This has been happening (seemingly) at random since the latest Snow Leopard update. I upgraded to Lion, hoping that would solve the problem but it did not. The screen goes scrambly green and purple and locks up. Anyone else experiencing this? Specs: 15" MacBook Pro 2007 Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Memory 3 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256 MB Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.1 (11B26) EDIT: Running the ASD indicates my hardware is hunky dory. I have also noticed this only occurs while in OS X; meaning I have not experienced this phenomenon while booted in Linux.
Although I am not prepared to rule anything out just yet; wouldn't that failure be tied to motion? And would that lock up the system?
The cable is connected under the keyboard, if it's loose you probably wouldn't have to hit it that hard to cause a problem. As for it locking up I have no clue if it would cause that or not, it's just a guess.
My iPad screen went funky Matrix fluorescent green a few weeks after I bought it. Reduced it to 0% battery and left it off for a few days, turned it back on, never been a problem since.
This happened to my MBP as well. Took it to the apple store and they fixed it. However I wasn't given an explanation so I have no idea what happened technically. I assume it was hardware as everything runs better graphically on my MBP now than before. But I could be wrong. Apple care protection plan is a great idea.
Usually a graphics card issue. There have been posts on the MacBooks SilverKeys model about cards going out or being affected by how the casing retains heat and then fries it. Apple officially announced this was a defect with the nvidia cards for models May 2007 - September 2008. This also might be good fortune for you since Apple was forwarding all replacement card charges to nvidia and fixing this issue free for Macbook owners, in warranty or not. http://gigaom.com/apple/apple-officially-admits-to-faulty-nvidia-gpus/ http://www.pjentrepreneur.com/2009/01/21/update-mac-book-pro-blank-screen-problem/ Offtopic, but I hated the SilverKeys model - glad I was able to get rid of it on craigslist. The graphics cards were bad, had wifi connection issues, and the batteries were also defective (mine expanded so much it pried itself apart from it's casing). On top of all that, after an hour of use you could fry an egg on the bottom.
Could be an outdated driver. I seriously doubt it is hardware failure. It was great while it lasted. That article says they will replace the card up to 2 years after purchase. However, I don't think that is the problem anyway because my MBP graphics card was replaced after experiencing that failure back in 2008 (with very different symptoms.) Also, I could VNC into the system back then but now it completely locks up. My keyboard didn't work when I first got mine. And my husband's battery did exactly what you described. His keyboard actually became unresponsive because the battery was pushing on it from below. The product line did have a number of serious quality control oversights. Despite all that, still far fewer headaches than my Windows machines.
