Q: MacBook Pro screen blinks

Yes and plenty of youtube videos to prove that this is a real PROBLEM that Apple is IGNORING.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyr5Ssg2ykw

Tried the key combination you discovered and had the same results. Actually I think it's an amazing discovery, thanks for sharing. This is the first procedure which has any positive effect on the blinking, even if it doesn't last through a restart.

Now that we have a direct cause and effect Apple's engineers should be able to isolate and fix this annoying hardware/software bug.

You would think. Unfortunately, this temporary fix was posted over a year ago. At CNET, MacFixit and various blogs and sites. Like I said, I don't think Apple cares much, because it doesn't cause a OS failure or hardware failure. It's an annoying bug to users, but not enough for Apple to lift a finger to fix it.

Message was edited by: SuperSizeIt

I met the same problem again!

And I think I will not going to wait anymore longer for an official solution or what, I'll just go to the Store and trying to convince the Apple Genius to replace me an new one, this is ridiculous!!!

The issue has been resurrected by CNET/MacFixIt at this link:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20013229-263.html

Hopefully this will widen the issue enough so Apple can see it even with blinders on.

There is also a somewhat related tech note from Apple:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1258

Interesting. So the LED backlight is related to the issue. Maybe?

My screen also flickers. It is a late 2008 model and have had a logic board and a new screen replaced from applecare but the problem still persists. The apple store have escalated my situation to the engineering department, yet I am sure they are already aware of this issue. Seems that most people have been able to fix this problem by getting the entire machine replaced with a newer model. If they don't fix my machine I will be asking for the same treatment.

Add my name to the pile. Blinking has become more frequent, now every few minutes or so. Oops, there it goes again. Taking this thing in but not confident of a solution after reading some of these posts.

Same problem here with my MacBook Pro (late 2008). Still hope for a software fix.

Message was edited by: Pagefault

I put my machine into high performance / short battery life mode to avoid blinking and plugged it in. I connected to an internet (wired) connection and a monitor system using XVGA which drove 2 projectors for a session at a conference. A remote speaker for the session connected in via iChat theater.

About 15 minutes into the presentation, the screen started flashing. This time it was not just the main laptop display but both external big screens as well (12 footers). The main display was set to mirroring so the same image was on all three displays (2 projectors external, internal display). Not only was it flashing, it was flashing every few seconds.

Around 150 people in the session got to experience Mr. Flashy first hand and with the greatest flashing frequency I have ever seen… approximately 12 flashes per minute (fast series, pause or flash, pause flash, all random or perhaps Morse code… not sure ).

And they told their friends and so on and so on… Just under 2000 people attended this conference. When asked about the flashing, I simply stated the facts… it is a wide spread defect in various Apple laptops which is believed to be related to video card/chip overheating.

Tech take away for this group: mirroring mode for the video interface may exacerbate the issue flashing/blinking problem even when the video card is in its high performance battery sucking mode.

lol: "screen doubles as a disco strobe light"

right there with you, Cerniuk!

New Snow Leopard graphics update will not fix Mr. Blinky. It's not a firmware update so, lets not get our hopes up with this update fixing the problem. Or non problem from Apples point of view.

To summarize: there is no permanent solution to this problem, short of replacing the MacBook Pro (late 2008) with a newer model, which Apple (in the USA, anyway) normally offers to do after 3 unsuccessful repairs have occurred within a year's time.

Hi,

I've been dealing with the same annoying issue since I bought my Intel Core i7 Intel MacBook pro in April, and have successfully isolated and resolved the problem on my particular model.

MacBook Pro 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7
4GB 1067 MHz DDR3

The blinking of the screen happens every time the system automatically switches from the NVidia based graphics card to the lower Intel based one. I was able to simulate the "blink" by installing a graphics switching monitor called "gfxCardStatus" (http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus/).

The issue was resolved by either:

a. Turning off Automatic Graphics Switching from the "System Preferences" > "Power Saver"; or
b. Selecting "NVIDIA Only" from the "gfxCardStatus" menubar application

Best of luck

Thats not actually resolved. More like a workaround. I too have the gfxCardStatus app installed so that I can make the MBP switch to battery saving mode on the fly without having to log out. That annoying blink is still there.

If your on battery and you want the annoying blinking to go away, then you can switch to higher performance on the fly with that app. Mr. Blinky goes away, and so does your battery life. So this does not resolve the issue. It just masks it.