Hi,


The enclosed picuter is the display on my 15" MacBook Pro (mid-2010). It has the video problem seen, which came on pretty suddenly (it is running a surface scan on a friend's crashed hard drive under TechTools Pro 6). This is showiong on either TechTools Pro 6 (booted from DVD), or on !0.7.4, so I am pretty sure it sin't software related. I have run diagnostics using TechTools Pro 6, and the video tests pass (aside from showing the same video defect). I would liek any opinion on whether this is the display cable, or the LCD panel itself. I intend to replace either myslef 9I have replaced LCD panels on both Mac Laptops and PC Laptops in the past), so I don't want to replace the LCD just to find out its the cable, or vide versa, due to the amount of effort required to do the replacment (as per the iFixit artlice on this repair)/ Also does anybody have a source for the tri-wiing screwdriver needed to remove the battery for this repair? I have all of the other required tools.

Kostas

maybe its just me, but the pic is so small and low rez i cant make out what the issue is

ya, the pic is tiny.

Sorry, misread the file attachment rules. I have re-uploaded a bigger picture that should more clearly show the problem.

Thanks for looking and letting me know the issue.

Kostas

have you connected to an external screen?

really its more or less academic which part it is as those displays aren't really designed to be taken apart. i have seen numerous ones that have been and they all look a hot mess after.

either way no one will be able to tell you the cause of the issue...its all just a guess really without being able to swap in known good parts

Hi,

I do have a mini-display port to DVI cable, and will be able to connect the MacBook Pro to an external monitor upon completion of the surface scan; I am reluctant to stop the scan as it has been going since last Sunday, and hasn't completed yet. If I stop it now, it will just take that much longer to complete a surface scan. As soon as it does complete the surface scan, first thing I will do is hook up an external monitor to it.

I did run TechTools Pro on the video section, and it did pass. I dont' know if that is a totally reliable test, but it does seem to go through the digital section of the video circuits pretty thoroughly, but obviously, it has no way of seeing the display on the LCD screen.

I ws hopoing that somebody had seen a similar defect on a laptop before, and could provide some guidance as to how it was fixed in that case (something along the lines of "I'd had a machine that had that type of defect before, and in my case it was the (LCD panel/cable, pick your choice)".

Kostas

tech tools is as useless as boobs on a bull. its not worth the media its pressed on

re: your 3rd paragraph as i explained earlier there is no way to know what is causing *your* issue without disassembling *your* panel. its a 50/50 shot in the dark and any past experiences with a *similar* issue (even one that looks literally identical) would have no concrete bearing on your issue today.

also, you shouldn't need to wait to plug the external in. you can do that while the scan is running no problem

Hi,

... I am reluctant to stop the scan as it has been going since last Sunday, and hasn't completed yet....

Kostas

This is implying to me the drive is FUBARed. Nothing takes 5 days to run unless something is very wrong. IMO a backup should be the next thing before you lose everything then a reinstall of a new internal drive.

This is implying to me the drive is FUBARed. Nothing takes 5 days to run unless something is very wrong. IMO a backup should be the next thing before you lose everything then a reinstall of a new internal drive.

It's not the OP's drive that it being scanned, it is someone elses that they are repairing.

"(it is running a surface scan on a friend's crashed hard drive under TechTools Pro 6)"

Still get the issue when booting the machine with your OS installation disk ?

Do you have the same issue when changing the display resolution ?

Any change in the video when moving the lid up and down or pressing the display edges with your fingers ?

If the video is good on the external monitor then your graphic card (logic board) should be OK. I would double check the LVDS (video) cable connection to the logic board. Just unplug the cable and firmly reinsert it in its socket.

You must be aware that replacing anything in the display assembly is a difficult job. You need to use a heat gun to separate the glued front glass panel from the assembly before accessing internal parts. That's why Apple replace the whole assembly even if just a cable is faulty. Used displays are available on ebay if you prefer to go the easy way.

Hi,

Sorry for not being more prompt replying to the infromation requrests.

Up front, The scan on my frined's drive has completed, with 24,7XX bad sectors. Drive is toast, and I had already told my friend this is a possibility. This is now confirmed.

As this has now completed, I have been able to reboot the system into Lion, and send the output to an external monitor. The external monitor doesn't show any video defects. In my mind, this increases the probability that the problem is an LCD/Display cable. The defect doesn;t change with the lid being moved or the resolution being changed.

I have read the instructions on iFixit regarding the replacement of the display, and the majority of the instructions are something expected. However, I am very concerned about the heating and pulling off the front glass. I may end up having a 3rd party do the work, as the front glass replacement is real expensive if I crack it during removal or re-assembly. I have no issue doing an L CD replacement in general (did it on my 2007 MBPro 17"), but the new cover glass really makes me pause.

Kostas

Just thought I would follow up. The Macbook Pro 15" display has stopped being an issue. Reason is, in the process of having one of the local Mac repair "experts" perform the display replacement, the motherboard was destroyed. After this happened, he offered me a replacement MacBook Pro (actually, a couple of them) plus cash for the value difference (and he was quite generous with the valuations), and I now have a MacBook Pro 13" (early 2011, 2.7GHz i7). Not an expected outcome, but it worked out fine in the end. I originally was wavering between a 13" and 15" when I bought the 15" (portability vs. higher performance/larger screen). Now that I have the 13", I think I should have picked up the 13" in the first place.

Kostas