got off the phone the with Apple people and they told me to ship the computer back. This is so damn inconvenient.

Anyone have any experience returning stuff to Apple? Should I wipe the HD before I send it? I am concerned because I have already transferred all my documents and important private/financial stuff to the computer.
 
Yes. Definitely wipe the hard drive. They might send you a replacement computer because you've just bought it.

Search the forums as to making an image of your hard drive. This means that when you get your replacement/fixed Mac back, you can just transfer the image across (take literally 30 minutes) and you are back to full working order.
 
Hello.

I got it working again!

I did this http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Resetting PRAM and NVRAM

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.
Click to expand...
 
ArkabaS said:
I just got off the phone the with Apple people and they told me to ship the computer back. This is so damn inconvenient.

Anyone have any experience returning stuff to Apple? Should I wipe the HD before I send it? I am concerned because I have already transferred all my documents and important private/financial stuff to the computer.
Click to expand...

I have the same problem as you. I noticed moving the display around caused it to flicker and sometimes I could find a "good spot." Now the "color inversion" seems permanent. I am taking it in to an Apple store next Saturday. It seems like a cable issue to me - an external monitor is fine, so I doubt it is the video card. Someone mentioned an "inverter cable" whatever that is.
 
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