Q: MacBook Pro screen blinks

While I fully agree, the warranty states that it is guaranteed free from defects in material and workmanship for one year.

The onus is on us to prove that the flaw was known about within a year of manufacturing the first batch. Or get NVIDIA to admit that they just used up the bad bumps instead of getting rid of them. Both ways are going to be tough and I think that it is going to take the goodness of Apple's heart to get any satisfaction with that argument.

I like this idea of a discount on a current model better than my AppleCare idea. I recently had a problem with a Logitech Remote and the (free) phone service said that there was nothing I could do, but here's a 50% discount on a new one.

just to be clear, are we refering here to the backlight pulsing problem or screen seizures or both ?

for ex, i see the following problem when i am running windows 7 via bootcamp and playing on the Geforce 9600 m gt :

- middle of the screen is like cut by a line sometimes, showing graphical distortion during gameplay or when simply i move windows around the screen.

- when reducing backlight screen (1 to 4 bars down) i get a heavy heavy pulse effect (like the screen is flashing a lot like an old tv)

i exposed the problem to ifixit since they are more pro than apple, and here is what they suggested : http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/32673/reducingthe+screen+light+cause+the+dimmed+light+topulse

plz let me know if you guys meet same problems as me. thx

my screen definitely goes black.. for an extremely short period of time.. but very noticeable and very irritating.

goldsaint33 wrote:
just to be clear, are we refering here to the backlight pulsing problem or screen seizures or both ?

I'm referring to this blinking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo1DTM0j9Y8 or this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlQUOUURbiM or this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bVcqeJ73cY … or other examples. :-/

Firstly thanks to TLphoto for your perseverance with BBB and Apple Engineers. We seem to have had something of a breakthrough here because now Apple finally acknowledges in this forum that they know/knew about this particular fault.
The Apple engineering department thinks that replacing the mother board fixes the problem, but there are many posts here that show this may not be the case.
I for one cannot afford to be without my computer while the mother board is replaced - must take at least a week or so. Apple cannot afford to replace a lot of motherboards for free, and maybe go on doing that for machines where the problem recurs.
It would be much cheaper for Apple to offer a discount on the next laptop purchase (after all we won't all be purchasing another!). Let's not be greedy - I still have a working laptop - just not worth the €2000 it cost due to short battery life. Something like €500 discount would encourage me to try another laptop at the earliest later this year, when the machine is at least 3 years old. That's rather young to retire a laptop I know - my iBook G4 was still good after 5 years. However I also had a no warning fatal disk crash on this machine a few months ago so I don't have full confidence in it anyway.
Nevertheless if Apple was prepared to offer a €500 discount on a new laptop to owners of MBPs with the 9400/9600 chip combination, if they trade in for a new laptop by say November 2012, maybe we would have a solution.
Would the Apple powers that be that hopefully are now subscribed to this thread please consider this and make an offer/proposal here along these lines?

Bill Spears wrote:
Apple cannot afford to replace a lot of motherboards for free, and maybe go on doing that for machines where the problem recurs.

I actually think they're doing ok for cash at the mo I've no idea how the 8600 issue was settled, but would imagine it was a joint Apple & NVIDIA deal, and would assume they same would be the case here, unless the fault was entirely one parties or the others. Sure they could do a discount on future purchases, but I don't see that happening nor would it be what I'd want. Why should we have to fork out more money to get the/a reliable machine that we assumed we were buying this time around?

As far as I'm concerned I paid for a machine that should be as reliable as the older 2006 MBP I'm typing on now, the G4 PowerBook I've handed on and is still doing fine, the iBook I sold on, the G4 Cube I've got still running as an iTunes server, … heck, even the Bondi Blue iMac or Classic I've got in the attic still do as Apple intended. Macs usually last and work without issue for me, except for the one with the 9400M.

Message was edited by: pete_a

Adding my voice to this. Sent feedback also.

Sure would like this to be fixed...

I want to add myself to the list of those affected by this issue. I had the system motherboard replaced shortly after purchasing the MacBook Pro, but the issues have continued. The issue is expressed as a blanking of the upper half or third of the screen when using the 9400 and instability when running under the 9600. I'm now out of warranty, so I hope that Apple makes right on what has been a persistent problem since purchase. Like many of you, I've been a good customer for Apple and have purchased six Macs myself since the switchover to Intel and have converted many more friends and colleagues. My experience with Apple extends back even further and in my personal experience they've always been reasonable and customer focused in working through matters. I hope this issue is no exception.

Add me to the 66th page of this thread! Come on Apple, 66 pages should tell you this is not some isolated incident! Mine happen very rarely, using either chip. Very fast flashes of all black for like 1-3 milliseconds. Happens like every hour or so.
My specs:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
Type: GPU
Bus: PCI
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0863
Revision ID: 0x00b1
ROM Revision: 3437
gMux Version: 1.7.3


Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0647
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3437
gMux Version: 1.7.3

Exact same specs for me. I can never use mine in battery saving mode. The blinking is too annoying to work with and embarrassing when customers see it happening. It's annoying when I have to be without power. Dumb piece of junk MBP lasts less than 2 hours.

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
Type: GPU
Bus: PCI
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0863
Revision ID: 0x00b1
ROM Revision: 3437
gMux Version: 1.7.3

NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0647
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3437
gMux Version: 1.7.3

My MacBook Pro has been acting up more than often, the seizure effect with the monitor lighting and flickering. I don't know what triggered it but it first happened when I was idle and it follow up by freezing on me. Also, when I start SC2 even after restarting it does it instantly. I have a Nvidia 8600M GT. This makes me sad Apple, please fix it because it was smooth earlier for the longest time. It's happenig persistently and obviously for others too, I hope you resolve it soon.

ronDZ wrote:
I have a Nvidia 8600M GT.

That's a different issue the the one we're all having with the 9400M/9500M GT, RonDZ, but you could be in luck. See here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

Hello everybody!
Two years ago I bought a MacBook Pro late 2008(the one with the dual card 9400/9600) and I had right from the beginning the famous "flicker" problem(upper half or whole screen turning black for a fraction of a second). Here are the results of my trips to the local apple store:
First visit) The Genius didn't seem to be aware of the flicker problem, their hardware tests didn't return any error: in the end they replaced my motherboard but it didn't resolve the problem as the "flicker" was still here.
Second visit) They replaced my screen, but this also didn't' resolve the flicker. But I noticed that after this first two replacement the "flicker" had become much less frequent(it went from happening several times a day to just a few times in a couple of days)
Third Visit) They said they could not reproduce the problem so they didn't attempt any repair.
I decided to wait a little bit as I saw that the flicker was becoming more and more frequent so maybe it would become easier for them to "see" the problem: I also took videos of me working with the computer where they could see the flicker.
Fourth Visit) I went to the Store with the videos and all, after a few days where they kept the machine they called me back saying they had replaced both the motherboard and the screen plus the hard-disk that was failing: the Genius told me that the key was to replace at the same time the Screen and the Motherboard.
From that repair I didn't have a single blink/flicker but I am not really sure what has made the trick. Notice that I have AppleCare so all these repairs(I think they summed to cost more than the computer itself) didn't cost me anything but I know that the real problem here is for the people who don't have the Applecare anymore so not sure if this post helps or not: but you do AppleCare do not wait any longer and just keep sending the computer to repair.
Cheers!

I too have had my motherboard replaced (as I have mentioned before), I've had my keyboard and my display changed too, and a thermal paste was reapplied it cost them around 1400 euros.
The problem disappeared for a short time and then reappeared
I've decided to switch to the 9600, now the mbp is constantly hot and somehow noisy.
For me there is no solution to this problem, i came up with a number of resolutions which I can't share on this forum to avoid my post being deleted, all I can say is that I won't be throwing my money away for something that expensive.

Just to let you know people with this issue are covered for 4 years from the date of purchase for the NVIDIA issue regardless if you are in support or not. Also on top of that I believe if you paid for a repair regarding this nvidia issue you can get refunded for the repair because it was a faulty nvidia problem. I didn't read the entire posting here but it is a big thing at Apple, I'm sure you have seen the articles floating around but if you have paid for a repair regarding the 9400/9600 issue you can actually get a refund for it. Call applecare get brought over to customer relations.