Q: MacBook Pro screen blinks

My error!!!!
under the "happiness" i read wrong the Video Card model

We have the 9600 GT, not the 8600GT!!

Apple, what do you want to do?

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I call official customer centre in Italy and i say about this program:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377?viewlocale=it_IT (italian)

The say me to bring the laptop and the will check if it will be inside the program in order to repair it under warranty!!!

Message was edited by: danielep

I'm having the same problem, anybody else running Microsoft Entourage?

I have had MS Office, including running but no longer.
I have Cisco VPNClient running and using Shimo which keeps the daemon processes up

I will note that under Snow Leopard, PowerPoint will scramble a MacBook Air's display (presume messes up video memory) when showing mirrored displays on a projector. This could point to some nasty video handling in MS products which may be rooted into a background task. Longshot but some clues point in this direction.

The other direction is the Cisco VPNClient. This is very buggy and will kernel panic a Mac under Snow Leopard (hard crash the mac, grey screen of death). If it can do that, it can also botch up video memory on a MacBook.

Anyone have Cisco VPNClient installed? MS Office 2008. Do all of us here have either?

That's a good point... I have a Cisco VPN Client installed, but I haven't been able to use it. I haven't seen any grey screen of death, but it doesn't surprise me.

Not quite sure why this post is marked as answered when it clearly isn't.

I started experiencing this problem early this year after purchasing my MBP 2.53GHz shortly after it's release in October 2008. It would be typical that this problem would present itself shortly after the warranty expired.

From reading all the excellent posts here it seems likely to me that this is a problem with the 9400M graphics chip, and as has been stated, mostly due to the heating up of the chip. If I had to hazzard a guess I would say its to do with the heat warping some of the contacts on the chip packaging or on the logic board itself.

The post a while back stated that the 8600M problem got a fix up to 3 years after purchase, even if the original warranty had expired. Is Apple just going to ignore this problem, even though they fixed that one?

My screen has been flickering every 2-3minutes all night, and this is a fresh (today) install of 10.6.3.

Can we do nothing?

So I just dropped off my late 2008 15" 2.4 ghz 4MB RAM Macbook Pro (MB470LL/A) at the Apple store. I am running Snow Leopard and is up to date as of April 30th 2010.

Display flicker will only occer when using the NVIDIA Geforce 9400m graphics card every 5 or 10 minutes give or take. Flickering will occur whether or not the MBP is using battery power or plugged-in the wall. Using the higher display NVIDIA Geforce 9600 GT solved the screen flickering.

They are going to replace the display for me. Hopefully that will fix the problem.

Now after reading a few of the discussions regarding this topic other people have mentioned replacing the logic board.

Should I call the Apple store in the morning and ask them to replace the logic board as well? Applecare doesn't expire until November 10th 2011

I finally had to stop using mine because the flickering at low brightness was giving me a headache. I just picked up a new Vaio that has an LED backlit display, no flickering or fluttering.

My wife is using it while her computer is in the shop, she says it is starting to bug her too. This summer it's going up for sale. Apple said it was "normal" but I haven't seen that on any other computer before. My wife's cracking white Macbook was also called "cosmetic" by one of their store personnel.

I've neither had a computer flicker like this or crack.

I'm in the UK. I bought my 2nd MBP in May 2009 and I dont know when I noticed this flickering, but it was last year sometime. In February I could no longer stand it so rang apple and they said take it to a repairer and it may have to have a new logic board and display. The repair shop hadnt heard of this flickering before (!!!) and also couldnt see it but did as apple said - and they tested it and said all was OK. I picked up it without testing it in the shop - but when I got home, started it up, it was there - not only there but 10 times worse.

I couldnt do without it for about 6 weeks, even if the flickering was driving me mad but I managed to get a short film of it, put it on my desktop ready for it to go to apples suggested repair shop. Off it went, had a new logic board just this time I think - got it back and the screen was totally covered in pink lines - so back it went.

Another new logic board went in but while they were testing it, the hard drive went.

So I got it back and apple agreed to replace it.

Unfortunately though, the new MBP I got last week was also faulty - so I'm getting another one.

It took some getting going, but in the end I found THE most helpful Technician (the one before disappeared) who is British and understands my trying to explain what's going on as I'm not very technically minded to say the least.

So, although I was moaning about apple to begin with, they are sticking with me. When I get this new one I think I'll do the extended warranty because although I've had apple for about 6 years and never needed it - I'm not that confident to cope alone!

Just keep on to apple if your machine is in warranty - although I cant suggest what you do if it's run out. Maybe if apple dont keep an eye on here really, write personally to the man in charge!!!

@Alison

Thank you for your story and advice. I admire your [British] tenacity in getting your computer fixed, however, I'm afraid I haven't really the time to deal with either of our Mac portable issues.

Our iMac has been fine but each of our Apple portables have been (as you Brits say) rubbish. I'm typing this on my new Sony Vaio with low brightness and it doesn't have any of the issues mentioned (flickering or fluttering display). My wife is a math professor and uses her laptop daily. Since the computer's fan decided to start grinding, she cannot leave it on during class b/c of how distracting it is (hence why I gave her the Unibody pro to use in the meantime). All of her data and files are in iWork format (Pages and Keynote, respectively) but I imagine that will change while we are off for the summer.

I hope your situation works out for you and you will post an update. Good luck.

This same problem started for me last week; only in the 9400, not the 9600 side of the graphics card.

I grabbed some video with my phone's camera and marched over to the Apple store.

The Genius tried to refute the problem -- "I see no blinking" -- until I showed him video.

They replaced the logic board ('cause graphics cards are soldered onboard there).

Next day, the problem recurred, only this time in my external display, and with the 9400 and 9600.

Again, the Genius tried to refute, I pushed back (with more video), and they stuck another logic board in.

My device is still barely within the initial one year warranty, and I also have AppleCare for the next two years.

APPLE: Why does the status say "This question has been answered" when there are still 46 pages of posts coming in??????

Hi,

Could you unmark this question as answered ?

To do so you would have to create a new thread,
I have been checking this thread for several months and requests like yours have never succeeded! good luck

Hi,

I followed your advice and I created a new thread here :

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2423948&stqc=true

We should now post our messages in this new one, which is "unanswered", rather than here !

Regards

Today is the day I gonna bring my macbook to apple care also for flickering issue. I hope everything will be ok wish me luck keep you guys posted.

mykelreyes wrote:
Today is the day I gonna bring my macbook to apple care also for flickering issue. I hope everything will be ok wish me luck keep you guys posted.

I'll be with you in spirit amigo. Please post back your experience.