14 DAY TRIAL // Apple Discussions (forum) users have revealed that Apple's latest introduced unibody MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2009) might have some video issues. The problems seem to stem from heat building up inside the machine as the user enables the more powerful GFX graphics solution.
Discussions poster forcefedmedia, a camera operator and video editor, has been in the possession of one 17-inch Pro for just three days. Recently, the user noticed green lines showing on the notebook's screen soon after enabling the powerhouse graphics.
“I have been getting some pretty bad green lines down everything when I use the more powerful GFX card,” reads forcefedmedia's post. “This machine is brand new… the lines do seem to get worse as the card heats up.”
The user then posts the pictures available below, and adds, “I am disgusted with the quality of these laptops. The irony is that the new laptop was meant to be a replacement for a replacement Macbook Pro that has a terrible trackpad and loads of other problems. I really hope this is a firmware issue... It seems to disappear for a short while if the SMC is reset... but literally for only 10 mins or so,” forcefedmedia writes.
Needless to point out, several other 17-inch Pro users are telling the same story, while the issue seems to be cooling-related – not a GPU problem. User Christian Siebe, for example, says, “I've got the exact same problem, with a 3 day old Unibody 17", 2,93 GHz, 4GB ram, matte display. Problem disappears for a while with a restart. Seems like the 9400 is unaffected.”
“I hope I don't have to send it in, especially because I love everything else about this machine,” the user adds, revealing that “battery life is actually 8 hours” which he claims he never expected. Christian continues lauding the notebook saying that the “the matte screen is gorgeous and the computer is extremely fast.” His solution, for now, is to run the 9400 card “untill [sic] somebody figures out what this problem really is.”
If proven a cooling issue, Apple is likely to release an SMB firmware update for MacBook Pro owners in the coming days. Is anyone else experiencing this? Be sure to leave a comment if you have something to add yourselves.