Severe MBP Graphics Issues[Artifacts and freezing]

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USATorque55

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My 15inch MBP[W8626], purchased in July of 06, seems to be giving me major problems.

I'm getting really odd graphics artifacts all the time. It can be as simple as a multicolor line in a window, on the desktop or through an icon. Othertimes its as major as an icon or section of a graphic showing up like its been scrambled and combined with really bright colors. Sometimes it looks like a triangle of a few pixels that have been stretched out.

All of the issues are related to software, as I can make them go away by changing window size—and they only exist in the window or application. The heat coorelates to how severe the artifacts can get, if I'm about 60˚C I'll notice them more, so as a photographer I keep my fan running when I'm doing important work to avoid the crashes.

And finally, the computer will crash with little explanation. Not like things timing out and I look mouse function, but things like the entire screen slowly being tinted green, or everything but the mouse seizes up(when this happens, my caps lock button still works, I can move the mouse just fine, but I can't click anything;commands don't work either.) The crashing can happen when I'm working in Photoshop(comp intensive) or if I only have Mail.app open and I happen to click on the finder icon too fast(very simple tasks).

I have the funds to get this repaired, although I'm confident they will simply replace the logic board and that will not solve my issue—only temporarily put it off another few months.

I'm waiting for the 10.5.2 update, hoping that will fix something. I have all other updates.

Any suggestions?
 
Have you added RAM in it? It could be something with the video card, or with the RAM, or MLB...
First, reset PRAM. It could also be something corrupted in it, so reseting it could make a difference (all your data is safe, so nothing to worry with those keystrokes at startup).
If that will not make a difference (still, give it a try), insert the disc 2 that came with your Mac, or labeled as Apple Hardware Test. To boot to it, hold down the letter D at startup. Run the extended test in looped mode for at least a full evening or preferably overnight - to get it to looped mode, hit control-L (control and small l, no need to capitalize, so capitalized only for easier seeing here). AHT will quit when either it finds an error (and reports the code on the screen), or when the loop is exited with the same keystroke it was started with, or when the Mac is shut down. AHT would usually report if there are hardware errors, but for issues with RAM or graphics, it really needs to run more than once the tests to find out anything.
A few more options would be simple redraw and bad code in program (if it would be only in one program) - check Console application (Applications > Utilities) to see when the redraw issue starts to occur if anything gets added in console.log. Console will really provide more information here. Also if you have shutdown the Mac after a freeze, you can go back in system.log and console.log archives and see what occurred the last times the freezes occurred.
For eliminating the applications/system, repair the permissions with Disk Utility (same location as for Console).
 
USATorque55 said:
All of the issues are related to software, as I can make them go away by changing window size—and they only exist in the window or application. The heat coorelates to how severe the artifacts can get, if I'm about 60˚C I'll notice them more, so as a photographer I keep my fan running when I'm doing important work to avoid the crashes.
Click to expand...
I would think it's the exact opposite -- and that it's hardware related, since it's directly correlated to the temperature of the computer. Just because lines only appear in one window doesn't mean it's hardware related; in fact, it can mean just the opposite, as I suspect in this case.

Try keeping the computer extra-cool while you work one day: point a fan at it, use it with the air conditioner at 50 degrees, take a trip to northern Canada in the middle of February... anything to keep it below normal operating temperature. See how it performs and if the artifacts appear any less. If so, I would strongly suspect something with the graphics card, and it may be time for a trip to the Apple Store or your nearest Apple-authorized repair center.
 
@ElDiablo

I suspect if it were a graphics card issue, that I would see lines across the screen—regardless of what window etc. This issue never happened with Tiger either, regardless of much harder operating circumstances/temperatures.

I'm going to go through with Giaguara's recommendations and see what that does. I think my last resort will be to downgrade back to Tiger.

EDIT: well I ordered an external hard drive to back up. When that gets here, I'll start diagnostics and maybe give my computer in for repair.
 
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10.4 and 10.5 can stress it differently, and give a different temperature.
And also different programs stress different pieces differently. So it is entirely possible it's hardware, but only shows when running certain programs for longer times. Video editing, graphics or virtualization would be another thing to try, so if you've got any 3d programs, games, or Fusion or Parallels, those could give additional errors or odd behaviors or crashes.
And Console will log the errors, .. also if it shuts down, grep for "previous shutdown" in system.log, and view console.log for times things don't appear right.
 
USATorque55 said:
I suspect if it were a graphics card issue, that I would see lines across the screen—regardless of what window etc.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily -- if the problem was with the actual LCD screen hardware, then yes, I would suspect you'd get lines across the entire screen... but it's entirely possible (and quite likely) that artifacts only in certain windows is related to hardware problems (or overheating) with the graphics card.

After that, my next suspicion would be with the graphics drivers themselves, but with your situation, it's just hard to tell.
 
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