11-27-2007, 09:46 PM

Hi. I have a problem, hopefully you will be able to help me out on it.

While playing CoD2, a vertical yellow line suddenly appeared towards the 1/3rd of the screen (left side), taking the whole height top to bottom. Since then, the thing is still stuck and won't go. I believe the pixels down this line are not dead since they are yellow-colored.

It's here all the time, including during the boot-up stage (grey apple on white background) or while watching a movie. Would you like to see it? I would have to take a picture of it with a digital camera.

I've tried modifying the screen resolution, number of colors, rebooting and running several dead/stuck pixel health programs. All these attempts failed miserably.

Can you think of a method/trick to take this line out? I'm desperate, this annoyance hinders me from focusing on my work/game/movie. Thanks a lot!

Please note:

• This started about an hour ago.
• The computer is an iMac Intel Core 1 Duo (very first model from early January 2006).
• It's been up for several months without being shut down (though restarted from time to time).

11-27-2007, 10:22 PM

You said you tried something like this, but this post is all I can think of. Good luck, and let us know whether you find something that works. This problem isn't getting any smaller.

11-27-2007, 10:45 PM

I did a bit of googling and there were quite a bit of hits on it with people inquiring about this "vertical line" problem in various forums. I found what seems to be the best explanation here:
http://hardware.mcse.ms/message190500.html

The most likely cause is delamination of the bond where a flat "flex cable" (ribbon cable) is bonded to the glass. A next most likely cause is a failed driver IC on the controller (this is part of the LCD panel itself).

Either way, although the problem is theoretically repairable, it's a repair that is very specialized and is very rarely done, and even if you can find a place that does it (it's a VERY specialized repair), the cost will be close to the cost of a new LCD panel. Unfortunately, either way, we are talking probably $200 or more.

Unfortunately, it looks like you are in for a repair bill.

11-27-2007, 10:46 PM

@Brown Study
I hadn't tried Pixinator. I just attempted to launch it (java -jar Pixinator.jar) but it displayed an error message:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
at Pixinator.prepareMac(Pixinator.java:163)
at Pixinator.<init>(Pixinator.java:83)
at Pixinator.main(Pixinator.java:777)
Caused by: quicktime.QTRuntimeException[QTJava:6.1.3g]Unsupported on Mac OS X and Java 1.4 and higher.,QT.vers:7048000
at quicktime.app.display.FullScreenWindow.<clinit>(Fu llScreenWindow.java:32)
... 3 more

Indeed, as the website indicates, it has to be run with Java 1.3.1 (mine is 1.5.0 something) so it sounds like I won't be able to run it unless I mess with parallel installations of JRE... I'll try do deal with it and keep you posted.

I appreciate your concern. Thank you.

11-27-2007, 10:58 PM

@lifeisabeach
That's sad. I don't want to spend any money in repairing something that I didn't break . Plus, there is no place specialized in that sort of repair anywhere near me. If I can't get (above-mentioned) Pixinator to work or if it's unable to solve the problem, I think I'll plug an external monitor . Anyway, thank you for having done some research on the subject.

11-28-2007, 08:42 AM

Welcome to Mac-Forums, Roman2K.

On your restore disk, there should be Apple's Hardware Test. Pop in the disk in your optical drive, restart by holding down the D key. When prompted, ask for the Extended Test: this will test all your hardware components. It might give you a clue of what's going on, if it is a hardware problem. This is Apple's Knowledge Base article that describes the Hardware Test.

Have you created a new user account to see if the problem is there as well? If it isn't, this would mean the problem is software and it has to do with something in your old user account.

And I'd love living in France...