Q: MacBook Pro screen blinks

Might as well go have it looked at. Plus it's better to have the work done now when it's free than later. Cause I blinking screen is never good. Might die in a year, you never know.

Hi, I'm experiencing the same problem as you all. It is frustrating that company like Apple is ignoring the problem! If they don't do nothing in this case this will be my last Apple products (I use too iPod, iPhone).
I'm waiting for official information from Apple.

bashaq, don't forget to send your feedback about this issue to www.apple.com/feedback !

Well it is a week now since Apple engineers actually acknowledged that they knew about this problem, and still no response from Apple management with a solution for the customers affected.
At this stage nobody is expecting a technical solution, because there probably isn't one, but it should not take too long for Apple to propose a financial solution.
It must be just slightly embarrassing to have 68 pages of complaints in this forum going on over two years, and an increasing number of fed up laptop users who bought in good faith what has turned out to be a duff machine not worth half the price.
I always wonder why Apple put two video chip sets in this machine. Did they already have doubts at the outset? Then surely they must in fairness acknowledge that that was an error of judgement on their part, and pay up.

Exactly Bill Spears. All us us paid a serious amount of cash and got a piece of junk in return.

Too bad the media is always publishing success stories and iPad compliments instead of bringing something like this to the people. I guess that's the only way a company with the size of Apple will pay attention to this.

I kept hoping for a firmware update, but if apple hasn't released a fix in more than a year, I guess we're all out of luck and should go back to PC.

I have started to have similar problems with a standard mac book pro with the 9400M single chip the screen flickers irregularly and the whole machine is unresponsive, is anybody else experiencing a freeze while the flickering is happening?

All most all the time it happens I have to restart the machine in order to break the cycle. Have already taken to the apple store and they said they're was nothing wrong with it after it seemed to pass all of their diagnostic tests. I Am intending to go again but this time with video footage.

how567 wrote:
whole machine is unresponsive, is anybody else experiencing a freeze while the flickering is happening?

On a bad day, yes. I also have to force a restart.

Add yourself to the many and make your problem be known.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

Mine doesn't freeze, but the flickering black is EXTREMELY annoying to me. I'm afraid one morning I'm going to wake up and find that my screen won't turn on because of this issue. I don't have the money to replace this laptop, seeing as I have only had it for a little over a year! Apple needs to fix this. I am a huge fan of Macs, but this is growing ridiculous.

Same thing here. On top of that when I play a video in full screen in the external monitor it freeze for a few sec and logged out.

MBP 2.2 core 2 duo
4gb ram
10.6.6

I just got back from the apple store, after speaking to a tech guy:

He acknowledged the fault, which according to the logs is related to the Nvidia and Open GL, though it still registers as an unkown error. He has taken the computer in for overnight testing to try and find out what is going on... I managed to make the problem surface in store by using the channel 4 on demand site, a site that a few months ago seemed to work fine, is this the same for others?

They guy seemed to say that it was looking like a logic board replacement that would come in at £400! I have read that people on here have still had the problem after the replacement, if so is it worth the risk?

I was also wondering how much of a case I have against it being a manufacturing fault, what are my rights as a customer even if the 1 year warrenty has only just expired?

Regarding Felipe's post, I also experienced a similar screen problem after using full screen video and closing the lid. When waking next day from sleep I got a pretty pattern on the screen (i.e video memory corrupted) which went after a few seconds showing me logging out (which I hadn't). It is not the first time with this laptop that I've had the corrupted video screen but I think its the first time with the 9600 chip in action. Sounds like logic board doesn't it?
The best idea on this thread we seem to have had described so far is to replace the logic board and simultaneously the video chips. I remember this post a few pages back and maybe this cures it for good. On the other hand if Apple is prepared to do this it would surely be cheaper to replace our defective machines with a newer model.
To How 567 I recommend on the strength of this forum thread you insist on a logic board replacement AND a video memory replacement. It should be at Apple's expense despite the warranty expiry, as they have known about the problem (if not the solution) since before you bought it.

Message was edited by: Bill Spears

how567 wrote:
I was also wondering how much of a case I have against it being a manufacturing fault, what are my rights as a customer even if the 1 year warrenty has only just expired?

I'm in the same boat as you, as I think a fair few of us are. I'm guessing that you're in the UK. We are covered by the Sale of Goods Act. This states that items must be "fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality (i.e. not inherently faulty at the time of sale)", and then backed up by the following: "For up to six years after purchase (five years from discovery in Scotland) purchasers can demand damages (which a court would equate to the cost of a repair or replacement)."

I think this thread alone would indicate that there are components in our purchases that are not "fit for purpose". Note that it states 'up to six years', and this is where things becomes moot, as it has to be determined how long our MBPs can be expected to last, but I can't imagine Apple, nor any judge in the land, arguing that it is acceptable for a £1800 machine to pack-up within a couple of years.

Message was edited by: pete_a

I'm glad that someone realized there was something wrong with yours. I most likely have to take mine back to the store I got it, or to the other MacOutfitters that is close to me. I think Apple should give us models that don't bug out after a year of use to be honest. We paid good money for these machines, this isn't fair.

I have a late 2008 macbook pro and using it on Energy Saver caused the screen to blink twice a minute, i resorted to using the 9600gt which seemed to work fine.

Lately i used this http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus small program for automatically changing the video card when switching from battery power to AC. Automatic switching can be enabled in preferences.

Believe it or not the "problem" when using the Energy Saver 9400m has GONE AWAY. Sometimes it blinks once and never blinks again for days.

I've had this problem ever since i upgraded to snow leopard. I have a feeling that the nature in which Apple implemented the two graphics cards in this line has something to do with it the problem too.

I think the implementation was ok when using leopard and something in snow leopard caused some unwanted behavior. Probably, to have the new implementation for the new line of macbooks work correctly they had ignore that this old implementation caused problems.

Now my macbook works perfectly, if not better... since i can apparently switch graphics cards without logging out... and without me constantly selecting which one to use. I actually like my macbook pro again.... after all this time. I even bought a new battery to breathe new life into it.
WORKS LIKE A CHARM.

Message was edited by: basilmir