Macbook Pro graphics tearing

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
My wife has got a current gen Macbook Pro that is exhibiting a very strange behavior. When she's on battery power she gets graphical glitches/tearing when scrolling in a browser. I'm not sure if it happens in other documents as well and she mainly has it plugged in so it normally isn't happening.



I've been patiently waiting for a SU to fix the problem assuming that it is something that everyone is experiencing, but I finally decided to start looking around for a fix and am not seeing a lot of info about the problem. Is this something that others are seeing or is there a problem with this specific machine?



I'm attaching an image to show what it looks like.



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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 33
    Odd. I have the same MBP and don't get this.
  • Reply 2 of 33
    I have a current generation mbp and I have the same problem. Also when loading web pages, often with pictures, the content in the active window flickers a lot.
  • Reply 3 of 33
    sybariticsybaritic Posts: 340member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hawkland View Post


    I have a current generation mbp and I have the same problem. Also when loading web pages, often with pictures, the content in the active window flickers a lot.



    This happens to me all too frequently?and on a variety of machines?when I use Word.
  • Reply 4 of 33
    i occasionally get that same problem on my penryn MBP.
  • Reply 5 of 33
    See this news report:



    Apple's latest notebooks plagued with graphics glitches

    http://apcmag.com/apples_latest_note...s_glitches.htm
  • Reply 6 of 33
    I purchased my new 15" MBP in early March... the 2.5ghz model (mid range) and I do not see any of these graphics problems yet. I would certainly like to assist with this problem, so I am wondering how I can replicate the issues.



    1) What browser were you using?



    2) Is the problem occuring only when the laptop is running on batteries?



    3) Can I replicate the issues using quicktime too?
  • Reply 7 of 33
    It happens in Safari and Firefox both. It only seems to happen when it is on battery, not when it is plugged in. Not sure about Quicktime - I'll check that at some point when I get on the machine (it's not mine )



    This has happened from day one so if you're not seeing it I doubt you will. It also exhibits a dramatic flickering when viewing flash movies online.
  • Reply 8 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by The Pie Man View Post


    It happens in Safari and Firefox both. It only seems to happen when it is on battery, not when it is plugged in. Not sure about Quicktime - I'll check that at some point when I get on the machine (it's not mine )



    This has happened from day one so if you're not seeing it I doubt you will. It also exhibits a dramatic flickering when viewing flash movies online.



    Thanks Pie Man!!!



    I hate to see my fellow lemmings having trouble with their machines... Did the machine you are looking at download the Leopard Graphics Update that was offered a month or two ago as a update??? I was going to install that update but was too lazy to and it eventually disappeared from the update offerings...



    I guess the next step would be to identify the lot serial #s of the afflicted machines......





    MacLemming
  • Reply 9 of 33
    I believe it did get that update.



    Looking at the news thread over on Ars, I reset the PRAM and it seems to have fixed the tearing problem with scrolling web pages. I haven't gotten a chance to do much testing other than to reset and browse a few pages, but initially it looks like it fixed the issue.



    Be curious if others see the same result by resetting the PRAM.
  • Reply 10 of 33
    I have been having the same problem for months now.



    I have the original 17 inch MBP when they came out in May of 06.



    I took my MBP to a mac store back home and had them run a full diagnostics check, but i got nothing back.



    I get the problem when scrolling online, as well as with play back on VLC
  • Reply 11 of 33
    bobertoqbobertoq Posts: 172member
    it happens to me sometimes on my brothers MacBook (owned by his school.... so not really his MacBook)
  • Reply 12 of 33
    I may be speaking too soon, but I _think_ the Safari 3.1.1. update Apple pushed out today might have fixed this.
  • Reply 13 of 33
    I'll have to update and see what happens. Resetting the PRAM fixed the scrolling issue, but the flickering flash still remains apparently.
  • Reply 14 of 33
    kennywrxkennywrx Posts: 141member
    Peryn MBP owner here... I don't see any graphic tearing, but I have to say the first days of use, scrolling was painfully slow and not smooth at all. Not the warmest welcome back since having owned a Performa 550 back in the days.
  • Reply 15 of 33
    So the tearing is back (the PRAM reset only worked for a couple days). Flickering is there with flash videos still, and this morning my wife had a kernel panic for the first time. I'm wondering if this isn't GPU related and not something in software.
  • Reply 16 of 33
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by KennyWRX View Post


    Peryn MBP owner here... I don't see any graphic tearing, but I have to say the first days of use, scrolling was painfully slow and not smooth at all. Not the warmest welcome back since having owned a Performa 550 back in the days.



    Please use your head. Don't compare the bitmap dumping to screen of a Performa 550 to direct line by line draw to screen/memory back and store double buffering of a modern web browser and today's system capabilities.



    One plausible scenario: Flash

    When you are getting more and more pages with embedded Flash you will continue to see more and more tearing until the mechanism for Flash is improved. I'm on Linux and OS X and all my browsers go into lock mode waiting for flash to fully download, store in cache and run execute priviledges to the memory buffers.



    It's getting extremely annoying that everyone and the mother is turning their entire web sites or many blogs with dozens of flash embedded "YouTUBE" files in their pathways [mainly external links] and begin to bitch that their browsers are slowing down.



    This biggest piece of bloatware Macromedia, now Adobe owned, has made browser and parsing web sites an absolute pain in the ass.



    There is nothing more invigorating than going to a site and in a single page their are 10 or more externally linked Flash snippets that are from various sites with varying bandwith capabilities.
  • Reply 17 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post


    Please use your head. Don't compare the bitmap dumping to screen of a Performa 550 to direct line by line draw to screen/memory back and store double buffering of a modern web browser and today's system capabilities.



    One plausible scenario: Flash

    When you are getting more and more pages with embedded Flash you will continue to see more and more tearing until the mechanism for Flash is improved. I'm on Linux and OS X and all my browsers go into lock mode waiting for flash to fully download, store in cache and run execute priviledges to the memory buffers.



    It's getting extremely annoying that everyone and the mother is turning their entire web sites or many blogs with dozens of flash embedded "YouTUBE" files in their pathways [mainly external links] and begin to bitch that their browsers are slowing down.



    This biggest piece of bloatware Macromedia, now Adobe owned, has made browser and parsing web sites an absolute pain in the ass.



    There is nothing more invigorating than going to a site and in a single page their are 10 or more externally linked Flash snippets that are from various sites with varying bandwith capabilities.



    This isn't a browser choking on flash (I'm a web designer btw). Tearing is happening on any and all pages, and the flash issues are something I've never seen before in 10 years of web design across many many different machines.



    But yeah, flash on Macs sucks.
  • Reply 18 of 33
    clint hclint h Posts: 1member
    Ok.. it appears that the Leopard Graphics Card update was bogus and caused this headache.



    Refreshing the PRAM and other things just DONT get it done.



    Here is the fix.



    Load the Leopard install disk and reload Leopard onto your mac. You need to be careful not to reformat your hard drive. Choose the second options which creates a folder and places your old operating system files into that folder and reinstalls Leopard onto your computer.



    Then update the system. This time the software update will not include the graphics card update.



    This fixed everything for me.



    Chow.



    Clint Harris
  • Reply 19 of 33
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by The Pie Man View Post


    My wife has got a current gen Macbook Pro that is exhibiting a very strange behavior. When she's on battery power she gets graphical glitches/tearing when scrolling in a browser. I'm not sure if it happens in other documents as well and she mainly has it plugged in so it normally isn't happening.



    I've been patiently waiting for a SU to fix the problem assuming that it is something that everyone is experiencing, but I finally decided to start looking around for a fix and am not seeing a lot of info about the problem. Is this something that others are seeing or is there a problem with this specific machine?



    I'm attaching an image to show what it looks like.







    how do u get a picture of ur screen because on a mac there is no print screen button like on a pc keyboard,



    also it bight be because i have the wireless one
  • Reply 20 of 33
    londorlondor Posts: 258member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tdhockeyfan424 View Post


    how do u get a picture of ur screen because on a mac there is no print screen button like on a pc keyboard



    http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/...ial=screenshot
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