06-15-2010, 05:44 AM

My 15" Macbook Pro 5.3, bought in July 2010, has developed a wierd problem, picture attached. The screen goes yellow. No other functionality affected. The problem can be somewhat masked by selecting "thousands" rather than "millions" of colours in the detect displays menus. Sometimes the problem goes away, apparently of its own accord. Sometime a slight movement of the screen angle makes it go away. Sometimes it's there for a few minutes then goes; recently it's been like this for a couple of days. I will have to live with it at the moment as I am a long way from a service agent and need my laptop.

My guess is that this is a hardware failure related to the screen signal supply cable in the hinge. But one Mac expert said he'd seen the same thing as a precursor to, and symptom of, board failure.

I'd be very interested if anyone has come across this problem, and has any thoughts on it.

Best wishes

R

06-15-2010, 07:06 AM

couldn't upload picture before: trying again now.

06-15-2010, 07:17 AM

Am assuming you meant July of 2009 since July 2010 is not here yet.

But, that would more than likely be a graphics card issue. Suggest you go ahead and call your nearest Apple store while you're still in warranty and make an appointment to take it in. Take a few pics in case it decides to play nice while you're in the store.

06-15-2010, 07:30 AM

Thanks for this - yes, of course, I meant July 2009. I'll get it to a Mac agent as soon as I can. I'm sort of surprised that a graphics card problem could be intermittent, though. I'd have expected it either to work or not work. But i guess Gremlins work in mysterious ways...

R

06-15-2010, 07:39 AM

And just FYI, if your screen shots look the same, it would be graphics card. If screen shots taken while it's messed up look fine, it would be the display. Typically.

06-15-2010, 08:13 AM

Well, that's interesting - I emailed a screenshot to a mate in the UK who works with Macs, and he couldn't see any problems. The pix I uploaded were taken on my iphone of the screen. So it looks like it could indeed be a screen problem, not a graphic card.

Thanks for noting that.

But the screen is otherwise perfect - and when the 'Yellow Peril' goes away it is completely fine. Which makes me think this may be to do with the connectivity in the hinge area. Very occasionally I can make the problem go away by slightly adjusting the screen angle, though that is becoming less reliable a fix as time goes on. To this "inquisitive amateur" it looks like something to do with shielding on the multi-core cable that carries signal to the screen - but I don't know enough to know if this is possible/possible.

Best wishes

R