New MacBook connected to external VGA display screen flash.

My setup is a MacBook (late 2008) 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB HD hooked to an Apple 23" Cinema display (aluminum) with the DVI adapter. I run it with the MacBook closed. Sometimes when the display goes to sleep and I wake it up, there is a lot of static on the display and it periodically blacks out for brief periods. The only way I can fix it is to unplug the display from the MacBook and reconnect it. The display worked fine with an older MacBook Pro and a Mac Pro.

I'm also having troubles with an external Dell LCD monitor. Connected via the Display Port VGA adapter, renders the external screen almost useless, just drops out when it feels like it, and sometimes doesn't come back and I have to switch the screen off and on. Apple? will there be a fix for this soon? Your website says "2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colours" but clearly this is not working like it should.

Hi,

I am having the same problem. *When my macbook is plugged to my TFT 23' the display flashes randomly.*
I can`t work with an external display this way. Should I return my macbook or my (expensive)miny display VGA adapter?

Thanks,
Apple, any solution?

I have only the VGA-MDP adapter, but I hook up to a wide variety of projectors, monitors, and panels on a frequent basis. I've had an issue only twice and on different devices: I had the panel-going-to-sleep-and-back-on-again-repeat problem which an unplug-replug of the adapter fixed, and I had the video signal weirdness (lines, flashing, etc) with a projector, and a power cycle of the MB fixed that. Both happened pre-1.2 update.

Speculating about the issues described here, they all sound like signal quality issues of one sort or another, digital or analog as the case may be. There are many things in the path that can affect signal quality from a bad connection (suspect in my issue #1 above) to the video driver chip getting "confused" for some hard or soft reason and requiring to be reset (issue #2 above). They can be transient as in my case, or they can be repeatable in the case of a bad component, firmware, software, or something in the path being out of specification.

In the case of a display working with another system: Turning off the internal display boosts the available power for external signaling and thus appear to "fix" the problem. Using a shorter cable, and/or replacing a connector or the entire adapter may fix a bad or out of spec. connection. Lastly if nothing else works try another system of the same type with the display to see if the fault lies with the connector or video path inside your system. It's also possible for out-of-spec power to the display to cause signaling issues, try the display on a different power circuit. Note that a signal quality issue may work with one combination of system/parts, but not another. The new system with the old "working" display may not be the issue, but sensitive to one that the "old" system did not expose.

"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from!" 🙂

James

In case anyone is unsure what this issue looks like. Here is the same Issue on my external monitor. 22 inch Samsung 1680x1060

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGjoyiGyHmE

I did a 35 minute video and cut together 4 times that it happened into this short video.

The times it happened were at the following time markers and as you can see from the
times it is completely intermittent.

6:27
16:13
30:08
34:52

Same issue here with DP to DVI to Dell 1900FP@1280x1024@60Hz. Thought it was the monitor at first, at my wife complained it would happen on occasion with the previous PC, but this is much more frequent and happens on both the External and Internal displays at the same time. This is making the switch to a MAC very difficult for my wife, it was already hard enough to convince her to move....

There are some firmware updates available for all new MBs and MBPs, I'm about to install them to see if it fixes this issue.

I've installed both firmware updates (MacBook EFI Firmware Update 1.3,
MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.2), and less than 5 minutes in, the screen goes black for a second or so.

Yeah, Ι can also confirm that the new firmware doesn't appear to have addressed this issue.

Posted in other discussion thread, but why not here. Firmware updated, but issue is UNCHANGED.

Running a aluminum MacBook on a Samsung SyncMaster T260HD. First Mac and very disappointed.

I even joined this forum just so I could get this down. Poor showing, Apple.

I have a new Macbook Unibody connected via DP --> DVI to a Samsung Syncmaster 206BW and have exactly the same problem.

Screen goes blank appearing to lose signal at between 5-20 second intervals following no clear pattern. It is highly frustrating when trying to work on both screens.

I have installed both firmware updates released today and they seem to have had no effect.

Just picked up a DVI-HDMI adapter, and plugged it into my Samsung. Does yours have an HDMI input? If so, this will solve the problem (and you'll have to fix up your color profiles a bit to get it to look good). Just picked one up and she's working like a dream. Would like to avoid the adapter in the future though with a software update!

(Running a T260HD which has DVI and HDMI inputs. 2.0 GHz aluminum MacBook)

I have been having these "screen switches off sporadically" problems for days now. Phoned up Apple in Cape Town (digicape) and they are still unaware of these issues. They actually told me that this is probably not a issue with cinema displays, which is not the answer I am looking for. They told me they would get back to me. I am a lecturer, and I expect to be able to connect to any projector I please as well.

After spending R500 (about $45) on a miniDP to VGA adaptor, I expect it to work with whichever monitor I please. I bought two macbooks, two adaptors, both have exactly the same problem, even when connecting to different monitors, ranging from 1280 up to 1920 resolution.

How has Apple not made a official statement about this, this is a clear cut hardware problem. Please create a a firmware update, it is unacceptable.

This is now getting really frustrating, I bought this MB partially to use with an external display. I was under the impression that this was gonna be fixed with todays updates but I guess not. Come on Apple! No word yet?? Im gonna have to return this thing if this issue doesnt get resolved now.