The beginning of the end. Macbook Pro screen going green.

[lordoftheflies]

Hello, it seems my 2010 Macbook Pro has started to fail; it has served me well and has been working flawlessly since now. I googled the problem and it's not terribly uncommon it seems, but it left me with more questions than answered, so I thought I'd ask here. Exact problem: screen repeatedly switches the colour black to green, vertical lines (or only a certain shade of black I think, as many black things (text, Apple logo at top left, the logo of this website...) aren't affected).

From what I understand, this is most likely GPU failure or an issue with the screen. Apparently a good way of testing this mirroring the display on an external screen such as a TV (if the problem doesn't present on the external display, the problem isn't meant to be the GPU). What I have done:

1. mirrored the display: the external display (TV, connected through an HDMI-[mini display port] cable) does not present the problem at all.
2. whilst being linked to TV, applying gentle pressure to the cable near the display port (by pulling it down) stops the problem.
3. applying pressure on the bottom of the Macbook (roughly where the left Option key lies above) stops the problem while the pressure is being applied with a finger.
4. applying pressure onto the screen while the green lines are there makes them fuzzy/noisy while the pressure is being applied.
5. switching colour profiles in Settings > Displays does not change anything.

... so along with my zero knowledge of hardware, this leaves me wondering where on earth the problem lies. Something I did wonder was whether the battery could cause a problem like this, by expanding (?) due to age. The condition is 'replace soon' and cycle count is 2731 which is quite high.

Any help would be much appreciated, and if anyone knows of a repair I could do/have done I'd be massively grateful, as I don't really have the means to buy a £2349 Macbook right now...

Thanks in advance!

 

[Raz0rEdge]

One of the things with laptops is that the repeated opening and closing might causing issues with the display cables and lead to the kinds of issues you are seeing. If the system works perfectly fine connected to an external monitor, then you have the option of using it in clamshell mode and as a desktop until you decide you need to be portable and purchase another MBP. While it might be tempting to fix the 2010 machine, it's already 8 years old and on the cusp of being too old for newer updates of the OS. So you're better of putting any of that fixing money against a new machine with better/newer technology that will serve you well for nearly a decade from now.

 

[Kevan]

My 2015 MacBook Pro just started doing this tonight, so I came here & searched for topics ... discovered that it is indeed all too common.
Is cable replacement something a noob should try, or best left for someone who knows their way around?

 

[chscag]

Replacing cables in a MacBook Pro can be easy or it can be difficult. It all depends on which cable needs replacement. If you can locate which cable is causing the problem, you may be able to follow instructions on how to change it out. Detailed instructions with photos for just about any repair can be found at iFixit: The Free Repair Manual. Look for the display cables as suspect.