In the last week I started seeing a serious issue with the display on my Macbook Pro (Early 2011, El Capitan) where the screen has gone "crazy". I didn't apply any updates just prior to the issue, so I can only assume that something has changed for the worst. The screen issues manifest themselves in several different ways:
- Interlaced image.
- Totally "Blue" screen (with alternate lines of differing blue)
- Totall black screen (nothing showing)
This one example:
There have been different triggers for this behavior such as
- Click on an random link in Safari (especially one with images, or google maps) But not all the time as I am posting here on the system in question.
- Plugging in a second monitor
Sometimes (if I am lucky) I can still see a mouse pointer and shutting down safari clears the issue. At other times I am forced to power off blindly and at those times it can take 2 or 3 hard reboots to clear the issue an get to a working login screen.
I would love this to be a purely software issue that I can fix by reloading El Capitan, but I am afraid the problem will be related to this question
Macbook pro checkered display, safeboot works
EDIT
Good News Everyone!!
It turns out that there is a known issue with early 2011 Macbook Pro's displays and that Apple is going to replace the logic board for free. This is outside of Apple Care.
This program will end sometime in the future (I did see 4 years after date of purchase mentioned on the Apple site), but even if you don't qualify for a fee replacement the cost of replacing the logic board is only in the order of $USD300 - a lot cheaper than a replacement laptop!
Edit 2
Just got an email from Apple containing in part:
Proposed Resolution: Replace logic board under quality program.
Repair Estimate
Item Number Description Price Amount Due
661-6082 Board, Logic, 2.3 GHz $ 567.05 $ 0.00
S1490LL/A Hardware Repair Labor $ 39.00 $ 0.00
Total (Tax not included) $ 606.05 $ 0.00
