15" LCD has many thin colored vertical lines. HELP!

I have Model # a1286 I think. It is a mid-2009 model. There are so many vertical, and some horizontal, lines blocking a third of my screen. It looks like there is a crack but the glass isn't broken, just lines on screen. HELP! I have no warranty, this started exactly 3 months after 1 yr. warranty was up and I have no Applecare. I know part or all of the problem is the LCD because a screenshot does not show the lines. If you press on the screen, the lines change color or it just adds more lines.
I am 3 hours from an Apple store but I will take it I have to.
It is not the same as the "strange vertical lines" issue. Each line is the width of a pin but goes down the whole screen and colors are pink, red, green, blue, yellow and light blue and there is now a BIG thick white bars with the lines over them (sese pic).
I attached an iphone picture but it is kind of dark. I will retake a brighter picture tomorrow.

The picture is OK; it tells the story quite well.
Can you connect an external monitor? If the problem goes away on the external, that indicates a fault in the built-in display assembly, but not the graphics chipset or the logic board.

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How I fixed the colored vertical lines on my Mac Powerbook G4 17"

Hello all,
I know that many people with a Powerbook G4 17" are suffering from the colored vertical line problem on their displays. This is were a pixel wide vertical line of color (yellow, green, purple, red, and/or blue) randomly appears on the laptop's display, usually between 24-36 months after purchase. This is also known on various internet forums as the "bridget riley effect" -- named after a painter whose art looks very similar to this effect. Many, if not all, of the laptops that suffer from this defect are 17" displays and have a serial number that starts with W8. Mine starts with W85; you can check yours by looking underneath the battery. It usually starts off as just one line, then two, then a few months pass and before you know it your screen looks like this:
This is my screen two years after the first line showed up, which was two and half years after getting it in December of 2005. Not so pretty. And completely useless without an external display, kind of killing the purpose of a Laptop. As a film editor I needed my screen to see the images and more importantly I needed it to be mobile. There's not always a screen to plug into.
I tried getting Apple to fix the problem, but apparently they're just ignoring the fact that almost all the laptops that came from this certain factory in Thailand (indicated by the serial number starting with W8) have failing displays. They delete threads and forums on their website, and try to censor and ignore the problem as much as they can. Unless some huge media blitz happens, or there is some kind of legitimate lawsuit, I highly doubt they ever will do anything about it, and you can't really blame them. They are a big business and addressing this problem with cost them potentially millions in repairs and tarnish their reputation as a quality manufacturer, and Apple's biggest commodity is its reputation. It ***** that Apple allowed this kind of thing to happen, but as things stand right now, it would be a poor business decision to fix it.
So, fellow vertical line sufferers, AKA the W8 club, my advice to you is stop holding out hope that they will pay for your screen to be fixed and get it done yourself! If you do it right you can get it done for between $60-$99. Here's how I did it.
First off, know that this is a hardware problem. There is no setting in system preferences you can change that will make the lines go away. There are failing physical parts in your computer to blame and they need to be replaced.
Second, in order to keep things as cheap as possible, you are going to replace the parts. It's actually pretty easy.
Thirdly, you are going to need a whole new display. I thought maybe if I replaced the display data cable (the cable that runs from the computer under the key board to the back of the screen) it might solve the problem very cheaply, since a brand new one only costs about $9 online. I took the computer apart, replaced the cable, but the display did not change at all. So the problem is the screen, not the cable. I needed a whole new screen, however, a brand spanking new one can cost between $350-$600. So I went on eBay, typed in my computer, and looked for computers that were being sold for "parts" or "repair." These are usually much cheaper because they are not working computers, but you don't need the computer to work, you just need the display to work. If you do this, make sure you read the descriptions. If there's any mention of display problems, move on and keep looking. You don't want to replace the display only to have the lines show up all over again a few months down the line. They wont always give you the serial number, but obviously try to stay away from serial numbers that start with W8. I found a used Powerbook being sold for parts for $63. It didn't have RAM, or a Hard-drive, or screws to keep the keyboard on, but the display apparently had no issues. With shipping and handling it cost me $94 total and three days to get it. The serial number started with V7. I'm sure with a little patience and vigilance, you can find something just as cheap or even cheaper.
NOTE: Some powerbooks have High-Res display screens, so make sure you know which screen yours has so you know which to look for.
Now, how to actually replace the display. I used an awesome website called ifixit.com. They give you detailed easy-to-follow instructions with photographs. I'll let them give you the nitty gritty of how to replace the display. Here is the actual How-to guide I used:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing-PowerBook-G4-Aluminum-17-Inch-1-1-67-GHz- Display/258/1
The only tools you really need are a small phillips head screwdriver and a T6 and T8 Torx screwdriver (they are starred on the end, as oppose to crossed like the end of a phillips head). They say you need a "spudger" but I didn't. You can get these at any hardware or auto-parts store. Return them when your done if you are really on a budget, but you might want to take more part from this new computer in the future, so your call. You'll need to print out the instructions first, or use another computer to follow them since you obviously can't use your Powerbook. Find a flat, well-lit work space, preferably near a TV so you don't get bored while working, and use the how-to guide to switch the old display with the new one. It only took me a couple of hours to finish the whole thing, and I didn't have to pay a repair man hundreds. My display works perfectly now! It's so nice to be have the mobility of a laptop again (especially since the computer i got off of eBay came with a battery that can actually hold a charge).
NOTE: There are a bunch of screws and a few small parts that will need to be taken out while replacing the display, and its important they all go back in their proper spots. So I highly recommend you take a long piece of tape, loop it, and stick it flat onto the side of your work space. As you take out each screw or small part, stick them in order to the tape. This way nothing gets lost and when you work backwards to put your computer back together you'll always know which screw or small part is next in line and which one the how-to guide is referring to.
I really hope this helps people with this problem. This seems to be the only solution. And for less than $100 bucks, I think its worth it, especially since you now have back up parts for any other part of your computer that might fail in the future. My disc drive stopped working recently so I'm replacing it with the one that came with the computer I got off eBay; a $90 part. I tried to make this as easy-to-follow, practical, and comprehensive as I could -- for as cheap as I could. GOOD LUCK!!!
-R

I suspect not. There are long threads with hundreds of reports, most with PowerBooks whose serial numbers began with W8 (or W85). Still there is no Repair Extension Program for this issue.
At this point, your only recourse is to discuss the issue with Apple Consumer Relations at 1-800-767-2775, if you are in North America.

Multi colored vertical lines on screen

Hello,
I have a Macbook Pro 5,1 that has multi colored vertical lines going down the screen. I've looked at numerous posts that refer me to the "EM80 article" but they seem to be referring to the Imacs when referencing this article. I tried taking a screen shot to showcase the problem but the multi colored lines do not appear on the screenshot. Is any one else having this same problem? Is my lcd broken (I did not drop the computer), could there be a lose cable, is there a problem with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics card? Thanks for the help.

The fact that the lines don't appear in a screenshot means it is a physical problem. Such as the lcd controller, backlight, etc. As long as you've got the latest firmware updates it's unlikely you'll find any fix other than apple repair.

Colored vertical lines on half my screen

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Hello daytondunn
Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Unfortunately you will need to contact Apple Support.
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/
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Multiple different colored vertical lines all over screen?

I have quite a few different color vertical lines across my screen. They are yellow, purple, blue, green etc. It started with just one or two and now there is probably close to 75, some tightly grouped and others here and there. Can anyone tell me what it is? Is my video card going out or something? Is there anything I can do to stop it?
Thanks

Hi all
I have a single red vertical line down the very left edge of the screen of my 2006 17" MacBook Pro. It has appeared over the last day or so and is there most of the time, although it occasionally disappears for a short while.
Do you think this could be a similar issue?
Thanks very much.

Why are there 2 thin red vertical lines on the screen of my MBP 15" retina which is only 2 months old!

I would just like to understand why there a two thin red vertical lines on the screen
I suspect I need to bring into an apple store for diagnostics but is anyone aware of the likely cause?
thanks v much!

It could be a GPU issue, a display issue or a display connection issue. The genius bar technician will offer you a definitive answer and should fix it under the warranty provisions.
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Hello, okay? since then, was robbed today, and my find my iphone this down, please tell me if he has a way to locate the computer, I need the iphone again, it has many important data it please help me

hello, okay? since then, was robbed today, and my find my
iphone this down, please tell me if he has a way to locate the computer, I need the iphone again, it has many important data it please help me

It's gone and you most likely are not getting it back.
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My Imac has black and white vertical lines

Riddle me this Apple...
A few months ago, my 2008 Aluminium 24inch Imac locked up and exhibited space invader style pixels all over the screen.
After rebooting, it was fine for a while and then it would freeze again and I'd get the same Atari style pixels appearing, and everything would be frozen.
Then, most reboots after that, I would get vertical lines in groups of three, alternating black and white squares as in the photo.
I called Apple here in South Australia, and they said "it's your graphics card, and it will cost $400 to fix and we need it for a week".
Not wanting to do that, I bought a $15 firewire cable, booted the Imac in T mode and used my PC laptop running macdrivepro to save all my files onto a 500gig backup drive, and then proceeded to fix the corrupted kext files and most importantly delete the recent flash player update which I believe was causing the problem.
Booted her back up, and she ran perfectly. For a few weeks, until it started again.
So I re-installed the Leopard operating system from the original disks, and that fixed it. $15 is better than $400.
Now, a few months have passed, and the problem had come back again, now that I have added more stuff on my computer.
This time however, I chose to wipe the drive completely and do a fresh install of Leopard, and then upgrade to Snow Leopard.
The problem is that it won't boot from the CD drive anymore, won't boot from a thumb drive, won't boot in any mode except T mode, but then it has these lines on the screen again and eventually I get the kernel panic happenning and it wants to be shut down.
Every time I start the computer, these lines IMMEDIATELY appear. I've tried resetting the Pram, tried changing memory and have now resorted to surgery.
I've taken apart the Imac, yes I hear you Apple...you guys thought that we mortals wouldn't delve into the depths of your finely machined systems, however, some of us do own micro torx head tools to remove those pesky screws, and yes, a razor blade does lift up the magnetically attached screen glass without having to use suction pads.
So once inside the temple of doom, I removed the hard drive, and dropped it into a hard drive dock.
After days of messing around with it via four other MAC computers, running Tiger, Leopard and Lion, we have still not been able to install an operating system back onto this drive.
Does anyone have any insight into what these lines actually are? Every one I speak to says a different thing...
"It's the graphics card", "It's the hard drive", "It's the cable that connects the LCD screen", "It's the motherboard", It's the screen itself", "It's a corrupted bios" etc etc..
But if it's any of those things...then why did it run perfectly after I fixed it the first time?
Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Hi BDAqua,
I appreciate you taking the time to reply, and for the suggestions.
My spider sense was tingling, as were my eager fingers to login and read your reply, in fact I was almost salivating at the thought of crushing those Apple reps with a swift blow from one of my megalithic old 4gig internal drives, or better still, perhaps shooting my old DX266 sporting a massive 256k HD and 4mb of ram, fully loaded with Encarta and Windows 3.11 out of a cannon and straight into Steve Jobs bedroom window, with a note saying..."How'd ya like them apples..".
But alas, my Aquatic friend, I am in need of a functioning operating system to be able to do any of those magical tricks you suggested (insert frown face here)..and yes, when I finally opened up the Imac and peered inside, a moment not unlike Indiana Jones peering down into the depths of the Well of Souls, I suddenly realised that an Imac might look impervious to heat vision and thermonuclear devices on the outside, but inside they can still gather as much dust as my infinately useless ZIP drive that I bought back in the late 90's, thinking it was the best thing since the invention of microsoft paint...awesome program by the way guys..
Getting back to the problem at hand, the issue really is that I have, perhaps stupedly, reformatted the 500gig WD drive via a hard drive dock, which is really a lot like one of those early 1950's cassette drives you find in vintage cars..
And upon returning the drive to the Imac and re-assembling it WITH REAL SCREWS, not titanium-alloy fingerprint encoded ones like you would expect to find in Iron Man's suit, I could only boot the poor thing into T mode. No other modes were available, and believe me, I tried all of the alphabet...even the "C" button, which if you ever watched an episode of Knight Rider called Knight of the Juggernaught, did not turn my computer into a convertable..
By now you're probably sensing that the irony of all of this is that I am typing this message on my Windows 7 upgraded HP laptop, which sounds not unlike a jumbo jet taking off at times, the fans are so loud, and among other things, it keeps telling me it is not genuine, even though I paid good money for a proper copy to free me from the painful experience which was Vista, and so in a sense, microsoft is playing a small part in the desperate rescue of it's far superior, yet broken down and busted arch enemy...I bet somewhere in it's RAM, it is smiling in little ones and zeroes, while it hides behind a free copy of AVAST, hoping one of a billion nasty viruses don't come knocking on the kernel door..
The next round of drinks goes to the man, woman, child or droid that has any other suggestions that could allow me to participate in some of the ideas put forward by our very knowledgable watery friend..as alas, I do not have any of those options available to me.
Today's assignment is.. how do we install an operating system on a formatted external drive. Sounds easy doesn't it...I've read many articles, but in practice it's proved as elusive as Bigfoot.
I just cannot make this hard drive understand that there is no spoon...
EdStraker

All I see is colored vertical lines!!!

I had booted into vista and was updating it while reading about windows 7 and thinking what crap it is compared to my mac when the screen suddenly frooze and it got filled with vertical lines of random colors.
I rebooted my macbook several times but it didnt solve the problem. It did give the startup sound but vertical colored lies was all i could see.
Then I reseted my pram, reset the logic board by removing the battery and pressing the power button for 5 seconds, no use!
Upon calling Apple Care I was askied to take it to the service center. At the service center while my macbook was being checked I was busy thinking how this whole 'switching' to mac has been. I purchased my mac on July 8, 2008.
1. 10 days after purchasing my white fiber body macbook, the charger dies. I live in Mumbai, India's largest city but they have to make me wait for like a week untill the new charger arrives from Banglore.
2. In September I see a dead pixel on the LCD. Apple says untill there are atleast 5 they can't replace it!
3. In November the entier body begins to turn yellow. The bottom fiber body develops cracks. The place on the keyboard panel where the magnets connect breaks because of the magnet. Apple replaces the keyboard panel but refuses to change the bottom case saying that its not covered under warranty and that 'its written so' in the warranty (which isnt!).
4. In december i notice more dead pixels. Finally Apple arranges to send me a new macbook altogether. As the 2.4ghz white fiber body one I have gets out of stock and is no more in production they send me the late 2008 aluminum macbook 2.4ghz. wow! they also renew my warranty starting from december 08.
5. Yesterday, the vertical lines appear out of nowhere.
Accept for the fact that they sent me a much better laptop as a replacement, which shows that apple cares, the whole switching thing hasnt been really hassle free. I have come to realize that what makes apple so different is OS X and the design they give to their products. Its certainly not the hardware. Considering the fact that the charger went bad, the body turned yellow, the dead pixels on the LCD and now the vertical lines on the LED, I think apple hardware is no better than that of dell or sony. Infact, my Toshiba laptop that I'm on right now is older than my macbook(s) and hasnt faced a single hardware issue yet.
I was just wondering what would I do if such things happen (and from the looks of it, they are bound to happen) after the warranty period. The apple extended warranty is a whooping Rs.13000/-. For Rs 15000/- people buy desktop computers with LCD monitors here in India!

They have said they are gonna replace the LED panel. Also, if this was to happen post warranty, they would had charge Rs1600 for diagnosis plus the cost the LED panel. I swear to God the moment something happens to this piece of crap after warranty I am gonna throw it in the store room where i keep my junk. I'm not gonna bear the cost of a single repair and fill Apple's coffers. For now, I assume my 60 grands i spent on buying this over hyped machine is a waste.
And good this happened just days before I was about to buy the 36 grands iPhone. I would be better off buying a htc touch for 15 grands which has all the same features.
Neerav
PS. the aluminium one they sent me costs as high as 96 grands! u definitely dont expect such behaviour out of it.
Also, the guys at apple service center say this happend because i updated leopard in the wrong manner! they say i should not directly click 'install' in the software update window but should rather go to the menubar and select 'download only' and then install it! the engineer in me is confused.

Strange colorful vertical lines when opening vlc or skype (video)

Well, this is my first post, and I am writing it because of a problem i encountered with my iMac (late 2008 model 20'', 2.4 GHz).
The problem is:
When I am video-calling on Skype, after a while the top left corner of my dock icons disappears... After some minutes my iMac display freezes with these vertical lines, usually green. The paradox is that I can speak to my skype buddy for some minutes but eventually it freezes completely and the only solutions is to turn it off by pressing the power button for six seconds. In the condition of the lines I can't sleep my iMac by pressing the power button once. The Same Problem I have when using VLC. Some more information: when the top left corner of my dock icons dissapears, if i sleep my mac and wake it, it reappears. I have read in other discussions that the problem with the disappearing corners of the dock icons has to do with the UI of the operating system. So I Am Asking, do you know what these vertical green lines are, if anyone has the same problem? How can I fix it? I believe that it has to do with the operating system or the UserInterface! This problem does not appear in a PowerBook G4 with PPC inside. I think is an Intel-based problem!
Last note: These lines are moving very slowly from left side to right side of the screen!
I had this problem when running on 10.5.5 and 10.5.6
Any Help is welcome!
I take two pictures of my iMac in this state and i want to share it! I Don't know how....
Message was edited by: Averello

- iMovie HD 6.0.3 renders jaggy and flickery still images when sending them to tape or iDVD
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovieHD_6_bugs.html#jaggystills
Could it be this?
Sue

Colorful vertical lines when transferring??

Before I start, I have an Asus G74S notebook. I have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M graphics card with, again, the latest driver. The processor is an Intel Core i7-2630 QM with 12 GBs of RAM.
Now for the fun stuff. I was working on a project in CS4 on a Dell Latitude D610 with an Intel Pentium M processor running at 1.73GHz with 0.99 GB of RAM and the graphics working on an Intel Chipset. When I went to transfer the project on the Asus, all worked fine except I got these coloful vertical lines whenever I let go of the mouse.
Example: http://s584.photobucket.com/albums/ss286/concreteBuilding/?action=view&current=screenshot1 .pngh
However, when I pop in the original footage and click on that, the footage pops up nicely, with no crazy vertical lines.
Now, when I saved the project onto my external hard drive (Toshiba USB) under a different name and put it back onto the Dell, everything worked perfectly fine, eaxcept that there were missing files that I knew were on the Asus. But I don't think we need to worry about that.
Now, I saved the project again in CS4 under yet a different name. Is there any possible way I can get the footage back without the lines in CS5.5?
And if this has anything to do with assets, can I be let in on the details on that?
Thanks, and all the best
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File Path: F:\NarutoShippudenAbridged (NSA)\visual footage\Naruto Shippuden Episode 001 - Homecoming
Type: AVI Movie
File Size: 169.0 MB
Image Size: 640 x 480
Frame Rate: 23.97
Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 16 bit - Stereo
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Stereo
Total Duration: 00;23;34;16
Average Data Rate: 122 KB / second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0
I didn't take this from any DVDs or cameras. Hope this helps.

Thin Black Vertial lines Help

My macbook pro is just over a year and a half old. The past few days it has been acting a little strange. All of a sudden these think black vertical lines apear and slowly move in a upwards motion like it is filling back in after the screen refreshes. Also you get shadows of boxes that have been there but have moved. When this happens the computer usually is really hot and at 100% processes. Also the process syslogD keeps on popping up at using all my processing.
Does anyone have an idea of what caused this? I haven't done anything different with my computer then usual.
Thanks!

Since the Apple Store folks could not replicate the problem, you may want to consider a cause that is part of your particular environment.
For example, if you use a power strip (surge suppressor), what else is connected to the same power strip? Is it possible that you may have too many power-hungry devices connected to the same single wall outlet, and the iMac is not getting sufficient power? Or maybe it's some electrical interference with another device on the same circuit? As a test, try disconnecting everything else, and see if the problem recurs, or connect the iMac directly to a wall outlet by itself to see if the problem recurs.
Try moving the iMac to a different location in your home and running it to see if the problem recurs.

15" LCD has many thin colored vertical lines. HELP!

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