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Model A1106 / 1280x854 screen resolution

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Why do I get occasional colored lines across half the screen?

I thought at first that my hard drive had crashed because I tried to start up the machine and it made it to the apple on the screen, but then no further. I tried restarting a couple of times and it was no go. Then I tried again after a couple of weeks and it booted up just fine. I have even upgraded to Leopard since then and it's doing fine. But every once in a while, I get what looks like a bunch of colored lines that completely obscure part of the display - usually the lower half of the screen. If I wiggle the screen, I can make it go away. Perhaps this is unconnected to the earlier failure to boot, I don't know. I have a suspicion that the cable that connects the laptop's display is malfunctioning, but I thought I would ask the experts and seek the recommended repair.

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This recently happened to one of our own PowerBooks, four months after we sold it to a friend. She ended up having to get it repaired. It's a known issue; I found lots of similar reports in the Apple forums. It started out as just a band of black obscuring the bottom of the screen, then progressively ate up more of the screen as weeks went by.

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Since wiggling the display can affect the issue, it is possible the video cable is damaged. The cable runs thru the clutches in such a way as it can be pinched or wear thru the insulation.

The video cable is the blue and yellow cable running thru the right hinge in the following picture:

http://s2.guide-images.ifixit.com/igi/io...

This is a tough repair, as replacing the cable will require a complete teardown of the entire notebook and display assembly.

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