What's the cause of 'static' or zebra stripes on a MacBook Air display?

Question

My MacBook air will display a weird static pattern upon being woken from sleep, most often when I switch from one network location to another (although it also happens when I awaken it at the same place.)

Rebooting the machine makes the problem go away.

Example screenshot:

Any ideas on what could be causing it?

Solution

Looks like bad video drivers, or failing video RAM, or video adapter, additionally it could be a loose connection inside the notebook (i.e.: from the motherboard or video adapter to the LCD panel itself).

If you're not comfortable opening it and attempting repairs yourself, then I think it's time to take it in for hardware checks and possible replacement.

A couple similar questions to perhaps check out:

• Screenshots are distorted on Mac Mini with NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
• Netbook screen display is garbled (has black/white & horizontal line patterns, screen freezes, and/or wrong display position)

Comments

[HikeMike]

It's just the area of one window on the screen, right?

[Dave Rodger]

Sorry; additional clarification -- in the attached screenshot it is clearly in one app window area -- however, it also occurs in the top of the screen (in the Apple menu bar) and other places.

[HikeMike]

But it's always one "item" being displayed, right? Be it Dock (rectangular outline), menu bar, a window, or maybe an icon. It's never like in the other questions linked by techie007?

[Dave Rodger]

Ah; yes -- it definitely appears to be bounded by a window region or box -- i.e. feels like software not hardware from that perspective. Although sometimes it is the whole screen -- when I have screen saver on and wake it up, e.g., or when doing a restart, the whole screen goes like that.

[Admin]

I have exactly the same issue. However, I don't have to reboot in order for the symptoms to go away. I only need to close the screen for about 10 seconds. When I reopen, things are back to normal, but it's still a bit annoying.

[fixer1234]

That was my initial reaction, also, but the problem is not the whole screen, just the contents of a window.