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Richhep Author

Level 1

8 points

Display flashes to solid black intermittently

I originally posted this in the wrong category for the MacBook Pro instead of the Monitor catagory. I am wondering if anyone else has the same problem. I posted the following last night.

*Still an unknown issue with Apple Tech Support*? After 2 calls to product specialists and apparently an undocumented issue by any customers contacting tech support this seems to be a widespread worldwide issue. In one form or another with no answer after several months of the computer release displays are blinking, flickering and flashing to name a few descriptions of this problem. Mine flashes solid black for a fraction of a second and comes right back on. I have had this issue in the power saving mode as well as the better performance mode so that kills that theory. To this point there has been no pattern that I have been able to detect. I can go for weeks without a blink and all of a sudden get 2 in 5 minutes. Usually I am pretty good at troubleshooting but this problem has no pattern and is so intermittent I think it's going to be a tough one and I truly believe Apple has no clue as of yet so they are not addressing it publicly or to individuals calling in with the problem. I purchased my computer November 29th. I used it for over a month without ever seeing the issue. When the new monitor came out I still did not experience any issues with either display in the area of blinking, flickering or flashing. There is a video on Youtube that I have located showing the exact same issue as mine. Though the person on Youtube has a non-apple display and mine is the new 24" Apple display and it is the exact same issue this rules out the problem being the external display. Well, I can check that off as well. This is the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-dQIgfIFsI Does anyone else have the exact same issue as mine? I am thinking maybe it is something in the 10.5.6 update. Who Knows?

*BTW this problem is not at all heat related.* It can happen during heavy use or very light use at low temps. I have purchased many newly released Apple Computers over the years and have actually had great luck with them. I hope this is not my first lemon.

MacBook Pro (late 2008) 2.53GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.6), Apple LED Cinema Display (24" flat panel)

Posted on Feb 10, 2009 11:35 PM

515 replies

Jan 6, 2010 8:40 AM in response to Richhep

Well this keeps getting better and better.

I can probably confirm this is a hardware issue and will NOT be resolved with any software updates.

After prolonged use today a faint electronic clinking sound started coming from the back of the display, I followed it carefully and confirmed it. It seems to come an go away with the brightness of one region of the screen. In other words it is likely the LED board to blame, possibly something about the voltage but that's up to the specialists.

Problem is unless the thing dies off completely or at least in an observable manner, it's hard to duplicate the issue and get a replacement.

Major turnoff, Apple. As a first time user I was expecting much much better product quality for such a big heap of cash. Shame.

Dino1956

Level 1

51 points

Jan 6, 2010 8:48 AM in response to ealex_jaid

You are probably right! There are a few people that have had their Screen & the Screen Cable replaced & so far everything seems to be fine. So I would imagine the entire Screen are faulty on our machines.

Khntzor

Level 1

0 points

Jan 6, 2010 9:10 AM in response to Dino1956

I had the whole display swapped out by my reseller and the flickering stopped by the blacking out happened again. About a week ago I took the advice from one of these posts and changed my setting to high performance and it hasn't happened since then but I'm still holding my breath, it's only been a week. In the meantime, I called AppleCare and continued to log the issue with them.

I really think the issue is a hardware issue with the displays. Apple needs to call their Chinese manufacturer to task on this. I would encourage everyone to continue calling this issue into AppleCare to build the caseload on them. When I did they actually appreciated my call and said they are getting my info to engineering. I will report back in the next couple of weeks to see if and when the blackout might happen again.

Dino1956

Level 1

51 points

Jan 6, 2010 9:19 AM in response to Khntzor

Could you explain how to put my iMac into "High Performance" Mode ? I cannot find it in Sys. Pref.

etiquet

Level 1

8 points

Jan 6, 2010 12:44 PM in response to Dino1956

Dear all,

after few calls with Apple and multiple tests my display is now being replaced. No hassles.
Keep u posted if it solves the issue.

Cheers Eric

Dino1956

Level 1

51 points

Jan 6, 2010 12:50 PM in response to etiquet

somehow the screens getting replaced come up with better luck than playing the imac exchange lottery.

Khntzor

Level 1

0 points

Jan 6, 2010 11:07 PM in response to Dino1956

Hi Dino,

Here is how you switch to high performance: Applications>System Preferences>Energy Saver>Higher Performance (your choices at the very top of the box that opens up for energy saver for graphics are: "better batter life" and "higher performance". Click higher performance and when you close it should reboot your display.

I don't know if this will solve the issue but for me since I did it on Jan. 1, 2010 I haven't had the blackout happen. We'll see, I'm still watching this closely.

Dino1956

Level 1

51 points

Jan 6, 2010 11:16 PM in response to Khntzor

I'm guessin' I don't have that since I have an iMac & not a Macbook. 🙂 I just hijacked this Thread, thinking it was referring to the iMac. Now I know why I did not find it. No Battery on the iMac. Well there is but just to keep the Time. 🙂 Thanks anyway!

Jan 7, 2010 2:08 PM in response to Tony Welch

_+U P D A T E_ 2+

Unfortunately the monitor started playing up in the evening of the 6th. The engineer gave me a copy of Apple Capture and I used this twice that evening - although when I asked the engineer for feedback he said that nothing significant was picked up . Yesterday I had no problems at all. I put a call through to Apple and now have a Product Specialist supporting me. I have forwarded the capture files to him as well, and also directed him to this thread. However as before they are not willing to replace the monitor until they can prove the problem. This morning I have encountered both the black screen and the vertical shift once, and dutifully send him a capture file. Anyway bang goes my theory that the problem only occurs in the evenings! The PS will be calling me tomorrow evening.

etiquet

Level 1

8 points

Jan 8, 2010 2:04 AM in response to Tony Welch

Dear Post,

On my side the update is the following :
Just got my replacement Display on wednesday and ..... the problem is still there.
Seems different temporal pattern but same effect still flashing in black.

The investigation continue....

Next step from their point of view is to confirm that the MBookPro is not the issue.
Applecare is recommending to bring back the MCP to a center to confirm the problem.

I am really not fan of this since the suggested approach, since the ACenter will not have the equipment to "monitor" the issue properly so nothing may come out from this. (I don't see someone staying more than 4 hours to watch for a black blink....)

Just got one while I am writing this post 😉 after about 1:30 of use, (room temp is about 18-19°C)

Jan 9, 2010 7:45 AM in response to Khntzor

Khntzor - thanks for the performance advice. Have just set up display for the first time and found the flickering torture. Changing the setting seems to have worked for me.

Jan 9, 2010 9:53 PM in response to Richhep

Hi guys, well here's my story :

Three weeks ago I got my new Mac Pro with an Apple LED Cinema Display. Besides one single dead pixel it was fine at first but after two days the display started to flash to black from time to time. I even saw it flicker once or twice. In Windows 7 the display sometimes just got stuck at 640x480 pixels and when that happened windows had to be restarted. I was really annoyed to say the least although at the time I assumed the windows thing was a driver issue.

Well, I returned the display and bought a new LED Cinema Display from Amazon. I went for express shipping and it only took 24hours from order to delivery... my first order from Apple took almost 3 weeks!

The new display is a totally different story! No flashes to black, no flickering, no dead pixels at all 🙂 ! I watched it VERY closely and it is absolutely perfect for now! Even the windows bug (640x480pixels) seems to be gone, because it never happened again - with the old display it was happening 1 out of 3 times or something like that. I don't know what they did to the old display but this new one makes me happy ^^.

Conclusion : There are a lot of different qualities out there when you order a ACD! And a lot of strange bugs! And don't let anyone tell you these bugs are software related or something like that... it is the display - 100% sure!

Jan 11, 2010 5:27 PM in response to Tony Welch

+UPDATE 3+

I was able to video the blank screen and vertical lines and sent them to the Product Specialist. Apple have finally agreed to replace the monitor which I should get from the reseller later this week. Lets hope this is the end to it! I don't want to go through all this palaver again. I still don't know what the problem was and I don't think Apple know either.

Jan 11, 2010 6:01 PM in response to Richhep

I took mine to an authorized repair center and they replaced the logic board I think (he said display board on the phone). Brought it home and upon plugging it in, NOTHING. I have to constantly move the cable around and twist it, snake it or nudge it to make ANYTHING happen. When I say ANYTHING, I mean my macbook screen will turn blue (as if a monitor is being connected) then go back to normal. Meanwhile the LED display remains black.

About once every ten minutes of twisting and jiggling the cable, the LED display will work and display an image.

If I don't jiggle the cable it will remain that way. If I touch the cable in ANY way, it returns black and disconnects. I've never been so frustrated at a $1000 purchase in my life.

mccanoe

Level 1

0 points

Jan 15, 2010 4:03 AM in response to Richhep

So I proudly plugin my new Apple LED Cinema Display to my MacBook Air (2,1), notice a horizontal shift almost immediately - pretend not to have seen it and hope it won't happen again... It did, many, many times.

Checked out this thread and felt rather relived, I had no flickering black screen! Wrong, second day of having my monitor the flickering black screens came thick and fast. So now I have the full set: flickering black screens and horizontal shift. Joy.

Seriously either a) no one from apple reads these post, b) they don't care or c) they think we're all making it up. I can only assume they refurb the old monitors and just ship them right back out in the hope the next poor fool won't go through the hassle of retuning their expensive brick?

Again and again, like a sucker, I pay a premium for Apple product for both myself and my company and end up wasting time and money taking it back to the apple store, in the vain hope we might eventually get working kit. It's a lottery, it shouldn't be that way!

So now what to do, the problem seems to be getting worst. I'm off to the Apple store this weekend, again.

Display flashes to solid black intermittently