Why do I have horizontal lines on my screen?

Question

MacBook Core 2 Duo

Model A1181: 1.83, 2, 2.1, 2.13, 2.16, 2.2, or 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo processor

1203 Questions View all

Luis Salamanca @luissalamanca

Rep: 1

1

Posted: Nov 29, 2017

Options

Why do I have horizontal lines on my screen?

Hello guys! It's nice to be here wishing someone can help me with my problem!

I recently bought a MacBook, I have been using Windows for many years. I decided to change because I wanted to start familiarize with OS-X. I know that this machine it's a little bit old but I really want to fix this problem.

I notice that in some colors on the screen appears horizontal lines depending of the profile color screen. I tried to calibrate the screen in order to fix the problem but I haven't had any good results.

I haven't dropped this MacBook, it works and in a good condition. Something curious, the lines are more visible when I watch the screen from the bottom to top. If someone have faced with this problem in the passed please let me know how to figure out.

In this image you can see how it looks like.

Thank you in advance for helping me. =D

Answer this question I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Yes No

Score 0

10 Comments

It's difficult to see in your picture, but when you first turn it on and see the Apple logo, is it a smooth gray color or does it have a slight purplish tint to it? Try booting into Safe Mode by holding shift at startup until you see the Apple logo and then check if the lines are still visible.

Nov 29, 2017 by Adam Baldwin

Hello @rarson , thanks for your response, I really appreciate it. The Apple logo color when I turn on the machine it's in smooth gray. I followed your instructions booting into Safe Mode but the white turned into like smooth yellow color and went more visible the lines. I read on the internet possible solutions, some people say can be inverter problem or the screen, but I don't know. I want to be sure what do I need to fix this. I leave you here more pictures I took:

You can see the horizontal lines with smooth gray color:

https://imgur.com/a/KUGlk

Thanks for your help. =D

Nov 29, 2017 by Luis Salamanca

I doubt it's an inverter issue. The inverter provides the backlight. When they fail, you lose all backlight.

It's interesting that in Safe Mode, your white color turned to a more yellow color.It's possible that the color difference happened to make the lines more visible, so I'm going to assume that's the case.

The fact that Safe Mode produced a color change leads me to believe that it might not be the screen. I guess it's still a possibility, I'm not sure what kind of screen failure would cause the lines in the first place though. Most screen failures I see are either backlight, lines in the screen (individual horizontal or vertical lines which completely fail to reproduce the image, not in any kind of pattern), or total failure to produce a picture.

The thing is, if it's not the screen then it could be the GPU. Try plugging in an external monitor if you can to see what the picture looks like. If it looks the same then we have a strong indication.

Nov 29, 2017 by Adam Baldwin

Thank you @rarson , honestly it's very weird this problem but I'm going to try it with an external monitor. The thing right now I don't have the mini DVI. I'm going to buy and then will tell you what happen. Thanks for all your help.

As soon as come the Mini DVI, I will send you a comment. Ok. =D

Nov 29, 2017 by Luis Salamanca

@luissalamanca You're welcome, keep us posted and hopefully we can get this figured out!

Nov 30, 2017 by Adam Baldwin

Show 5 more comments

Add a comment

1 Answer

It's difficult to see in your picture, but when you first turn it on and see the Apple logo, is it a smooth gray color or does it have a slight purplish tint to it? Try booting into Safe Mode by holding shift at startup until you see the Apple logo and then check if the lines are still visible. — Adam Baldwin
Hello @rarson , thanks for your response, I really appreciate it. The Apple logo color when I turn on the machine it's in smooth gray. I followed your instructions booting into Safe Mode but the white turned into like smooth yellow color and went more visible the lines. I read on the internet possible solutions, some people say can be inverter problem or the screen, but I don't know. I want to be sure what do I need to fix this. I leave you here more pictures I took:

You can see the horizontal lines with smooth gray color:

https://imgur.com/a/KUGlk

Thanks for your help. =D — Luis Salamanca
I doubt it's an inverter issue. The inverter provides the backlight. When they fail, you lose all backlight.

It's interesting that in Safe Mode, your white color turned to a more yellow color.It's possible that the color difference happened to make the lines more visible, so I'm going to assume that's the case.

The fact that Safe Mode produced a color change leads me to believe that it might not be the screen. I guess it's still a possibility, I'm not sure what kind of screen failure would cause the lines in the first place though. Most screen failures I see are either backlight, lines in the screen (individual horizontal or vertical lines which completely fail to reproduce the image, not in any kind of pattern), or total failure to produce a picture.

The thing is, if it's not the screen then it could be the GPU. Try plugging in an external monitor if you can to see what the picture looks like. If it looks the same then we have a strong indication. — Adam Baldwin
Thank you @rarson , honestly it's very weird this problem but I'm going to try it with an external monitor. The thing right now I don't have the mini DVI. I'm going to buy and then will tell you what happen. Thanks for all your help.

As soon as come the Mini DVI, I will send you a comment. Ok. =D — Luis Salamanca
@luissalamanca You're welcome, keep us posted and hopefully we can get this figured out! — Adam Baldwin