[mactest]

Hi all,

I bought a new 15inch MBP to use with my 30inch Apple display.
After using the MBP and external display for a few hours, there are interference patterns on the screen, quick horizontal lines of dark blue and red. They appear very quickly, making it really hard to capture the screen with a camera.

It appears that this is heat and GPU related, more obvious with eyeTV running. Same problem in closed lid or open lid mode. Definately heat related as it takes a while from turning on the MBP for the lines to appear. The temperature then is above 55 degree Celcius. Once it happened I tried to crank up the fan but that didn't help.

This is my second MBP with the same problem so I am not sure if I should contact Apple again.

So if anyone has the same setup of 15inch MBP (new LED backlight version) and an external display (I am not sure if the size of external display matters), could you please stress your MBP out with eyeTV and check if you see the problem as well?

The interference pattern is easily seen with a black screen and almost invisible with the default blue background, so maybe change your background to black and watch for quick horizontal lines. The lines might be very short or long, depending on how severe the problem is.

My previous version of DuoCore MBP didn't have the problem. I will try to capture the screen with a camera and post here later.

Some other info on the MBP: 2.4GHz 4GB RAM, 256MB GeForce 8600M GT

Thanks
Andy

[mduell]

eyeTV and playing video on a 30" display isn't really going to stress the GPU. And 55C isn't very hot for the GPU.

I'd definitely call AppleCare and make it "their problem".

[mactest]

Just an update for anyone that might have similar problem:

Thinking it was heat related, I shelled out $80 (AUD) for a Griffin stand to test it out. It helped a little bit by delaying the appearance of the lines, but they still came out. The interesting thing is that it is not directly related to CPU or GPU temperature, I can push these temps up 70+ degree (Celsius) without the lines. The lines seem to like the mid 50-60 range. The other interesting thing is that the two MBP have different area of "prone" or sensitive area where the lines come out first. On my previous one the lines were concentrated on the left hand side of the screen, but on the current MBP the lines will appear at the bottom first. Almost like the problem is with the video memory chips.

I followed the forum's advice and called up Apple. After spending 1+ hour on the phone the first time, I was told to bring the display to the service center for it to be checked out. After telling them in vain that I hooked up my other macbook to the display and it worked fine, I took half a day off work to bring the display in a Apple Service center. As expected they said the display is fine. I called up Apple again, and they wanted me to bring the macbook pro and display back to the service center.
I just wish they said that before so I didn't waste my time. I thought it is very obvious that the problem is with the MBP (the service center told me the same thing), however Apple is not convinced.

I hope this is not a generic problem with heat in the new MBP driving 30 inch display. I have TWO MBP displaying the same symptoms, with different degree of severity. I could be spending months on this and won't get anywhere (already it has been two months from the day I ordered the MBP)

Anyone reading this forum is using the same setup (new 15" MBP+30inch display)? Please let me know and we can test if your setup has the problem. As mentioned previously, you can only see the lines on a black/dark background. I have lots of black windows open and this is driving me nuts.

Andy

[mactest]

FYI, I just did a search in Apple support forum and apparently others have the same problem as well. One person posted a good video on youtube:
YouTube - blue flickering dots #2
I am not to sure if I will bother bringing my whole setup to an Apple Service center and leave it there for a few weeks now.

[jamil5454]

It doesn't sound like a heat problem... it sounds more like a corrupt region of video memory problem. After you've used your MBP for a while your video RAM gets filled up to the point where it reaches the corrupt region, and then you start seeing the artifacts. Try running the Apple Hardware Test from your restore disc and report what it says.

[ibook_steve]

If what you are seeing is the same as that video, then I agree with jamil. That is not a heat related issue. If it was heat related, the entire screen would be flaky and much worse than just blue flashes. However, it is still a GPU problem and would require a logic board swap.

Steve

[mactest]

I am back!

The problem is still here, and i was told that my case notes in Apple support is one of the largest!

The drama started with Apple Hardware test. It kept stopping around the 7 minute mark, so I called up Apple. The first support guys reckoned something was wrong, talked to some senior guy who talked about a replacement MBP, but it was pass the working time for the replacement order people, so he told me to call back next week. I did call back on Monday, but to cut the story short, 2 days later after I talked to another guy who talked to another senior guy, the Hardware test was to be ignored!

Back on track to the original issue, Apple support asked me to bring the MBP to a service center. I found one, and took some time to bring the MBP there.

First drama, they were not happy because apparently they didn't get paid for checking only. After wasting my time for them to sort it out with Apple on the phone (about one hour, and they ended up getting paid somehow), second problem: they didn't have a 30" display to test with. After another wave of brain storming with the Apple tech, they decided that I should bring my display in for the test. It didn't matter if that would not isolate the problem, they told me, it looked like by now everyone just wanted someone else to do something.

Next day I dropped the display off at the service center. I tried to explain to the tech how to reproduce the problem, but he wasn't listening. He probably thought it was a pretty simple job.

I didn't hear anything from them so I thought maybe I should come in the next day before they decided it was a non-fault and wasted everyone's time. Yep, the guru has left the MBP through the night and he said everything was fine. He didn't realise that the line are very fast and unless you were looking at a dark screen you wouldn't see it. Another half an hour after getting a few programs running and I started seeing the lines. It took another 20 min for me to show the tech the lines, he was too distracted with his new cracked iPhone.

After seeing the lines a few times, he called up Apple support, and immediately was told that this was a known problem with MBP and 30". He wasn't happy and neither was I. The Apple tech guys were saying that the problem is known but was still being investigated. They said don't do anything until they knew what to do.

I called up Apple and talked to a customer relation guy to get an official statement as I wasn't involved when the service center was talking to Apple. He was quite smooth, you could tell that he has been dealing with unhappy customers all year round. I went through the case with him and asked what Apple is doing about it. He talked to some other people, and said the service center will replace the display for me. I was surprised as it went against the Apple tech guy recommendation.

I called the Service center and they said they didn't know anything about it, and it was against the recommendation anyway. The tech guy from the service center checked with Apple and said the customer relation guy from Apple was overriding the Apple tech guy and would send out a replacement. I called the customer relation guy back and told him I was prepared to work with Apple to solve the real problem, don't send the display out just for the sake of it and waste everyone's time. He assured me the replacement would fix up the problem. I thanked him and hoped for the best.

6 days later (my display was still at the service center), finally the display arrived. I parted with my spotless display and took home a re-furbished 30" display with some scratches around the base.

Guess what? The problem is still there :-(

I called up the customer relation guy and told him the bad news. He was trying to tell me in an un-official way that Apple engineering is looking at the known problem, and could be releasing a statement on Apple's web site soon (or they might not, that's the way he put it).

I asked him if they will contact me, and he said no, I have to check the web site :-) I told him that I still have an un-resolved case, and they can't expect me to constantly check their web site for some announcement that might not be coming! He then was trying to tell me that the MBP and display are officially within specs, and he could not help me any more. I had a laugh and told him that Steve Job would not be happy to hear that, Apple gears were expected to work together as advertised. I was trying to reason with him that officlally there is no generic problems with the display and I have tried two displays with the same issue, if there is no problem with the display there must be a problem with the MBP. I think he wasn't interested in common sense reasoning.

I had to hang up to go to a meeting, so I called up the Apple support later and checked what their position is. After going thru the huge case notes, the agent talked to a senior guy who then talked to the customer relation guy. The stance is clear, Apple engineering is investingating, No we will not contact you, you have to check our web site for announcement, and there is nothing wrong with my display or MBP. I didn't bother asking them if they thought the problem was alien-related.

Anyway, that's my journey with Apple MBP and 30" display. Not sure what I will do next, and I am not too upset, just thought I will share my experience with you.

From order date of 23 July to now it is two months, I don't want to lose any more time and productivity on this, I would have saved lots of time and productivity if I had sold the MBP on ebay and get a mac pro from the start. But then noone would even think about selling your week-old MBP on ebay :-), and Apple having a generic problem with MBP/30" display is probably the last thing
anyone would expect.

[ibook_steve]

This is ridiculous! Did anyone think to try another MBP with your display to disprove the stupid idea that this was a display problem?

Steve

[mactest]

No, Apple support wasn't doing too much of trouble-shooting.

They asked me to live-disconnect the display from the MBP so that they can resync, run the Hardware test (which did not complete), and bring the MBP & display to a service center, to show them exactly what I told them many times on the phone.

It took more than a month from the time I told them the problem, till the time the service center saw exactly the same problem on the same setup. Lots of time wasted by me, Apple support, service center, and no progress in term of trouble-shooting. They could have just asked me to take a video of the screen.

I would like them to have done more of fault isolation, but no-one but me was interested in getting the problem to show up, it was in the "too-hard" basket.

At the end the service center wasn't interested, they told me they have done everything asked by Apple and I had to speak to Apple, Apple was not interested, they said wait for an announcement on their web site.

A little bit disappointing, I thought they would have done more for their customers, not leaving their customers in the cold like this. Maybe it is just Apple in Australia...