Q: MacBook Pro screen blinks

Hi there!! I affected to with this issue, i just want to know if someone try the shiftControlEject combo to turn the LCD to sleep, when i have the blink badly i press the combo key and every thing return to normal..

Hey FLU71

Yes, hitting ctrl + alt + eject does usually but not always prevent the blinking. I also do not have the problem from a fresh boot. It only occurs after my MBP has been to sleep.

Mine has started blinking I noticed these last couple of days, curiously after having worse symptoms I've posted about.

The first pic here was the latest graphics screen freeze :

http://www.hpwebdesign.co.uk/macbook/macbook.html

Which definitely looks like a hardware issue, so am looking at taking it in for a logic board replacement. Am on holiday for a week in October, so will leave it with them then.

Unless they can convince me its software and due to be fixed real soon.

Where do you stand with something like that? If, say, you take it in, they call software, and then it turns out they were wrong, and hardware dies. But after the warranty runs out?

My screen was replaced on Friday -- I learned that they actually replace the entire clamshell, not just the screen. It had a cosmetic blemish, so the ordered another, which arrived today. I'm using it now...the spotlight blotches are gone, the blinking seems to be gone and it looks fantastic. Time will tell...

Just out of curiosity: antiglare or glassy screen? Mine is antiglare with this issue.

Got mine back last night (glossy screen), looks great, no blinking, no blotches at the bottom....seems sharper, but probably just my imagination. The bill without Applecare would have been over US$750 (parts and labor).

took mine back and got a new one, serial says same batch but 3000+ later build. No blinking at all running on 9400 for over a week.

at this point im thinking bad batch of nvidia chips at the new one is 100% fine.

Hello, this is starting to irritate the **** out of me. I talked to the people in the Genius bar and since it is extremely hard to replicate this to them they said that I should do an "Archive & Reinstall" before asking for a logic board change (which would wipe the OS and try to reinstall it).

Did anyone have a logic board change and saw that it fixes the issue? Also, do you think that Archive & Reinstall would be a smooth process?

Thanks..

I just purchased a refurbished late 2008 MBP 15" 2.4 and have noticed this same issue. I was told by the sales guy at apple (I ordered over the phone) that the machine was actually new but was a custom corporate build that was returned unopened when the new ones came out. So it had 4GB of ram instead of 2GB, otherwise it was stock. The flashing only appears on the 9400M just like everyone else, I have not seen it on the 9400M GT card. I keep my machine on the GT card and plugged in most of the time anyway, so should I really worry about this? On the one hand I don't like to think that part of my machine is defective, but on the other hand I don't know if I'm up for the hassle of trying to get Apple to fix this. I'm running 10.6.1. Is there any news about software a fix for this? I think it's terrible that this issue has been going on for so long (from what I've read here anyway) but then they haven't fixed the annoying speaker-pop issue either, so what can you do?

After almost 50.000 views Apple should know there's something wrong that has to be fixed. It's not an isolated case and it doesn't look like a hardware problem either. People replacing screens and logic boards and everything is the same after a while.

I expect some news or a fix soon, at least some information. My warranty expires in 4 months and the only reason why I'm considering buying Apple Care is this. I'm scared that it might get worse when it's out of warranty, and for what we all paid for this laptop, I think we all shouldn't be worried.

Except of that, I must say the computer is excellent, but it's really annoying that the screen goes black for 100ms and comes back for no reason and completely randomly.

ArinS, I had the logic board replacement done a few weeks ago. I reported last week that I noticed another screen blink since then, but it looks like it was an isolated incident. I haven't had a single problem since. I'm now pretty well convinced that the logic board replacement was a satisfactory fix.

If you send it in for repair, do make sure that you back up all your important files. You may or may not end up with the same machine that you sent in. Don't take any chances, and back up everything necessary (iPhoto and iTunes libraries, documents, internet favorites, etc etc).

Thanks for the reply. It might be the last resort for me unless Apple releases a fix quite soon.

Wow, didn't expect to see this many people with the same issue......

Add me into the mix, I've been watching this forum for weeks, I've got an open case with apple. I was told to reset PRAM, that didn't work. Not too keen on leaving it/sending it for repair until a real solution is found.

I'm having a problem with my MacBook Pro also and its a new one (just got a few weeks ago and Snow Leopard was preinstalled on it) up till today worked just fine but today while using it the graphics suddenly became distorted -- I shut down the MacBook Pro and tried turning it back on -- now neither the Apple logo lights up nor does the screen turn on. I contacted AppleCare and they said it will need repair. They're sending me a shipping box (should arrive by Monday) to send to them for repairs -- since I've only had it for a few weeks its still in warranty and can get free repair.

They gave me a case number and repair number so once I send it to them I can track the status of where it is and the repair status.

I wonder if anyone else has had a problem like the one I've described.