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Bad video on 13" Macbook Pro (Early 2011)

yerazunis -

My Problem

The screen on opening would often "lose" blue - everything white would look purple/red.... flapping the lid usually cleared the problem.

But it got worse and worse- sometimes it would lose colors (or gain them) spontaneously in use.

I *hoped* it was just a cable reseat problem - and it was!

My Fix

It went perfectly. Took the bottom off the Macbook with a #0 Phillips, removed the battery with the tri-wing, unplugged the battery connector with the spudger, pulled off the tape pad on the LVDS connector (upper right corner, it's the cable wrapped in black clothlike tape that disappears up into the screen area. ).

Then - and BE GENTLE - use the point on the spudger and then blunt tipped tweezers to flip up the rectangular silver handle around the LVDS video connector and slide the connector horizontally toward the corner of the case, and then reseat. Repeat two or three times to "wipe" the contacts, then flip the silver handle back down, stick the black pad back down on the connector, and reassemble.

Works fine now!

My Advice

The later Macbook Pro case screws are NOT STRAIGHT IN! The screws (and the holes they are threaded into) angle inward, so get a magnifying glass or whatever and look closely at the screwhead so you know what angle to hold the screwdriver at to fully seat the #0 Phillips into the screw head. It's probably 20 degrees or so off from vertical.

I should have tested the screws to see if they fit better with a JIS driver instead of a "standard phillips" but I got through it without damaging any screwheads. The screws may well be JIS, as they have very thin cross-slots.

Heavy-Duty Spudger Image
Heavy-Duty Spudger

$4.99

Tri-point Y1 Screwdriver Image
Tri-point Y1 Screwdriver

$5.49

Pro Tech Toolkit Image
Pro Tech Toolkit

$74.95

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