Display freaking out on me, any ideas?

My display is doing something weird, and I was hoping someone else could shed some light on this for me. Every couple of minutes (4 or 5) the screen on my display will darken and then light back up. Never super dard (I can still see items on the computer) but it's annoying and I wonder if it is a symptom of a more expensive problem. It almost looks like someone is pressing the dimmer switch rapidly and setting it back to normal...any thoughts? Also, I have had this computer for about two years, do I still have a warranty?
Thanks Guys

Hi,
The power inverter module might be weak. The fluorescent backlight needs several hundreds of volts to stay lit. When the backlight first ignites, it requires almost a thousand volts to establish ionization.
The characteristic of the fluorescent backlight is that it will gradually get dimmer over its useful life, with about 50% of the original intensity after about 4,000 hours of operation. The touch-off voltage to achieve ignition will gradually increase as well with age, and that is what usually limits the usability of the backlight. The inverter won't be able to build up enough voltage to ignite ionization in the backlight.
In your case, I suspect the MacBook doesn't yet have 4,000 hours of run time with the backlight on. ... and the inverter is able to build up enough touch-off voltage to get the backlight started. It looks like the inverter can't sustain operating voltage, so the display is periodically losing ionization and going dark. Once ionization is lost, there is no load on the inverter, so it will be able to once again build up to the touch-off voltage... the the whole process repeats.
I'd take the MacBook to a service center or Apple retail store to see if the inverter can be replaced. It might be a warranty repair. Some other MacBook owners have had similar problems. Luckily, the inverter is only about $40 plus labor, if it is out of warranty. You may be able to replace the inverter yourself, but if you don't know how to work with high voltage components safely, let somebody else do the repair. See http://www.ifixit.com for additional repair information.
Note the screen saver isn't so much the protect the LCD as it is to limit the number of hours the backlight is on. Luckily, notebook PCs are starting to move to LEDs for backlight. The LEDs consume less power and have essentially unlimited service life. The MacBook Air has LED backlighting.
-Bill

Similar Messages

I clicked on Sky go app to install on Sat .It is now Monday night and the app Icon is greyed out and displaying "waiting". Anybody got any ideas?

I clicked on Sky go app to install on Sat .It is now Monday night and the app Icon is greyed out and displaying "waiting". Anybody got any ideas?

Often, rebooting, or deleting the waiting app and re-installing, will do the trick.
Matt

I have an iphone with the app GOOD to read e-mails. I sync to my other PC having first updated itunes. During sync it reported that it had removed GOOD, with out asking. Any ideas?

I have an iphone with the app GOOD to read e-mails. I sync to my other PC having first updated itunes. During sync it reported that it had removed GOOD, with out asking. Any ideas?

With the iPhone, you can sync all iTunes content with only one computer. Trying to sync iTunes content with a second computer will result in iTunes erasing the content from the first computer.

HT4557 i just had a new phone today,,i have setup my phone and charged it 100% but the battery is running out very fast.any idea why it is happening ? would really appreciate your help thanks

i just had a new phone today,,i have setup my phone and charged it 100% but the battery is running out very fast.any idea why it is happening ? would really appreciate your help thanks

Here are the iPhone battery conservation tips.
iPhone
Watch some of the things you may have set up as the article suggests. Check email fetch frequency, push notifications, location services, etc.

Display freaking out, flashing, fan spinning

Hello all. My MBP (from about February/March) just suddenly started flashing the display when I got home today - a regular, pulsing, strobe-like flashing that makes it impossible to look at it. The fan also starts spinning like crazy, though I wouldn't say the computer seems hotter than usual.
I have rebooted, booted off the start disks, unplugged everything and rebooted again - nothing makes any difference. Trying to go to Displays in System Preferences just hangs.
I'm writing this on an external monitor at the moment, which is behaving fine, so it's something about the laptop itself. I have an appt tomorrow at the Genius Bar but I'm freaking out because I have a deadline for some work... does anyone have any ideas? It does look like a hardware thing...

Have you tried running the Apple Hardware Test? It's on Install Disc #1 of the gray discs that came with your computer. I don't know if you can run it given the way your computer is acting up, but if you can run it, you may get an error code which would point towards the cause of the problem.
Also, if you can, open Activity Monitor (in your Utilities folder in your Applications folder). Select "All Processes" at the top, and see if you have something running amok in the background that is hogging the CPU. This is something that would cause the fans to spin like crazy.
There is a "Flash Screen" option under the Hearing tab in Universal access, but I don't think that this is the problem here. You could check to see that it is turned off.
Since the problem persists even when booted from a disc, I suspect it is a hardware problem.
Do be sure you have an up to date backup before going in--there's a good chance your Mac will have to go off to be repaired.
Good luck!

IMac Display Freaking out

My wifes iMac (Intel 2.66 GHz/1 G Ram/ 20" display)has recently began to freak out with numerous blank blocks on the screen (up to 12) opening up when switching applications. It doesn't happen when working in an app, only switching between apps. The blocks can not be closed on the screen, they are frozen. You must shut the computer down and reboot to continue working. Sort of like Expose going nuts. Has anyone run into this situation? Any advise?

Did you try resetting PRAM as a first step? Some display settings are stored in PRAM.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

MBP display freaking out :( pic inside

I've had zero problems with my macbook (other than being refurbished and kinda lopsided) but this morning it started freaking out. I've never dropped it, never run the battery out. its about 3 weeks old.
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/2561/88263723tx5.jpg
is this telltale for the "new" dispplay glitches tied to the last update?

I am having a similar problem. Intermittent (seemingly random) display freezes where the screen "fragments" . See the photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/2DAnimationAcademy/SickMacbookDisplay
The screen is fragmented into hundreds of little squares . Sometimes it is much worse than
this and no discernible image on the screen is visible, just row upon row of these little square fragments.
Hardware test shows No Trouble Found.
Fsck from command line says Volume Appears Ok.
Repaired Permissions and defragged hard drive with Disk Warrior.
It happened the first time last week. I shut down , left it off for an hour to cool down (my first thought being it was an over-heating problem) . It started up again with no problem . Ran fine for another week , then the problem returned . This time multiple reboots did not fix the problem . Took it to the Apple Store genius bar. Display was totally fragmented (worse than in the attached photo) . Hard Drive seemed to be ok , so they advised backing up everything and sending it in to be repaired (I have Apple Care) . Last night I used Carbon Copy Cloner to get all my files over to an external firewire drive. Apple Care is sending me the DSL box to mail it in tomorrow.
Here's the thing : I booted it up this morning just to check it one last time and everything looked normal; it's been on all day today and no sign of the problem . Frustration ! I'm afraid I'll send it in to Apple only to have them tell me there's no problem that they can see or detect (if they run Hardware Test it will show No Trouble Found as when I ran it . Just ran it again now and the same results : No Trouble Found) Then they'll send it back , I'll have lost a week or two use of my MacBook and no answers for why this is happening ... until next time the darned display freezes and fragments (?) . I'm hesitant to send it in . Maybe I should just archive and reinstall the OS . I'm still on OS 10.4 because some of my applications haven't "caught up" to OS 10.5 yet .
Has anyone else ever seen this sort of screen fragmentation ?
Could it be caused by a software conflict ? It seems like it must be a hardware issue, except Disk Warrior says the disk checks out ok and Apple Hardware Test says "No Trouble Found" .
Message was edited by: David T. Nethery

Display "freaking" out, internal issue?

For a long time now, my display will randomly "freak" out. What do I mean by freak out? I mean, it starts getting stretched vertically and horizontally, half of the top (lets say half of safari) will be at the bottom, etc. I have to move the display back and fourth until it stops. To see if this was an OS issue, I screen shared with someone else. I was able to finally recreate the issue, and they saw no problems. I'm guessing that this would be a wire being squashed or something.
I've never dropped or done anything to my computer that would cause this. In fact, this started a month after purchasing it and I've been dealing with it for a year now. Recently, it's been getting worse and won't go away.
Anyone got tips? Should I just go to the store and ask them what to do? If they are going to make me pay to fix it, I'll be pretty frustrated as I've done nothing wrong. Is this a faulty display? Am I liable for a replacement computer?
Thanks.

Do you have the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics chip? If so, you might be having this problem:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377
If you have access to an Apple Store, there is a specific diagnostic test they can run to find this problem. If this is what it is, the repair will be done at no cost to you.
I agree with eww that you should have reported this problem to Apple before the 1 year warranty was up. No matter what it was, they would have fixed it under warranty. Now unless it turns out to be the NVIDIA problem, you are on your own.
Good luck!

NETRA 7 segment display H E L P, any ideas???

when turn on the Netra t1 105 inside diplay (7 segment leds) display a sequence H, E, L, P but i no have a idea why happen this, any idea???
thanks
sorry my bad english

The Netra t1 105 documentation only describes the LEDs visable on the outside of the case.
The Netra t1 105 conains a SPARCengine CP1500 board, for which detailed documention is available at:
http://www.sun.com/oem/products/manuals/
From http://www.sun.com/oem/products/manuals/806-2104-03.pdf
<table border="0" align="center" width="90%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td class="SmallText"><b>Quote:</b></td></tr><tr><td class="quote">
The characters in the LED displayed by OBP indicate the following:
O (The letter O ) OBP is currently executing.
E RED state exception encountered in OBP.
b Solaris boot has taken place.
H, E, L, and P This sequence (with each letter flashed at a 4-second interval) is initiated if the system is at the ok prompt for more than two minutes after power-on, without booting. It does not appear after Solaris has booted.
</td></tr></table>

I just got my Droid Turbo. Deleted lots of emails yesterday and now not receiving any. When I try to refresh, I get an internal error, but can't figure out why. Any ideas?

I just got the Droid Turbo. I deleted several emails yesterday and now today, I am not receiving any. When I try to refresh, I get an internal error. I have tried turning the phone off and checked my settings as well, but still getting nothing. Any ideas??

I figured it out. Deleted and re-added the account.

My screen just locked up and displayed the following pattern. Any ideas why?

Hello,
My computer went to sleep and when I awoke it and opened up safari browser, the screen locked up and displayed the attached pattern on my screen. I could still use the mouse but couldn't click on anything. I had to reboot.
Any ideas what could be wrong?

If it will repeat after restart - hardware problems. Most probably memory.
Anyway run Apple Hardware Test

Timeline Grayed-out/blank. Any ideas?

So I was resizing a clip of my *almost* finished project, and suddenly as I dragged the clip to make it longer, the entire timeline blanked out.
At first I thought I was inside a compound clip until I tried opening other projects, or anything for that matter. The timeline just stays grayed out or blank. I can't zoom in or anything, it almost seems like the entire timeline just corrupted in Final Cut.
I deleted my prefs and layout, nothing changed, then I reinstalled the program and it seemed cured as I could open other projects. But when I tried opening the orginal project (the one the program crashed on) suddenly the timeline blanks out again, and then it won't open any other projects again.
It's like my project is screwing up the entire Final Cut program...
I've already pretty much resigned myself to the idea that I'm going to have to start over, but I was wondering if anyone else had found a solution to this problem. From what I understand, this problem isn't uncommon, I just haven't been able to find a solution yet. Any ideas?

OKAY - I just read some other discussions on this (sorry - didn't see it until after I posted) and NOW I understand my problem - I got it fixed - thanks!

HT1296 My phone is picking up all my photos from my computer when I sync it and then running out of space - any ideas how to stop that?. Want to download not upload!!!

My phone is uploading photos from my computer when I sync it - any ideas how I can stop this and remove what it's uploaded already?? Edit functions on phone won't delete the uploaded albums :-/

Connect the iPhone to your PC/Mac with iTunes open.
On iTunes do this:
- go to summary (left hand side)
- select the option photos to the right
Here you need to decide how you would like to set how your iPhone syncs photos from your PC/Mac. Its is up to you wether you only want to sync selected or all photos. Once you have made the changes select "Apply" to the bottom right.
Hope this helps

Secure link to itunes store failed computer not connected to internet tried ununininstalling everything to do with itunes no joy also error code coming up E0000225 anybody out there got any ideas

Secure link to itunes store failed, (computer not connected to internet tried uninstalling everything to do with itunes,no joy also errror code E0000225 appearing. Have turned off windows firewall and also my Bullguarg security settings.Can anybody out there please help me thanks.

Hi,
You could be right that the response to clicking on help is a symptom of an entirely separate issue, but nevertheless the secure link to itunes is definitely failed, and I am unable to log into Itunes on either PC.
I also noticed that even if I click on the link to create a whole new Apple ID, I cannot do that either, presumably because the secure link is not working.
After I noticed that there were weird things happening this morning, I did change my Apple ID password in the hope that this might resolve it, but it seemed to make it worse. Now, all of my apple devices keep constantly prompting me for the apple ID password, and randomly either accepting it, or telling me it is wrong. I know the password is correct because I can log onto the apple Manage My Apple ID screens in a web browser with it.
I was starting to think that this is an ISP issue (BT Broadband), but I have not seen anyone else posting with the same issue. Does Apple use a different security protocol to everyone else? I'm asking because all other secure services seem to be working fine, but anything related to apple that requires a secure connection or authentication is having issues.
I have also seen reference to making sure that Itunes is listed as an allowed program in Windows Firewall. I cannot seem to do this because it says that my Windows firewall is being managed by McCafee. I have checked the settings in McCafee, and it appears to me that Itunes, Bonjour, and many other apple programs have been granted "Full" access. As said before in any case I have tried temporarily disabling the firewall and even this did not solve the problem.

My display freaks out and gets 4 of the same screen one it

I have my display (apple cin of course), hooked to my Macbook Pro. It has worked perfect for about a year and now it is clicking on and off every once in a while. Then yesterday is went off and came back on with 4 of the same screen on the main screen and it was all jumbled up. Why is it doing this and is the display failing?

It sounds like the display or video card could be failing. Try an smc reset but it probably won't have any affect.

Display freaking out on me, any ideas?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for