Q: MacBook Pro screen blinks

Alex, I think you might be confused (although would love to think not).

Where are you seeing any mention of being covered for issues with the 9400M/9600M GT? The only settlement as fair as I'm aware covers the 8600.

- Pete

Yup was confused, didn't get much sleep, sorry... not being helpful at all today

Hi there,
Just like to add my name to the endless list.
I'm going to the apple store on friday. I'm lucky I got the 3 year apple care i suppose. I'm hopping they can see the issue because somedays it happens ever 5 min and other times it only happens once a day.

Has anyone had any success making the flicker happen? I tired putting it under heavy load but that did make it flicker either. Seems to happen when playing flash content more. But I tried Playing 7 youtube videos at once and still no flicker. Of course as soon as I close them all it flickers!

I'll report back on what they say at the apple store.
Wish me luck…. :S

@mbpflickermadness make sure you take a video of the problem, because the genius will otherwise just say that he or she could not replicate the problem and that your system doesn't need a repair. Show this thread to them, post feedback directly to apple on http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html and leave a response here on my blog post http://www.goodbytes.be/index.php/blog/article/applefails_heres_why_late_2008_macbook_pro_screen_flickerproblem/ where I try to bundle all relevant information which will never be censored as opposed to these forums. Good luck!

Thanks for the tips.
I've been trying to film it over the past month but its hard to record every moment. As soon as it flickers and i wip out the iphone to capture it its gone for 20 mins. So frustrating. Some days its every 30 secs other once a day. In a way it's kind of ridiculous they can turn me at away all just because it doesn't happen in the few mins I have to prove my problems. I mean obviously this is a well known issue. Guess the solution would be to buy a camera and tripod to always record the screen. I've also proven that using screen capture software doesn't show it.
Dont know if it relevant but the computer has had other problems.
trackpad stopped clicking so I don't that replaced. When i got it back the backlit keys were broken and i haven't had the time to get that fixed. Also last year the drive failed.
I guess you could say it hasn't been the best computer. I just need one that works.

I've left feed back and ill be sure to comment.
Thanks again

I found this today, I don't know if it has already been posted, but I checked my RAM (4GB, Apple installed) and found it to be part M471B5773DH1–CF8. This wasn't listed as compatible with 9400M on NVIDIA's site (I checked for an updated list, too). So I have removed 2GB and will report if things are better or not...

http://www.theandyzone.com/computer/2009/09/nvidia-9400-gpu-macbookpros-achilles .html

I'm assuming there are people with less than 4GB from the start, in which case this wouldn't apply, but in a random search through this thread I found very few listing 2GB.

That was the first thing I tried was changing the ram. Had 2gb now I have 4gb. Still blinking. I suppose that maybe neither is compatible? Seems odd that they would ship a computer with ram that does't work with the video card…

But yea I will put my name as someone who has had the blinking with 2gb.

Definitely did not solve the problem and caused the computer to be incredibly slow and forced some hard resets in the couple of hours I used it. Memtest passed both my modules.

Add mine to the list; I've put up with this annoying flicker since early 2009. Obviously a huge problem that Apple is choosing to ignore until you make some noise. We don't have an Apple Store around here, so I'd be out of luck if I wanted a speedy repair.

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

Well I when to the apple store today. They didn't even want to see the the problem. Not that I could show them. As he was walking away I asked if he wanted to see a video. He said "I guess" I talked to a few other geniuses and as soon as I said what was wrong there like oh…… yea. though when I asked if it was common he said he couldn't say.

Well fingers crossed it doesn't flash.

Count me in too. Been keeping up with this thread and my MacBook Pro suffers from the flicking too when running on the 9400m GT. I noticed that theres also flicking during the grey boot screen, could that mean that this problem is beyond the OS and no update can fix it?

I am still with 2GB.. I know time to upgrade :))
it happens with both 9400M and 9600M GT, going to Apple Store this weekend for them to look at it

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
Displays:
Color LCD:
Resolution: 1440 x 900
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected

NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0647
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3437
gMux Version: 1.7.3
Displays:
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected

neolancer, I saw the same when booting up. I'm afraid only a firmware update could fix things up perhaps.

Or, it could be the case that the kernels extensions for the GPU are loaded aleady at that point in booting the system. Not really sure about that.

Let's hope apple finally does something about this in the 10.6.7 update. If not, I'm throwing that piece of junk out!

Well it still blinks after a new logic board. So what now? Do I go back and get another one? Feel like I really got a lemon. Bad track pad and keyboard and hard drive and now two logic boards… Maybe its just a bad bunch of computers? doomed to always fail?

I have had the blink since I got the computer (late 2008 unibody MBP) although its VERY rare most of the time. I haven't worried about it too much, but I had the old non-unibody MBP with the 8600GT (bought in early '08) that failed and when I got that replaced the track pad was getting a short and the mouse would stop working once in a while. When I took it to the Apple store and they couldn't reproduce it, I just sold it and let it be someone else's problem (omitting the defect of course). I think someone did the same thing with me and sold me this one with the flickering screen but its really not a big deal...yet. When I saw it I bought Apple Care but now it's going to expire in 5-6 months and if the computer gets any worse I'm SOL.

I'd hate to make a big deal and have a $800 logic board replacement for this 300 ms flicker every day or so, even if I wasn't the one paying for it.