Grey Lines Mar MacBook Air Displays

adamengst writes "Numerous users have been complaining about grey lines that muddy the crispness of the displays of the recently updated MacBook Air. Doug McLean explains the problem in TidBITS, along with what Apple appears to be doing about it."

Comments

"Muddy the crispness"?

[Anonymous Coward]

What, is this an audiophile forum now? I can only assume the lines fluff up the felty softness too.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Lumpy]

The problem is that these users are not conditioning their laptop displays before use. It's well known you need to play a very diverse video before any actual use so that the screen is "exercised" and ready for use. they get stiff after sitting off for a while.

Also using directional USB cables as well as cleaning the keyboard with a gold based cleaning solution will help enhance the crispness of the display.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[LMacG]

Also, marking around the edge of the display with a green felt-tip pen will keep all the pixels in proper alignment.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[AdamPee]

You can't start out with too diverse video, your computer could pull a driver. Instead, start off gently, something like a screensaver, and move on to something a little more rigorous as it warms up.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Lumpy]

Gold is passe now.

Platinum coated Low Oxygen titanium with iridium tips are what is needed now.

Also be sure that your Ethernet cables are of quality. http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3429.asp# is the only cable that is worthwhile for any performance computing.

using a lesser cable will cause muddyness.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[elrous0]

My wife flipped out and left me when I bought those instead of paying the mortgage last month. Too bad for her that she's not here to enjoy the cleanest USB signal I've ever seen!

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Anonymous Coward]

I get stiff after playing my diverse videos for a while. Then my right arm gets exercised.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[morgan_greywolf]

OMFG, make it stop! That's a $499 shielded twisted pair cable. I'm sorry, but as far as data loss goes, I've pumped GigE and even 10GigE to the limit through ordinary, bargain basement unshielded CAT 5e and CAT 6 cables respectively with 0 data loss. Even ordinary STP cables aren't that expensive if you really need it.

These cables are ridiculous.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[DrinkDr.Pepper]

For just $49.99 (+S&H) I will send you my patented green felt-tip pen pixel alignment tool. It's alcohol-free ink is designed maximize the pixel aligning properties associated with green felt-tip pens.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Registered Coward v2]

Gold is passe now.

Platinum coated Low Oxygen titanium with iridium tips are what is needed now.

Also be sure that your Ethernet cables are of quality. http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3429.asp# is the only cable that is worthwhile for any performance computing.

using a lesser cable will cause muddyness.

Agreed. It is also very important to ensure you use teh uni-directional Ethernet cable properly. It uses a special extruding and annealing process to line up all the electronic data pipes properly so that you get maximum data throughput in the download direction while limiting upstream traffic within ISP limits. If you install it backwards, as one of my cow orkers did, you'll severely limit your connection speeds since you are now throttling the download speed. His connection went from 2400 baud dialup speeds to past T1 after I simply reversed the cable. Don't bother to buy any of the special oxygen blocking gels that people tout for covering the connectors to prevent corrosion and maximize conductivity. They actually are harmful - you need a little bi-metallic corrosion between the connectors to ensure a nice, tight electrical bond; that's why your speeds go up after you've warmed up the cable and let it break in. I never disconnect my Ethernet cable from my MacBook for that very reason. I always disconnect at my router and carefully wrap the cable around my MacBook for travel. I hope this helps. HAND.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad for her, she is not going to enjoy the benefits of mortgage bailout you gonna get :)

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[theaveng]

>>>Thank you, Captain Obvious, for that enlightening post.

That's alright. Captain Obvious trumps Seaman Asshole.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[theaveng]

>>>If you install it backwards, as one of my cow-orkers did, you'll severely limit your connection speeds

Wow. I flipped my telephone line around this morning, and my modem speed increased from 14k to 53k! I've had my line backwards for the last twenty years. I feel so dumb. Maybe if I hadn't wasted my youth orking cows I'd have noticed this flaw earlier.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[_Sprocket_]

The nuances come from the computer DAC chip's ability to turn 1's and 0's into sound, and that's where audiophiles should spend their money, not on a $500 gold-plated cable.

I believe you missed this particularly helpful feature:

Additionally, signal directional markings are provided for optimum signal transfer.

Your 1's and 0's aren't getting anywhere without some directional markings to let them know which way they're going. Of course, Denon made a mistake by showing the directional marking (a double-sided arrow) in their product picture. Now all manner of hardware hackers will be simply using a magic marker to apply this wonderful feature to their bargain-basement cables. It won't work quite as well as the professional screen-printed version Denon provides. But then that level of quality is beyond the hardware hacker.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[A440Hz]

I bet these folks having problems aren't using the recommended cone points on the bottom of their MacBooks. The cone points reduce vibrations, which in turn, result in more pure electron flow and computations which have more fidelity and life. 1s and 0s take on new oneness and zeroness that was heretofore only available on the largest supercomputers. Oh, and the grey lines go away, too.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[IronChef]

Don't fall for that gold-infused keyboard cleaner bullshit. Nothing is more important than the pH of the cleaner, which should match that of the primordial seas.

If your keyboard is too acidic vowels will suffer from a lack of sensitivity, making a left circle-strafe difficult.

For this reason, I wear museum artifact restoration style cotton gloves whenever I use my keyboard, to keep my keyboard free of any possible pH imbalance.

That and a green sharpie are all you need and anyone who says otherwise is selling you snake oil.

Wait, what were we talking about?

Excuse me, I need to go break in some ethernet cables.

Re:"Muddy the crispness"?

[Zencyde]

Don't buy from him. I'll sell you a better one for $199.99 with free shipping. Trust me, the more expensive something is, the better it is.

First gray line

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not a bug, it's a special effect. Suck it up, fanboys!

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

It's all how you look at it

[iamdrscience]

I for one, think that a few grey lines make a display look distinguished.

Re:It's all how you look at it

[Rude Turnip]

Clearly, they are speed lines to make the Mac even snappier!

Re:It's all how you look at it

[je ne sais quoi]

No, you can use for the point releases for the OS and the finder too. For example: "Apple just released OS 10.4.x and even though the patch notes say there were only unrelated security and bug fixes, the finder feels snappier!" This is attributable to well-documented ability of the chips in Apple computers to overclock themselves by sensing the level of smug satisfaction and air of superiority of the user. :)

Re:Step 1: Deny everything

[Svippy]

Step 2: Start another ad with an undergrad making fun of his computer science professor.

Step 3: Profit!?

Re:Not just for the new ones...

[David Gerard]

The answer is to buy a new MacBook like a good consumer. Ask Steve! He can display your captured and tormented soul perfectly on the new MacBook Air. If you can't, you just need more Apple products and probably a tattoo.

I'm trying to imagine what a Google laptop would look like. Tasteful understated text ads subliminally woven into the display, probably. Free but doesn't have a hard disk.

Quit Complaining!

[decalod85]

My Mac SE from 1988 had all grey lines! You kids and your 'color' monitors...

Re:Step 1: Deny everything

[Farmer Pete]

Wow, you totally got this one wrong. You missed the very vital step (see below)

Step 1: Make expensive laptops with a shitty display.
Step 2: Start another ad with an undergrad making fun of his computer science professor.
Step 3: ????
Step 4: Profit!

Re:tag: appleispants

[TheRaven64]

Note this only makes sense in English. In American, the phrase means 'x is trousers,' which is quite nonsensical.

Re:tag: appleispants

[foo fighter]

And "x is rubbish" is a British phrase meaning "x sucks".

Re:tag: appleispants

[Lemming Mark]

Note this only makes sense in English. In American, the phrase means 'x is trousers,' which is quite nonsensical.

Nope, it's not English versus American. You're thinking of British versus American. In the English dialect, the correct phrase would be "jolly bad show, old chap" or the alternate form "cor blimey, guv'nor, one is not amused".

More you need to do

[gsgriffin]

All FanBoys also know that you must love on your machine. Unlike PC varieties that don't need to burn in a laptop display like a transmission on a new car (from 20 years ago), you need to love your machine.

-Stroke the keys lightly as if to say, I love and want everyone to see me holding your hand as I walk down the street.
-Offer the CD/DVD to the machine with both hands. Don't force it in, be very gentle the first time. It needs to loosen up a little before you start inserting them more aggressively.
-Speak lovinging. With your enthusiasm of buying an overpriced, sexy trophy computer, you might be tempted to do a cool dance and yell and scream. This can produce flying spit that may land on the keyboard and render it soft and cushy feel.
-Carry with a keyboard pad. Never close the lid without putting a soft pad over the keyboard. The display and keys with chafe. Don't use powder to reduce chafing.

Re:Not fair

[value_added]

You PC-using commoners just don't understand good design ascetics.

Some days, there just aren't enough words ...

Re:tag: appleispants

[David Gerard]

In Modern English, one would throw in a few "faakin caarnt" as well, or risk not being understood.

Re:Premium laptop?

[Anonymous Coward]

He's also comparing the MacBook Air to an expensive whore. Come on, the guy is obviously trolling.

Re:tag: appleispants

[Anonymous Psychopath]

In California it means an evil baseball team.

...from apple bugzilla site

[mriya3]

bug #5464349

Description:
I get strange grey lines on the screen on my macbook air

idared.braeburn@support.apple.com ---2008-12-05 15:02:20 --- Comment #1
Changed status: NEW -> CONFIRMED

renette.cox@support.apple.com ---2008-12-05 13:05:25 --- Comment #2
The desktop cannot be displayed without grey lines because Steve thinks grey lines are cool. Could you please try not to think too different?

suntan.gravenstein@support.apple.com ---2008-12-05 15:02:20 --- Comment #3
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug #1 "Users may think differently from Steve" ***

renette.cox@support.apple.com ---2008-12-05 16:32:25 --- Comment #4
Hey suntan, for bug #1 we already have a patch "555-censor-messages-from-forums.patch"

granny.smith@support.apple.com ---2008-12-05 18:02:20 --- Comment #5
Changed status: NEW -> WONTFIX

New Macbook Air lines

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple has responded to this issue by announcing new lines of Macbook Air with pink, aqua, and green lines in addition to the classic grey.