Q: MacBook Pro screen blinks

My macbook pro is still under warranty. I've had a new logic board and screen, even though the repairer couldnt see a fault when I took it in - this is what apple told me to get replaced. Now it's going to another repairer. Having read that someone took a video of the screen flickering, I got my camera and put it in video mode and just took a 2 minute shot. There are 3 flickers and I am putting it on my desktop for the repairer to see.

Something else that happened - when I got it back from the first repair - my computer didnt recognise my backup drive nor my iphone. So what did I do? I had to erase my old backup as there wasnt enough space on the external hard drive. Since then, I have found out I am missing an excel file - and boom - it's gone forever... or does anyone know what I should do. As it's not an apple application, do I have to go to the dreaded microsoft to find out where this file could be hiding?

I'm seriously thinking of getting the extended warranty, due in month or so as mine is a reconditioned one - and I'm not sure I'd be buying another one!

Alison Moss wrote:

Something else that happened - when I got it back from the first repair - my computer didnt recognise my backup drive nor my iphone. So what did I do? I had to erase my old backup as there wasnt enough space on the external hard drive. Since then, I have found out I am missing an excel file - and boom - it's gone forever... or does anyone know what I should do. As it's not an apple application, do I have to go to the dreaded microsoft to find out where this file could be hiding?

If you have erased your old backup, then it may be too late. Time Machine backups use an identifier tied to the main logic board (the ethernet MAC address) so if your logic board was replaced, then it will create a new backup. You can google for how to fix this. If you have your old backup, you could also try using Migration Assistant to restore data from the old backup, but I haven't tried that.

wwwedwingo - thanks for that, but unfortunately my external hard drive isnt big enough to take the two, do I deleted the old one... big mistake!

Thanks for your reply

How can Apple get away with this? Surely they should recognise the problem and offer a fix?

Apple has totally lost me as a customer and when I upgrade my gear in the near future, be it accessories, phones or computers, I will stay very clear from Apple and from now and will not recommend this company to anyone who comes to me asking about which company makes good computers. If only I knew how many headaches I'd have with this, I'd have gone for Dell, at least it would have been cheaper for the same problems I'm having with this expensive piece of malfunctioning equipment.

I would still NEVER buy Windows again because gone are the days of multiple problems. I am totally converted to everything apple and undoubtedly you get problems with anything that moves, so apple will also have the odd problem and I think this is what this is. They have been really helpful with me. But, perhaps I didnt make it clear - I would think twice about buying a "refurbished" computer again.

I wouldn't go that far to say about the refurbs. My first 15" MacBook Pro (1st-gen) was a refurb purchased from Apple that only had one problem with the keyboard in the 3 years that I owned it, and now my mother does without any problems either. My brand-new late-2008 MacBook Pro purchased in April of 2009 has had a bad hard drive and continues to suffer from the flickering that this 41-page discussion complains about (which was started in November of 2008 and Apple has yet to acknowledge) and has had a pulsating backlight on the display since I purchased it, which Apple has yet again refused to acknowledge. Overall, the refurb was better.

Could someone unmark this question as "answered" ?

Message was edited by: tahitibub

Can only the thread / board initiator mark it as answered or unanswered?

And how the heck do you find the answer? Not like there is a link under the silly star to take you to the answer. Far too obvious to do that!

My screen is blinking more now. Who knows what it is related to. Don't bet on the next bug fix of Mac OS X to fix this either...

I'm adding my name, and my late 2008 machine, to the much too long list of Apple customers with a flickering screen MacBook Pro. I've seen this problem so far only when on the "better battery life" setting (that uses the NVDIA GeForce 9400M chipset), under the Energy Saver Preference pane.

I brought this in to an Apple store last month, after living with the issue for nearly a year, and they returned my computer after three days, stating that they could not replicate the problem. I cannot believe that this issue is not on their radar! I think that the techs probably rebooted my computer and set the Energy Saver to "better performance" as to really push the processor, however the problem is not with the 9600M chip.

Message was edited by: superuntitled

I finally got fed up, and called apple care. They elevated my problem to engineer and again directed me to the apple store for memory replacement. That didn't work. Called again and was directed to the apple store again, this time for a logic board replacement. The fix seems to have mitigated the problem for now. I will still get a flicker from time to time... but the frequency is so rare now. We will see if the fix holds.

It seems the only answer is get a logic board replacement first. If that doesn't work, get apple to replace the laptop. Either way, apple care is involved. It seems that there is no software fix... the only successful fixes I have seen on this thread are hardware or computer replacements.

Is there any way to replicate the blinking? Maybe stressing the CPU/GPU? I wanna get mine repaired through Applecare but I have no idea how to present an issue they can't see.

wwwedwingo wrote:

If you have erased your old backup, then it may be too late. Time Machine backups use an identifier tied to the main logic board (the ethernet MAC address) so if your logic board was replaced, then it will create a new backup. You can google for how to fix this.

BTW, the snow leopard version of Time Machine has fixed the problem with reusing backups when a main logic board is replaced. Now it asks if you want to reuse an old backup . Also, my screen blinking problem seems to be fixed so far.

If it's an hardware relative problem, I think it should be covered by warranty against hidden defects and Apple should extend conventional warranty about this problem (usually for 2 or 3 years).

Superuntitled said: I'm adding my name, and my late 2008 machine, to the much too long list of Apple customers with a flickering screen MacBook Pro. I've seen this problem so far only when on the "better battery life" setting (that uses the NVDIA GeForce 9400M chipset), under the Energy Saver Preference pane.

=== Having read this, I changed mine to "Higher Performance" and so far.... I think... the blinking has finished. But, I have a week to keep my eye on it until I return it to apple for them to check it out. Still, evenso it should go back as surely, whatever setting it's on, it shouldn't blink!