Wierd Video Problem on MacBook Pro

N

nathaningram

Registered
I have about a 1.5 year old MacBook Pro (15" 2.33 GHz Intel Core2Duo). A few days ago, I was playing a video in Quicktime and the video card/driver went nuts. Ever since I've had little checkerboxes on the screen intermittently. See attached photo. I'm a PC guy till recently. Ive seen things like this happen on a PC and it was bad video memory or a driver issue. I have no basis to troubleshoot this on a Mac. All help appreciated.

Nathan in AL
 

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There is no difference between a Mac and a PC in terms of hardware -- it's all CPUs, GPUs, memory and hard drives. Mac's don't use special memory -- they use standard memory, just like PCs. They don't use special video cards -- they use standard cards with Mac firmware. They don't use special hard drives -- they use standard IDE/SATA hard drives like the rest of the world. There has never, ever, ever been anything proprietary about Mac computers, even before they used Intel processors -- they still used standard SCSI and/or IDE hard drives, PC-66/100/133 memory, etc.

The only thing "special" about Mac computers was the motherboards, and even then, they were still in line with what was available in the industry.

Think of it as the difference between Windows and Linux -- both run on identical hardware, but they're just different operating systems. The same hardware troubleshooting guidelines still apply.

It does look like the video card could be going south. Your best bet would be to take your computer in for service and have someone look at it.

Does the video do the same thing if you log in under a different account, and/or boot from the Restore CD/DVD that came with the computer?
 
I get that it's a "computer" like a PC. What I meant by no basis to troubleshoot is the vast differences in the way the OS handles hardware between Windows and OS X.

So far I have come to the conclusion that this is a heat-related problem. I installed smcFanControl and have the fans running about 3500 rpm. No problem since. Maybe this will help anyone else who runs into this.
 
It seems that a lot of people are finding that the thermal paste applied to the processor and/or video chipset is either lacking, or entirely too much -- both of which can cause overheating issues.

It's definitely not normal to have to ramp up the fan speed beyond what Apple has set in order for the laptop to operate normally.

http://www.product-reviews.net/2007...ops-thermal-grease-still-causing-overheating/

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/20/new-macbook-pros-still-overheating-due-to-misapplied-thermal-gre/

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=199840&page=11

...and the reports go on and on... it may be something worth looking into, and, if you're brave enough, there are videos and how-tos on how to reapply the correct amount of thermal paste. People report excellent results after reapplying thermal paste, including their laptops becoming more stable and significantly lower temperatures.
 
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