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Released June 2009 / 2.66, 2.8, or 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo Processor

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Lines appear on screen when CPU gets too hot

I got this old MBP and I booted it up and started using it but soon some lines began to appear across the screen and at first.

I was kinda confused and so I did some diagnosing. I found that whenever CPU temperature rises the screen starts to look like this.

So, I installed SMC fan control and occasionally put my computer on ice packs to keep it cool.

Sometimes bending or hitting the bottom corners or the laptop will sometimes stop the lines and sometimes make it worse.

I even went as far to re-apply the thermal paste but to no avail. Funny thing is I tried hooking it up to an external monitor and the lines didn't appear on the monitor only on my laptop.

I am really confused and would appreciate any help.

Answer this question I have this problem too

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First I hate SMC Fan Cnt. The problem I have it only masks the problem doesn't fix it!

OK, here's the deal you have a heat issue something is getting too warm and/or the systems cooling system is not working.

So the first thing is to clean out the dust and other junk out. Get a soft paint brush and a can of can'ed air. Carefully, scrub the surfaces as needed to loosen the dust and a quick burst of air blow it away. Make sure you don't over rev the fan as you can damage it. Do make sure to blow out the heat sink fins.

Now lets get something that is useful! Get this app: TG Pro you'll want to get the full version as the trial is not much help any more. With it you should be able to see whats getting hot and if the fan units are working. The built-in diagnostics will help you. Let us know what it tells you post a screenshot when screen starts to get distorted.

Update (05/26/2016)

Looking at your output we can see the fan's are going full tilt so I do think you need to do some cleaning. Dust on the blades lowers their effectiveness. Don't forget the heat sink fins!

The high water mark for your CPU Die is way too high!! I also see your Northbridge chip is running hot as well. Your system is also struggling with I/O.

What is the amount of RAM and what is the size of your HD as well as the free space it has?

I suspect you need more RAM and the drive is small and/or very full. Given the fact you're a gamer you should think about pushing the RAM up to the max here (8 GB). You may need to upgrade your HD if you still have the 320 GB drive. I would jump to a SSD 512 GB as a minimum. Make sure you leave 1/3 of the space free.

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6 Comments:

Dan you should get extra points for fixing the question as well as answering it++

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Thanks Jim, Thats just my OCD popping up once in awhile ;-}

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The key to this is the clear external monitor. Thus the CPU & GPU are putting out a good signal.

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So I turned off the manual control of the fans and just let the system take control and started playing Minecraft (a game that usuals makes the graphical distortion happen) and as I was playing the temperature began to rise. I began to see a little bit of graphical distortion but it would only flash a bit. At first it got up to 100 degrees then started to decline. At about 80 degrees the CPU temp would level out with the temperature at mid to high eighties and the fans at about 6000 RPM. eventually after play for a bit I got it to distort and here is a screen shot of TG Pro (https://www.dropbox.com/s/j77fq53kd7lnbx...). But I exited the game bent my laptop a bit and it was fine.

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I currently have 8GB and a 500GB HDD with 330GB free.

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