MacBook Pro screen blinks

I'm at peace right now 🙂 phew... we deserved it !

For the EFI upgrade first timers as I am:

- when the macbook reboots you will probably hear a long and loud BEEP, that's normal, just WAIT...

Bye everybody.

It just works, awesome. 🙂

I really like it that Apple finally found (and delivered) a solution. Even more, it seems to me that scrolling is much smoother now. Has anyone else noticed a change in scrolling?

Bye

****, than is not just my me.... i had the same exactp impression in scrolling with double finger but i thought it was just a placebo effect!

Thorsten AB wrote:

It just works, awesome. 🙂

I really like it that Apple finally found (and delivered) a solution. Even more, it seems to me that scrolling is much smoother now. Has anyone else noticed a change in scrolling?

Bye

I didn't get to use it long enough to notice a difference; but I was able to install the update on my March 2009 "spec bump" model (2.66GHz). It's still identified as a Macbook Pro 5,1. No blinking observed during the few minutes I used it after the update.

I'm wondering if the "smoother" performance is a result of the 9400 being completely disabled now. Maybe the update simply underclocks the 9600 in battery-life mode but uses the discrete GPU full-time. Maybe I'm a pessimist; but I still can't figure out how an EFI update would fix a hardware issue.

I know what you mean. Still, gfxCardStatus still seems to switch between the graphics modes. And System Profiler seems to indicate both are in play. The only other indicator I know of to tell which mode is being used (besides the blinking of course) is the termperature. So far it seems low, consistent with the 9400, but I'll have to watch it...

charlie

CausticPuppy: how can you know is an hardware issue?

Just because of screen flicker? Maybe it was a simple memory leak that needs to be addressed.... there are milions of possible causes, i think nobody in here can tell what it really was.

For sure temps and battery life will be observed for long after this update.

I don't know for myself that it was a hardware issue, but that's just the impression I got from keeping up with this thread. And based on the fact that there were known hardware issues with previous nVidia chips in apple notebooks.

Wow,

I have to admit this is way too much for me. 🙂 I've never looked into this, so I cannot confirm any of it. But, for what I can tell, I go with CausticPuppy's opinion that it seems a bit strange that an EFI-Update could fix an hardware issue.

But maybe you could tell us more in a week or two. 🙂

Thorsten

Given the age of these notebooks, doesn't it make more sense that Apple would just release a kludgy workaround than a real fix (especially if it WAS a hardware issue?) 😁

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop smoking crack.

That's what Apple kept telling until yesterday (at least people wrote that in this thread).

workaround, fix, these terms ar just.... terms.

IF this fixes the flickering video

IF this doesn't have any impact on the battery

IF this doesn't have any impact on the temperature

IF this still uses the 9400M videocard instead of the discrete videocard

what do you care about the way they've implemented it?

And BTW, i've just bought a late 2008 MBP and just after i brought it @home i've seen this issue, so welcome to this fix (or workaround) if this solves the problem, even 3 years and half later

LukeD wrote:

I have found further evidence that this issue is not faulty hardware, at least for me.

I have booted from a "live" Linux CD of Mint 7, and I have experienced no issues.

Everything that I have experienced suggests an incorrectly set refresh rate thanks to a driver conflict that has been caused by 10.6.2.

I had called this a software problem back in November 2009! All those wasted logic boards. Wow!

Here is my big question. The last firmware update for the MacBook Pro 5,1 had increased the RAM capacity from 4 GB to 8 GB. Does this new firmware update preserve the 8 GB increase, or does it bring it back down to 4 GB?

LukeD: i've got 8GB Crucial RAM and no issues found after firmware upgrade.... 🙂

You clearly know little about the issue. Only OS X can use the 9400, windows and Linux are 9600-bound. The flickering issue was present long way before 10.6.2. I had it in 3 Oss. It was clearly a hardware issue since some other machines like 2009 MBP 13" only had the 9400 with no problems; and to us a logic board replacement often changed the frequency of the issue.