MacBook Air screen problems

macbook proscreen

I have a MacBook Air 13 inch laptop since 2011. Quite recently the screen had problems. It start flickering, changing colors, and vertical lines appeared in the middle of the screen. All these are starting when I move the screen backwards, forward or when I am lightly pressing with the fingers the top of the screen. This is also the only way to re-adjust to normal operations.
Any recommendations?

Best Answer

These symptoms all point in the same direction, there are some hardware issues. Perhaps a loose contact somewhere, moisture on the main board or display controller, etc. The fact that they happen or increase when moving the screen further back, all just add weight to the above analysis.

Your best bet is to take your laptop to an Apple Store or Apple Service Provider and let them have a look.

Related Solutions

MacBook – diagnosing (likely) hardware fault on MBP 15” (early 2011)

Get the original DVD of your MacBook Pro, and boot it with the D key pressed. This will fire the Apple Hardware Test.

If you can have an hand on your system for enough time, open it to a remote access from another computer on your network (Ethernet or Wireless):

System Preferences > Sharing

enable:

Screen Sharing

Next time your display doesn't let you talk to your MacBook Pro, try to access it from your other computer and check that your MacBook Pro is up and running (this is my blind bet, please confirm ☺).

If it is running,

don't any more use the ^ ctrl⇧ shift⌥ alt while powering it off when your OS is up and running
rather make it remotely shutdown, wait 15 seconds, and then apply the above 4 simultaneous button press to reset the SMC.

MacBook Pro late 2011 had GPU problems

No, you most likely have the very same common GPU issue. Seeing the glitches multiple times is a sure tell sign.

Beneath all that drama caused by resetting and tweaking things, temperature variations on the GPU contacts were what caused the glitches and the inconsistent behaviors. Your laptop is probably in the initial phase of GPU(soldering) failure. Sooner or later the problem worsens and more severe graphic glitches will appear or the computer simply becomes unbootable.

You can try the simple steps below to stress-test the GPU, but by doing so you could be accelerating the problem and end up in an unusable state sooner. You can decide if it's in your interest to forcefully trigger the problem. Regardless, these steps are not beyond any normal operating parameters, so if your laptop is immune from the GPU problem you are not doing anything harmful by performing these steps, warranty-wise especially.

Get a temperature & fan speed monitoring app like iStat Menus that can show you fan speeds, CPU and GPU temperatures in real time.
Run a GPU benchmark app to stress the GPU. Valley or Heaven should work, for free. Keep running/looping so the GPU temperature stays around 70'C or higher, for as long as possible (hours).
You should pause the benchmark app periodically for the temperature to drop down (back to 45~50'C range). Or just turn it off at nights. Repeat the heating/cooling process until the symptoms appear.

This test might end up proving nothing, and yet it doesn't mean the GPU is trouble-free. It takes time and many temperature cycles for the solder joint problem to become apparent.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MacBook – diagnosing (likely) hardware fault on MBP 15” (early 2011)

MacBook Pro late 2011 had GPU problems

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