Some MacBook Air screens flickering, freezing

Users report horizontal, vertical lines appearing across screen

Some of Apple's new 11- and 13-inch MacBook Air notebooks have been suffering from screen problems, including horizontal and vertical lines appearing across the screen, color changes, and blank and gray screen crashes. Others have reported odd kernel problems (essentially the Blue Screen of Death). So far the only Band-Aid for the screen defects is a CPU reboot.

Apple has internally acknowledged these problems, according to Boy Genius Report, but has yet to address it publicly. Is another iPhone 4-esque apology coming?

There's a lot of noise on Apple's support discussion forums, ignited by poster DanRyb, who wrote, "Every so often while using [the MacBook Air], the screen has a ton of weird colors in vertical lines (extends the whole display) and the entire laptop has frozen. I have to force it off with the power button and reboot it. It happens at random times."

Other users (including Macworld) experienced identical issues, their frustration accentuated with exclamation points and sad faces. Even installing the MacBook Air (Late 2010) Software Update 1.0 didn't work, which makes sense, given that this is likely a hardware problem, like the iPhone 4's wonky antenna.

Apple's current solution: store associates shrugging their shoulders and handing out replacement laptops.

"Apple's internal support system includes suggestions for interim fixes in each of these cases, but no permanent fixes are available at this time," BGR's source said.

Apple's latest MacBook Air came with decent price cut, but it's still expensive, and, apparently, pretty broken. This issue, paired with the iPhone 4's hardware problem, sends a message: Apple isn't perfect despite the high regard many hold for the company.

by  Brennon Slattery

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