Macbook Pro Brightness Fluctuating

I am experiencing an odd display issue with my Macbook Pro 13" mid-2010 model. The display, at random intervals, fluctuates from full brightness to quite dim... and sometimes to off and then back on a few seconds later.
It is not the ambient light sensor, as that is turned off. This happens, too, when the computer is plugged into AC power. I have noticed that the brightness controls do not work, but I don't know if that is related or not.
It appears to be software related, because the display often returns to normal after moving the mouse cursor. I have set all "power saving" options to off and this issue remains.
Any ideas?

Unless you have a lot of bus-powered peripheral devices plugged in and run extremely processor-intensive software, it's very unlikely that your 60W AC adapter was inadequately powering your computer and causing the screen brightness to fluctuate. Absent an extremely high power demand, the likelihood is good that your 60W adapter was faulty or damaged, and another 60W adapter in good condition might have eliminated the problem just as effectively. But I'm glad to hear you're back to normal now in any event.

Similar Messages

Macbook pro brightness problem

my macbook pro contantly change brightness after turning off and on the computer. even though i uncheck "automatically adjust brightness" in System preferences-Display, it still changes after turning off and on the computer. anybody else having the same problem, any advice?

Thanks for the advice!
When i move my hand towards the build in camera nothing changes, the brightness remains the same, its only when i turn my computer off and on it happens. When i turn off the electricity and run my mac on battery only nothing happens, brightness remains the same.
It seems like every time i turn my computer on it automatically adjust to the light in the room, but only at the time when the computer is turned on, not at any other time.
how I discovered this was by watching the bar in "system preferences - displays". I repeat that i have unchecked the box "automatically adjust brightness".

New 17" MacBook Pro Brightness always changing

Just got a brand new MacBook Pro. Like it but the screen brightness keeps changing and its driving me nuts! Often the lights on the back lit keyboard come on and off, for apparently no rhyme or reason. Crazy. Anyone know what's going on? Or how to turn off auto-brightness, or lower its' sensitivity to light changes? This is ridiculous.
Thanks,
Jeff

hummm....even after turn the "Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes" the lights that backlight my keyboard continue to blink often!! Often several times in a row....on/off/on/off!
It appears the keyboard back lighting is controlled separately from the screen, as I suppose it might be.
Ahhh......yes in the Keyboard control panel you can turn off "Illuminate keyboard in low light conditions"....and manually set the back lighting with the F5 and F6 keys. Ok, new stuff to learn about that was not on my old PowerBooks

Macbook Pro Brightness Controls Not Working

Ok, this is really weird. I have a Macbook Pro and after installing the new aluminum keyboard with the Keyboard 1.2 update my brightness controls in OSX no longer work. The weird part is if I go into Windows via Boot Camp my brightness controls (F1,F2) work fine. In Display Properties in OSX there is no brightness slider.
Can anyone help? Thank you.

"I just tried this. Go into System Preferences -> Display. Turn off Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes. Now move the Brightness slider right and left, left and right. Turn on Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes. When I changed it from far left to right then left again it was ok."
Hey, thanks for the tip Neil. I was trying to figure out why my computer would dim and then get brighter. It would keep changing after every little thing i'd do. Honestly, it was freakin annoying.

Macbook Pro Brightness Setting

Long time listener, first time caller-
New apeture user here wondering if there is a proper, or exact, monitor brightness setting on my macbook pro I should be using when viewing and adjusting images?
Thanks,

Adding to Frank's reply:
The only way to get consistent color is to use a hardware calibrator.
Even with hardware calibration, the MBP screens are not good enough for exacting color work.
If you use a hardware calibrator, you must turn off "→System Preferences→Displays→Display→Automatically adjust brightness ... ". I recommend Aperture users turn this off even without hardware calibration.
Also turn off "→System Preferences→Energy Saver→Battery→Slightly dim the display ... ".
If you want to match display and printer outputs, calibrate the monitor brightness to 100 cd/m^2 or less. I use 85, as that gives me the best match with my printer (Epson 3880), my studio, and my eyes.
The environment in which you edit your images is probably as important as your monitor. Things to be aware of are: overall luminance, glare, color of ambient light, intrusion of direct light, contrast between display and surround.
Aperture allows you to set the background luminance of the Browser and the Viewer. Set them to 18% unless you have reason to do otherwise. "Aperture→Preferences→Appearance→Viewer {Browser} Brightness".
There are many sources on the Web -- search for "color calibration OS X" or "Color calibrated workflow" -- but no one place that I know of that spells it out.
The quick answer -- now that you've got this far -- is set the brightness to something that appears gray rather than light. This is probably close to the middle of the available range, and two or three steps lower than you might chose for comfortable viewing. Implicit in that is that what is best for editing photos is often different from what is best for doing other work on a computer.

MACBOOK PRO ; BRIGHTNESS , BLACK SCREEN

My Macbook Pro Mid 2012 , is always randomly lowering the brightness by itself to an extent where I cant clearly see whats on the screen , although it is at its brightest setting . and it happens randomly . SOMEONE PLEASE HELP THANK YOU !

Reset PRAM. http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405
Reset SMC. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Choose the method for:
"Resetting SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own".

Macbook Pro - Brightness

On my laptop I can not adjust the screen brightness and when I try to change it manually I get the following result.
# echo 256 > /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_backlight/brightness
zsh: file exists: /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_backlight/brightness
I have 'nvidia-bl' installed and configured however I think the issue is that I cannot modify the brightness setting itself. Does anyone know how I can fix this?

Hi guys, sorry for the late reply but I have tried the suggestions with no success. When I try to manually change the brightness or fan speed for that matter I get the same message as the original post (cmp-daemon fails to load). It's like the system is denied access to these components. I should mention that the model is a Macbook Pro 6,1.
#Grub.cfg
quiet reboot=pci acpi_backlight=vendor
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf
Section "Device"
Identifier "Default nvidia Device"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "NoLogo" "False"
Option "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"
EndSection
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
# LOCALIZATION
LOCALE="en_US.UTF-8"
DAEMON_LOCALE="no"
HARDWARECLOCK="UTC"
TIMEZONE="Australia/Melbourne"
KEYMAP="us"
CONSOLEFONT="Lat2-Terminus16"
CONSOLEMAP=""
USECOLOR="yes"
VERBOSE="3"
# HARDWARE
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
MODULES=(acpi-cpufreq cpufreq_performance cpufreq_ondemand cpufreq_powersave coretemp cpuid i2c-dev nvidia_bl hfsplus fuse)
UDEV_TIMEOUT=30
USEDMRAID="no"
USEBTRFS="no"
USELVM="no"
# NETWORKING
HOSTNAME="Guardian"
INTERFACES=(!eth0 !wlan0)
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
NETWORK_PERSIST="no"
#NETWORKS=(main)
# DAEMONS
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng laptop-mode cmp-daemon dbus networkmanager netfs ntp alsa gpm crond pommed)
# /etc/pommed.conf
# Configuration file for pommed
# General configuration
general {
# fnmode: functions keys first (no need to use fn) or last
# Value is either 1 or 2, effect is hardware-dependent
fnmode = 1
# sysfs backlight control
# nVidia machines, will fall back to nv8600gmt if not supported by the kernel
lcd_sysfs {
# The sysfs backlight control is a generic interface provided
# by the Linux kernel for backlight control on most graphic cards.
# The brightness range can differ depending on the hardware.
# initial backlight level [12] (0 - 15, -1 to disable)
init = 1023
# step value (1 - 2)
step = 40
# backlight level when on battery [6] (1 - 15, 0 to disable)
on_batt = 6
# ATI X1600 backlight control (MacBook Pro v1 & v2)
lcd_x1600 {
# initial backlight level [200] (0 - 255, -1 to disable)
init = -1
# step value (1 - 127)
step = 10
# backlight level when on battery [80] (1 - 255, 0 to disable)
on_batt = 80
# Intel 945GM, 965GM backlight control (MacBook v1-v4, MacBook Air v1)
lcd_gma950 {
# initial backlight level [0x6f] (0x1f - 0x94 usually, -1 to disable)
init = -1
# step value (0x01 - 0x20)
step = 0x0f
# backlight level when on battery [0x40] (0x1f - 0x94 usually, 0 to disable)
on_batt = 0x40
# nVidia GeForce 8600M GT/9400M/9600M GT backlight control
# (MacBook Pro v3-v5, MacBook v5, MacBook v2)
lcd_nv8600mgt {
# initial backlight level [12] (0 - 15, -1 to disable)
init = -1
# step value (1 - 2)
step = 1
# backlight level when on battery [6] (1 - 15, 0 to disable)
on_batt = 6
# Audio support
audio {
# disable audio support entirely
disabled = no
# Use amixer or alsamixer/alsamixergui to determine the sound card
# and the mixer elements to use here.
# sound card to use
card = "default"
# initial volume [80] (0 - 100%, -1 to disable)
init = -1
# step value (1 - 50%)
step = 10
# beep on volume change
beep = yes
# mixer element for volume adjustment
volume = "PCM"
# mixer element for muting the speakers
speakers = "Front"
# mixer element for muting the headphones
headphones = "Headphone"
# Keyboard backlight control
kbd {
# default value for automatic backlight (0 - 255)
default = 100
# step value (1 - 127)
step = 10
# ambient light thresholds for automatic backlight (0 - 255)
on_threshold = 20
off_threshold = 40
# enable/disable automatic backlight
auto = yes
# idle timer - fades keyboard backlight automatically (timeout in seconds, -1 to disable)
idle_timer = 60
# idle level - level to fade keyboard to after idle_timer seconds. Defaults to switching off.
# idle_level = 20
# CD/DVD drive ejection
eject {
# enable/disable eject key
enabled = yes
# CD/DVD device
device = "/dev/dvd"
# Beeper
beep {
# enable/disable beeper
# automatically disabled if audio support disabled above
enabled = no
# WAV file to use (from pommed: goutte.wav or click.wav in /usr/share/pommed)
beepfile = "/usr/share/pommed/goutte.wav"
# Apple Remote - deprecated
# Note: the appleir driver is required for this to work; this driver has been
# obsoleted with Linux 2.6.22, so unless you are running a kernel < 2.6.22 or
# use the appleir driver on a newer kernel, this won't work.
# You should use LIRC instead.
appleir {
# enable/disable the appleir support
enabled = no

IMac 27" Static Flicker when using Displayport In from Macbook Pro

Hi all,
Sorry about the long title
I have a late 2009 27" iMac with ATI 512Mb 4850 card and 8Gb RAM. I also have a 2011 Macbook Pro that I connect to the iMac via Displayport to use it as a screen.
The iMac sometimes displays an annoying flicker and "static" like screen issues when displaying the Macbook Pro screen. This does not happen all the time but seems to be more prevelant when I have had the machines on for a long time, or if I use them in the morning after they have been asleep through the night.
I've tried the cable (a Belkin one) both ways round and have tried wiggling it at certain points to see if that changes the static but nothing happens. I have also purchased a cable from Apple, but I did not realise it would only work for Thunderbolt drives, not displays.
I have a video of the issue here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1nkykc8j13qg9px/2012-04-13%2014.32.38.mov
Any ideas?
The only thing that I have chaged about the iMac since purchase is I now run the OS on an external Firewire drive as the internal HD sounds like it's failing (it makes a very loud seeking noise ALL THE TIME and slows down a lot when the machine has been on for a while. The external drive does not do this).
Thanks
Ryan

Hi, sparky96,
I do not have a satisfactory solution. The best I can do, as a work-around, is adjusting the iMac to its brightest setting, moving the MacBook Pro brightness several notches darker, and then aiming for a compromise in the image I'm working on.
As a result, I have no idea what someone else sees on his or her computer. However, that might be the case even if I could match the images on my two Macs. Others might have PCs that display reds as browns, for all I know. I do know that when I view a video on YouTube, it looks more or less the same on each of my computers. The human eye seems to make its own interpretive adjustments.
I have similar problems preparing artwork for printing. No matter what I do to calibrate the displays, the output from my various printers never looks right, and when I get back a book cover that's been printed on an offset press, I'm happy if it's reasonably close to what I get from my desktop printers.
I wish Apple, and Adobe, and Hewlett-Packard, and commercial printers and the whole industry would devise some kind of universal standards -- but I doubt that will ever happen.

IMac 27-inch display at brightest is darker than MacBook Pro

I'm using Photoshop to create illustations for a marketing video, shifting the work between a 27-inch 2012 iMac and a 15-inch 2009/2010 MacBook Pro. When I move the work from the IMac to the MacBook, the images are way too bright. Conversely, from the MacBook Pro to the iMac, they appear way too dark. I have set the iMac display to its maximum brightness and dimmed the MacBook Pro almost to the level where it loses contrast. I have a Huey calibration system, but it's no help in this situation. Ambient light does not affect the general appearance on the 15-incn screen, with automatic adjustment off.
My illutrations will be included in an iMovie HD video for use on the Internet. I need a brightness and contrast combination that will look good on YouTube and various websites. Previous videos were okay, using illustrations from the MacBook Pro and an older Mac Pro with 23-inch Cinema Display (no longer in service). This suggests I should trust the laptop as the final setting rather than the iMac. If so, does that render the iMac defective for this kind of work?
I did try various display settimgs under System Preferences, but it's a question of what matches best with YouTube and other websites.
Suggestions anyone?
Thank you!

Hi, sparky96,
I do not have a satisfactory solution. The best I can do, as a work-around, is adjusting the iMac to its brightest setting, moving the MacBook Pro brightness several notches darker, and then aiming for a compromise in the image I'm working on.
As a result, I have no idea what someone else sees on his or her computer. However, that might be the case even if I could match the images on my two Macs. Others might have PCs that display reds as browns, for all I know. I do know that when I view a video on YouTube, it looks more or less the same on each of my computers. The human eye seems to make its own interpretive adjustments.
I have similar problems preparing artwork for printing. No matter what I do to calibrate the displays, the output from my various printers never looks right, and when I get back a book cover that's been printed on an offset press, I'm happy if it's reasonably close to what I get from my desktop printers.
I wish Apple, and Adobe, and Hewlett-Packard, and commercial printers and the whole industry would devise some kind of universal standards -- but I doubt that will ever happen.

MacBook Pro Fluctuating Brightness over HDMI to TV

Hi every one,
after almost 5 years I finally found some clues in order to solve a problem which frustrated me all these years.
Every time I plugged my MBP into my Panasonic TV for watching a movie, I got some problem of brightness fluctuation during darker scenes.
I found this:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=861730
And it seems to really speak about my issue.
How do I manage to change RGB level from 0 to 255, to 16 to 135 ?!?! From that discussion it seems the apple TV ha a personal settings to adapt to monitor, how can I do it in my MacBook Pro ?
Thanks a lot.
Riccardo

Sounds like there may be a short of some type in the Thunderbolt port.
Try leaving the Mac off, connect the cable then turn the TV on then the Mac.

Hi i cannot change the brightness on my late 2011 macbook pro.

Hi i cannot change the brightness on my late 2011 macbook pro. It is stuck on the lowest level in which i can't view the screen without a flash light. Please i need help how to solve this. I was on my computer when i checked the back which it was really dusty, i tried unscrewing the bottom however some screws were too tight so i took it upon myself and got a rod and startedremoving the dust off the vents and i may have clicked something as i closed the lid on the macbook i could hear the sounds still from the film but the lid was closed as i opened it back up the brightness was on low but sounds were still playing. All the buttons work , all of the F keys, apart from the brightnes keys. I can shine a tourch on the screen and see the display but the brightness will not change but i can see when i click the brightness it says it changes. I have connected it to a spare tv i have via hdmi and i really need help as this is my primary computer and i need it for work when going away. Thank you

Try SMC and PRAM resets:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
Ciao.

When I turn on or restart my Macbook Pro Retina 15", my entire screen flashes completely bright yellow for a few seconds and then it goes to the normal Welcome screen. How do I fix this??

Hi Everyone,
This problem just started today. When I turn on or restart my Macbook Pro Retina 15" (Mid 2012 version), my screen is light gray like normal, and then after a few seconds my entire screen flashes completely bright yellow for a few seconds, and then it goes to the normal Welcome screen (where I choose to login as myself or a guest user). This suddenly started today and has not stopped since. This keeps happening every single time I turn on or restart my computer.
Yesterday I installed all the Mavericks and other updates that were available in the App Store, so I'm wondering if this is related to that since this never happened prior to my doing those updates yesterday. When I first installed the new OS X Mavericks (10.9.3) update, it went through the whole installation process (took about 10 minutes), and then during the installation I got an error message saying that it couldn't verify my iTunes application that was on my laptop, and then my laptop finished installing the updates. Then once my laptop restarted, the App Store "Updates" section said that I had to do the whole OS X Mavericks (10.9.3) and iTunes (Version 11.2) updates all over again. So my laptop did the whole installation again (took about 10 minutes, but this time I didn't get that "iTunes error message" during the installation process).
Now, when I go to the App Store "Updates" section, it says the following under "Updates Installed in the Last 30 days":
-Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update (Version 5.05) installed May 15, 2014
-OS X Update (Version 10.9.3) installed May 15, 2014
-iTunes (Version 11.2) installed May 15, 2014
-OS X Update (Version 10.9.3) installed May 15, 2014
-iTunes (Version 11.2) installed May 15, 2014
-Security Update 2014-002 (Version 1.0) installed April 22, 2014
I'm wondering if this flashing bright yellow screen upon bootup is related to the fact that my laptop installed the OS X Update and the iTunes Update two times each? Or is this new problem totally unrelated? It's just that this problem started a day after these 2 updates were installed twice.
My Macbook Pro Retina 15" (Mid 2012 version) is otherwise working fine at least as of now. The only issue so far is this flashing bright yellow screen every time I turn on or restart my computer.
If anyone could please help me fix this so that my bootup screen doesn't flash completely bright yellow anymore, I would be forever grateful!
Thank you so much for reading this and for any help you can provide.
hope everyone is well,
Elaine

Hey everyone in Apple world!
I figured out how to fix the flashing yellow screen problem that I've been having on my MBP! Yessssss!!!
I found this super handy website with the golden answer: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
I followed the instructions on this page and here's what I did:
Resetting NVRAM / PRAM
Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.
I went through the 6 steps above twice, just to make sure I got rid of whatever stuff was holding up my bootup process. Since I did that, my MBP boots up just like normal. No flashing yellow screen anymore!!
(Note that I arrived at this solution when I first saw this page: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570?viewlocale=en_US)
Let me know if this works for you!
Elaine

MacBook Pro 13" screen brightness

I just bought a 13" MacBook Pro and find the screen brightness and contrast is much less than expected. It basically has to be turned up full on AC to be acceptable, which is very unexpected, since I am typing on a 16 month old MacBook Air now that is about the same at 80% of screen brightness. The contrast is less pronounced on the new machine, too, and the notion of 60% more color saturation seems faulty. I am going to return it and see if the Apple Store thinks this is normal or a faulty screen. Am I being unreasonable to think the new MBP screen should be at least equivalent to the original Air screen?
Message was edited by: MacBook

Yes, I agree that there is something different about the two displays. I conducted my own side-by-side comparison -- in the same room lighting, and also switching the places of the two machines -- and found at any given setting, the 13" MacBook Pro was darker than the MacBook Air. Furthermore, when I first started the machine, the MBP's keyboard backlighting would not go off, no matter the lighting. Then, when I went to make these comparisons, the MBP's keyboard backlighting would not come on.
This linked picture is a composite from two pictures taken in succession in the same lighting and angles, just as they came out of the camera, showing the relative brightness of the two. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2547/3844348963e76728bce2o.png
So, I packed up the machine for a trip to the Apple Store and either an exchange or a return.

MacBook Pro Repeatedly Loads Purple & Teal Stripe, Gray, Light Blue, Bright Blue and Bright Blue Stripe Screens Instead of OS after Optical Drive Replacement by Apple (PICTURES INCLUDED)

17 inch March 26-29 (order date – shipping date) 2011 MacBook Pro, 256GB Solid State Drive, 2.3 GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, 1 processer, 4 Cores, 256 KB L2 Cache per core, 8 MB L3 Cache, 8 GB Memory (8GB 1333MHZ DDR3 SDRAM - 2X4GB), AMD Radeon HD 6750M Video Card, Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 512 MB total of VRAM. 110 GBs of free/unused disk space remaining.
Full Specs are in subsequent post.
The issues described in the title continue even after I’ve reinstalled the operating system twice (Snow Leopard) and installed Mavericks (which is working fine and even faster). I’ve tried many commands to repair this.
If anyone has experienced any of the symptoms above or below, your advice and response will be much appreciated as well as marked. These are the details:
My Early 2011 MacBook Pro has had the typical blue screens, screen freezes and graphics issues since I bought it about three years ago but nothing like this and NEVER any load issues until about a month ago. That was when my superdrive replacement was put in.
Since then my MacBook Pro will go into hard freezes or kernel panics. Then I’ll have to power it down manually and power it up manually. It’ll then refuse to load the OS until after multiple tries. It started out just 2 or 3, then 4 or 5, then 6-12, then 20. Now it takes over 30 boots to load the OS. These boot issues also occur even if it doesn’t freeze, i.e.: when I shut it down or restart it naturally (via the Apple menu, etc.).
95% of the time it’ll load to a gray screen instead of the OS. 4% of the time it’ll load to a light blue screen. Then there are the others: the first time this happened it loaded to the striped purple and teal screen shown in the picture. This happened the next four times then intermittently for about 5 or so more times.
It also loaded gray flickering screens. Flickering screens also occurred right before it froze and had to be manually powered down and up. Then it began to load regular gray and light blue screens and all flickering screens stopped. And then bright blue screens a couple times intermittently for a few days, sometimes with lines. Sometimes it’ll load to a blank/black screen as well. I’d reset the NVRAM and SMC but it still continued, happening multiple times a day, each time taking more and more hard shut downs and hard power ons to finally load the OS.
Until I installed Mavericks, every time it finally loaded the OS Finder began indexing. After Mavericks this has occurred 95% of the time.
After talking to Apple Support they had me do a NVRAM and SMC reset again over the phone. The MacBook Pro refused to load the entire time we were on the phone. After the call it got worse. It froze over 6 times that day and at worse took over 30 boots to load the OS.
I finally had time to deal with it the next day when it froze again. After over 25 boots it loaded and I put in the Snow Leopard OS dvd and ran Disk Utility. I verified the hard drive and it said it was fine. Repaired the disk anyway and it gave this message at the end:
“Updating boot support partitions for volume required”.
Next I tried to start in safe mode and it just hung up for hours. Then started up in single mode and it loaded the OS. It then loaded normally for three times in a row. I reinstalled Snow Leopard. Everything loaded normally. I waited an hour or so and then I downloaded Mavericks. 5 or so hours later Mavericks was installed. Everything hardware wise was fine for a day and all software issues were easily fixable incompatibilities. My Mac was even faster with Mavericks. However, Photoshop did give a perhaps relevant message:
“Photoshop has encountered a problem with the display driver, and has temporarily disabled GPU enhancements. Check the video card manufacturer’s website for the latest software.
GPU enhancements can be enabled in the Performance panel of Preferences.”
(I have OpenGL enabled in Photoshop and it was already checked when this error occurred).
Two days ago I went to Disk Utility to repair permissions while logged in to a non-admin account. Verified and repaired the disk, then verified permissions. Everything fine. After repairing permissions however, it gave a weird error box:
"Unapproved caller, SecurityAgent may only be invoked by Apple software".
The box stayed “stuck” in the Disk Utility window. My MacBook Pro then failed to do anything. I manually powered it down and up. It loaded to a gray screen with the error message box again: "Unapproved caller, SecurityAgent may only be invoked by Apple software".
It then refused to load anything else but this message box on a gray screen even after rebooting it multiple times in safe, verbose and single modes and after resetting the NVRAM and SMC. I went online with an iPad and entered in the error and got some advice. I tried to run fsck and erase the /var/folders/ via single user mode but it still loaded to a gray screen with the error message. I just decided to skip to the end and Cmd-R loaded into recovery mode and reinstalled Mavericks again. That worked: the message has not appeared since.
Some people have said this error is related to a hard drive cable failure. I know that this cable was tampered with during the optical drive replacement procedures because I watched them do it.
Everything was fine for a day. Then yesterday my MacBook Pro froze while trying to open a VLC file. It took 12 boots to load the OS. I tried single mode once and verbose mode once. 10 times it loaded to gray screens, even in those mode. A Safe boot lead to a bright blue screen. Finally reset the SMC and it loaded on the 12th time.
Just five hours ago the same thing happened except it took over 30 boots to load the OS. Single, verbose and normal boots, NVRAM and SMC resets lead to gray screens. Safe boots lead to bright blue screens with and without lines (see pictures). Finally loaded on a normal boot.
I know I should have tried safe booting, verbose, single and recovery modes, disk utility, fsck and other command methods earlier this month but in the end, these methods have not solved the problem anymore than resetting the NVRAM or SMC.
There seems to be conclusive evidence that it’s a hardware problem, stemming from last month, the FIRST AND ONLY time my MacBook Pro was opened up. Maybe it’s the hard drive cable, but it could also be the graphics card and/or logic board (something that’s always been defective on this MacBook Pro, in my opinion). Many early 2011 MacBook Pro owners have given evidence to the latter possibility online.
The first time it started it seemed to stem from me using iPhoto and Photoshop a lot. I had both running continuously for about two weeks. This is another reason for suspecting the graphics card/logic board is at fault (in addition to three years of screen/graphics glitches). And since the card is soldered to the board and the board connected to the cable...I also have serious battery draining issues, something else that got bad after the Apple Superdrive repair. And the battery is connected to the board...
Also, since downloading Mavericks, windows from every app get blurry/fuzzy when I scroll or zoom in. I have read that this is happening to a lot of folks though for various reasons.
I guess it could always be the hard drive. I just don’t know. I’m taking it in to Apple, but can't right away because it’s not local. I know they’ll be able to run a test on the hard drive. I wanted to see if anyone else has had this problem (especially the purple and teal striped screen) before they start poking around, possibly creating another problem that goes beyond my Apple Care Plan allotment.

SPECS OF MY MACBOOK PRO:
Model Name: March 26-29 2011 MacBook Pro (order date – shipping date)
Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,3
Processor Name: Quad-core Intel Core i7
Processor Speed:    2.3 GHz
Number of Processors:    1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 8 GB Memory (8GB 1333MHZ DDR3 SDRAM - 2X4GB)
HARD DRIVE: 256GB Solid State Drive
DISPLAY: MBP 17" HR Antiglare WS Display
AMD Radeon HD 6750M:
Chipset Model: AMD Radeon HD 6750M
Type:    GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width:    x8
VRAM (Total): 1024 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x6741
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-C0170L-573
gMux Version: 1.9.24
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.573
Intel HD Graphics 3000:
Chipset Model: Intel HD Graphics 3000
Type:    GPU
Bus: Built-In
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
Device ID: 0x0126
Revision ID: 0x0009
gMux Version: 1.9.24
Displays
Color LCD:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes
Battery Information:
Model Information:
Serial Number:    C01111403GLDGKMAE
Manufacturer: DP
Device Name: bq20z451
Pack Lot Code:    0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0406
Hardware Revision: 0001
Cell Revision:    1102
Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh): 4583
Fully Charged:    No
Charging: Yes
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 7765
Health Information:
Cycle Count: 276
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA):    -4487
Voltage (mV): 11306
System Power Settings:
AC Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):    15
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):    15
Wake on AC Change: No
Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake on LAN: No
Current Power Source: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: No
GPUSwitch: 2
Battery Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):    15
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):    5
Wake on AC Change: No
Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: No
GPUSwitch: 2
Reduce Brightness: Yes
Hardware Configuration:
UPS Installed:    No
AC Charger Information:
Connected: Yes
ID:    0x0100
Wattage (W): 85
Revision: 0x0000
Family: 0x0085
Serial Number:    0x007ad8c5
Charging: Yes
Current operating system: 10.9.3 (Mavericks) ; Installed on 6/21/14
Previous operating system: 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard); Installed 4/4/11
        Reinstalled multiple times. Last reinstall: 6/21/14

Not able to adjust brightness while running bootcamp and windows 8 on a macbook pro

I have a Macbook pro with retinal display. I loaded windows 8 using bootcamp. The brightness of my screen cannot be increased beyond five boxes.

So it does go down and then up but not up enough to suit you?

Macbook Pro Brightness Fluctuating

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