Pink lines in white space, green lines in black space?

Quick fix for this issue that at least means you can work on your machine

• install "flux" it changes the colour temperature of your screen and makes the white slightly orange with no pink lines (green is still there)

• To get rid of the green in videos - In VLC go to Window > Video Effects.. and turn the contrast down, yes you lose the reason why you bought a mac with a nice screen but at least everything isn't green. (remember to set VLC as your default player for video files)

• BE WARNED - I left this for a long time and eventually the cable started dropping the image completely (i.e screen was going black)

This issue is almost, 99% of the time, never the cable. The idea that the video cable causes this is a myth that has been perpretrated for years by wishful thinking types because they want a ten dollar fix to their problem. One person says the cable fixed their problem so 100 other people buy an LVDS cable only to realize that wasn't their issue, but since they never come back to the thread to say it was not the issue, no one ever knows... they just assume the $20 fix will work.

Reballing is also BS because the GPU is DEAD!!!! Putting new solder balls on a DEAD GPU does nothing, you are just heating up the dead chip to make it work again, similar to how poking a recently killed bug causes it to move a little until it stops.

Try this if you have a machine with integrated graphics + discrete GPU. boot up, do nothing. Then open photo booth. photo booth turns the integrated GPU off, and discrete GPU on. If you see lines only with photobooth on, discrete GPU is bad. If you see lines only with photobooth off, intel integrated graphics is bad.

Most of the time this issue is screen or GPU related.

If you have an X1600 based iMac or Macbook Pro from 2006-2007, the GPU is probably already dead, or died 3 times already. These are just trash.

If you have a Macbook Pro with GeForce 8600M graphics, it is probably dead already. While not worth fixing, it is at least fixable.

If you have a Macbook Pro with an AMD GPU - it is about to die or has died already. You can replace the chip but it'll die again in a few years, these quad core sandy bridges married to the same heatsink as a junky AMD GPU are trash.

Whether the issue is in the screen, the GPU, the Intel CPU's integrated graphics, the LCD cable, how the LCD cable is plugged in, or the LVDS MUX; this will be specific to YOUR machine. There is no "oh this worked for him so it'll work for me, too", there is no shortcut around thinking, analyzing, and diagnosing on your own. Do not buy a cable because it worked for someone else, do not replace a GPU because it worked for someone else. Figure out your own issue based on your own symptoms, none of that wishful thinking crap!

I was experiencing the same problem with my mid-2010 15.4-inch Macbook Pro with Nvidia GT330M. I could also toggle the effect on and off by pressing on the palmrest just to the left of the trackpad. I found and fixed the problem 100% and I hope this can help others.

It turns out that the Macbook had had its motherboard removed previously and had been reassembled incorrectly. When the motherboard is removed, the microphone typically stays glued to the case just to the left of the trackpad. When the motherboard is re-inserted, the cylindrical microphone housing does not go back into its hole in the speaker correctly. This can be verified by the fact that the motherboard does not lay flat and is elevated by a few milimeters right where the motherboard screw beside the keyboard ribbon cable is. Typically, users will just tighten this screw thereby forcing the motherboard back down into place. What this does, however, is that it slightly deforms the motherboard since the improperly inserted microphone acts as a fulcrum. It seems that this is enough to stress some solder joint or trace somewhere thereby causing the pink/green screen effect.

The solution? Unglue the microphone from the palmrest area and properly insert it into its nook in the speaker. Either that or don't tighten the motherboard screw beside the keyboard ribbon cable. That is what I did and now the pink (on white) and green (on black) screen artifacts no longer occur.

I'm not saying that this will work in all cases but it did in mine and maybe it will also work for you.

So i kept poking around for a fix. I may of found it. There are the little round cushions on the logic board going around the fans. The cushions on the left side as you are looking at the logic board from the back of the laptop. Press on them and see if the green pixels disappear. If so use something to keep pressure on them. I used pennies and paper tape. So far so good. Will keep you posted.

Sadly I bought my MBP used and shortly after it started doing this nonsense. I took it to the mac store who sent it out for a so called fix for $325, but it soon started doing the same crap again right after the 3 month warranty. I like most of you can get it to go away by pressing on the right side at the very front of the laptop. Perhaps we all need to start a class action lawsuit. I know for a fact that we all can't be misusing our laptops. There must be a solution. Perhaps with all our heads working on this issue we will come up with one.

dan's right about the reballing. I heard it is labor intensive, requiring skills and tools that aren't easily accessible. I did go to the Apple store and told them that I thought it was the display (when I really figured it was the logic board). They took the laptop from me and I paid a flat fee of $310 (+tax), the invoice said they replaced everything but the harddrive and the fans-point is, I believe you can get your mobo replaced/fixed for the flat fee.

A simple fix I've settled for is using this app: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/gamma-co...

It allows you to modify the gamma values so that the screen never displays a total black or white, hence preventing the green or pink lines. Only catch is you can't use it alongside Flux or similar. I've changed the Black values by 0.04 and the difference colour reproduction is barely noticeable, but the lines are gone.

I had the pink vertical lines suddenly appear on my early 2011 MacBook Pro 15" a couple days after I replaced the touch pad. By accident, I also found that the screen went completely white if I opened the lid all the way - maybe 180 degrees but the screen images (still with the pink lines) restored immediately when I returned the lid to 90-120 degrees.

So the big clue, of course, is that I had disassembled the innards almost completely, it was my first time to do so, and I already had to reopen the case once before to properly reconnect the keyboard ribbon cable. So, thinking it was some connection near the hinge, I reopened the case and looked for a loose connection near the hinge, and voila! the display data cable (top right corner with fans at top, see photo) was loose! I just used my fingernails to push the little "ears" to put the cable connector all the way in.

It worked! Yay!

add little packing on heatsink end and problem is solve

hi i have the solution! i have disassembly the motherboard of mac and i have put a "thickness" in the midle of the heatsink!!!

for temporary fix u can go in system preference display colors and create a new profile and select target white point and calibrate it on 6710 point if u have green lines on white portion of ur mac or u can try it ... it works

I had the exact same problem and I just fixed it completely and for free.

I simply tightened all the screws on the underside of the macbook holding the unibody together and it went away instantly. If you can make it go away by pressing down on the back then perhaps the same fix would work with you?

Something must be loose though for just slight lack of pressure to cause this problem I imagine...

Ok, so after dealing with this exact issue for almost a month now (pink lines on white, green on black), with the only short fix being to press behind the left shift key, I have come up with a simple solution that may help a lot of people with this.

After taking off the under/back cover and keeping the computer on (as to see the pink lines) I touched different spots to confirm where to pressure needed to be to get rid of the issue. I also notice that if I plug my computer into my TV via HDMI, the screen issue doesn't transfer to my TV, so I knew it couldn't be some hardware issue, but instead had to be some connection issue to my computer screen. Why, then does the pressure "work" to solve it? Well, turns out that behind the motherboard there is some loose connection going on here, and pressing on that point completes the connection that is either loose, or has lost it effectiveness somehow.

So then, there are some ways to approach this:

1. send it to Apple

2. take off the motherboard, and fix the connection yourself

or...

3. just tape a few folded up pieces of electrical tape under that exact spot, and then put your cover back on so that the pressure is kept on this spot (completing the loose connection) thus solving the issue.

This seems to be the best way to fix this without spending money and time. My MacBook is a 2010 model, so I don't see the point in spending a lot of money on repair, or risk going under the motherboard and start soldering this since I am not an electronics pro. Just use something nonconductive like electrical tape so that you don't short circuit your board. Also, I've seen some people suggest taping something like a penny on the outside (under the computer) case but that wasn't as effective as putting tape inside, and seems to only work for an hour or so. It's less direct pressure and isn't as good at applying the needed pressure.

I am encountering this problem as well now on my 2009 17 inch Macbook Pro.

First day it was sufficient to hit it a few times till it went away, but it got more persistent and persistent during the weekend.

Now it seems 'fixed' by making a custom laptop stand which applies pressure to the bottom right under the eject-button and at the battery indicator lights. Tomorrow I will let a few geeks at my faculty look at it and hopefully solve it.

Gary, Nick and Mark, can you give me (or the geeks) tips? What worked?

PS: the screw in the bottom plate nearest to the power-inlet has been gone for a year or so, but it seems unrelated.

UPDATE:

I took a look at the connector of the dipslay data cable to the logic board, which looked perfect, reattached it and screwed it back together, no result. It's still the same. Any ideas anybody? I can't really cough up the dough to replace this laptop and it feels like it is really easy to fix if you know how to do it.

I have the same issue with an MBP Early-2011. The LocigBoard had been changed some months ago, and since some weeks I have that flickering as well, it gets worse and worse.

@gary lewis & oldturkey03:

I found some picture of the possibly related Philips head screw mentioned in gary's post. Have a look here:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/19...

is that the mentioned screw?

Same problem with a mid-2009 core 2 duo unibody. Output to external monitor is unaffected. Applying pressure to the laptop right between the two fans temporarily fixes the problem. I have it under control right now with some packed electrical tape inside the enclosure to apply pressure, but I am only considering this solution as very short-term.

I've had this problem for a couple of days and I haven't found a concise solution online. So, I found that it was the connector for the display on the mobo itself. When I wiggle it, the screen gets worse and can go black/white also. I have ordered another cable on newegg. I hope that helps someone!

I've got the same problem... mostly. I get the pink lines on white, but not the green on black. My temporary solution is to use a small clamp to apply pressure to the casing just below the right speaker. Its a total kludge, but it solves the problem completely.

This is on a 2010, 17" Macbook Pro.

Can anyone explain where the heat sink is that I can look at to try to address this and exactly what you do? Remove/reapply thermal paste to reduce pressure? Add something (a penny?) to apply pressure?

Had needed to take screen off to check hinge. Got this problem on boot up.

Fortunately for me - SMC reset sorted so far.

This pink line problem is remove by following procedure

1 . Remove left side cooling fan

2. Insert wooden pencil (first cut in approx 1 inch in size) in the gap between motherboard and keyboard black paper (purposes is to lift the board)

3 fix fan again

Note Please shut down the computer before removing fan

This is hit and trial method

I personally believe that you have a loose screen cable. In order to fix this, you must take the display off, and check if the cable has a loose connection between the display and the logic board. Once you re-connect the cable completely to the logic board and display, put it back together and see if that fixed it by booting your macbook back up.

Hi everyone. I have had a problem with my macbook pro late 2011 and managed to get rid of the problem following advice on this thread.. the motherboard was replaced a few years ago by apple for free ( even after the warranty had expired) but recently i started to get these annoying red or pink lines on the screen where white should be.

looking for an easy way out and to save money i downloaded gamma control and so far everything is good.

once you download and install it all you have to do is adjust the “ white point luminance “ until the red lines disappear. In my case it was around 0.97 you can try it for free before purchasing but the price is relatively low so this seems to be the best option for me . good luck with yours..

Had this problem with my mid 2010 15” MacBook Pro6,2. Read the solutions here and found that when i pressed on certain spots the lines disappeared. When i removed the bottom of the case, i poked around and found the pressure point where the lines would vanish. Instead of using a penny or a ball of tape, i opted to use 2 CORN CUSHIONS! I simply stuck them to the trouble spot and put the bottom back on. This put enough pressure on the spot to keep the pink lines at bay! Hope this helps!

14 October, 2020

So, somewhere in this string of posts and answers I saw one that talked about a “piece of a pencil”. I have just tried it and it seems to be working—30 minutes and counting.

Note: my fan grills were choked with dust & laptop would get very warm/hot. Had purchased two fan base to help issue.

fix process:

Open the back

remove left fan

wedge 1/4” to 3/8” long piece of pencil between back of keypad and mother board. Make sure to miss solder points!

et voila!

If this fails at some point I’ll amend post. I still don’t know what the actual problem is!

UPDATE!!!!!! 5 NOVEMBER, 2020

PINK LINES ARE BACK! Still same thing—pressure on the case in certain places makes the thing go away. Obviously, the pressure is being put on the inner hardware—but where and what?

I am working on my course work with the open university and i have got to the stage were i have to answer question but ihave to put ticks in some of the boxes but when I put the cursor to the box I get a circle with a line through it which is stopping me from continuing my course can you help me thank you.

thank you Mark hope that you can and i will keep what you do safe so if it happens again I know what to do myself