Display flashes to solid black intermittently

gekkonaut,

Unfortunately I am not going to be much help. It was pretty easy for me, I called in, told them what my issue was, asked them to replace my24" ACD (still under apple care) with a 27" ACD, the rep said he would have to look into it, and said someone would call me back in a few days, later that day I got a call from Apple, telling me they escalated the issue and I would have someone call me back. the next day i got a call telling me they have a possible solution, but I have to sign a NDA, the guy sent it to me, I signed it, emailed it back to him, that same day I got an e-mail from another apple rep w/the Firmware along with specific instructions on how to install and that I was NOT to share the firmware or flash anyone else's ACD, I could flash as many as I personally owned, but no one else's.

My Flickers were happening when i first attached the Mini display port and usb to my MBP, it would happen 2-5 times then subside.

after flashing ACD, I have had 0 flickers.

I did e-mail the rep that sent me the .dmg, he basically said they purposely don't publicize anything like this, so that is why when you call apple care, they really don't know anything about the firmware, They are not acting. He also said the are well aware of the issue and are working on a fix, they just don't want to make it worse by sending or seeding the firmware until they have done several tests.

It seems I called on the right day, at the right time, to the right person, and said the right things...in other words, all the planets aligned!

MortgageGod wrote:

I did e-mail the rep that sent me the .dmg, he basically said they purposely don't publicize anything like this, so that is why when you call apple care, they really don't know anything about the firmware, They are not acting. He also said the are well aware of the issue and are working on a fix, they just don't want to make it worse by sending or seeding the firmware until they have done several tests.

Thanks - that raises my hopes that this will be fixed soon 🙂

Can I ask when they actually sent you this test firmware? My concern is that people have been waiting since April for this, and this is the first indication we've had that something is on its way. We're well into August now - usually Apple turns things around faster than this.

I had both DisplayPort -> DVI and DVI -> DisplayPort adapters hanging around, so I'm abel to use that as a workaround .. my new problem is the at the 17" MBP + the DVI->DisplayPort converter are now sucking so much juice off the monitor that the laptop won't charge properly 🙂

I just started noticing my computer doing this flash to black for a second thing as of September 2nd. I thought I had been mistakenly moving my mouse to the top right hand corner which puts my computer to sleep, but I've seen it happen so many times now that it's getting to be annoying, even when I am simply just reading a page.

I have a 24 inch iMac computer, and this problem just started now. I cannot honestly remember updating anything. I think I may have updated iTunes or my iPhone but cannot remember.

The screen doesn't flash as much as you guys are talking about. I am getting about 1 to 5 flashes per hour, and they last for about half a second to a second each time.

I have a 15" MacBook Pro running OSX (10.6.8) and a brand new Sumsung S23A550H display. I have now narrowed down the circumstances under which my display flickers on and off (something that just started this morning). As long as I DON'T have iTunes open, my display stays on. The second I open iTunes (possibly because I also have an external drive that iTunes accesses plugged into the USB right next to the display port), the monitor starts flickering away. I caught two flickers within the span of 30 seconds, thinking I was going to have to take the monitor back. After reading these posts, I'm thinking that it is a software issue with Apple that Apple has yet to resolve.

Same thing happening on my Cinema display 24" and Macbook Pro 2,66 i7

And yesterday i tried the screen on a PC, with minidisplay port entrance, and the same thing happend to the screen. It just went black frmo time to time.

Yup, exact same problem here. Now here is the weird thing... My roommate sold me his 24 inch display so now I have 2 -24 inch displays hooked up to my 27 inch iMac. One display does the black screen, the other does not!

I will try switching the port and see what happens.

-matt

I bought mine last year and have has the problem since day one. I never knew what to do since all the stories I;ve heard about people get new ones that did the same thing. So I didn't want to have to haul it all the way to the apple store to have nothing solved. It gives me hope that, with what MortageGod said about the patch. Hopefull they will release it soon. The flashing is driving me crazy!

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4045?viewlocale=en_US

^^ firmware update for this issue

same issue for me as for many: updated Mac Mini i5 with late 2008 LED 24" CD connected to Thunderbolt port, which has been flashing to black intermittently, sometimes several times an hour.

called AppleCare, escalated issue to 2nd level tech support, who referred me to the article above. took 5 minutes to update, seems to have completely resolved the issue.

Thanks for the link to the update -pm.

I purchased a 2.5 i5 Mini w/ the discreet graphics in August but found it totally unusable with my 24" ACD because of continuous tearing, twitching, jumbling and black screens. That was returned and I picked up a 2.3 i5 Mini with the onboard graphics which worked fine during the summer when the room temp was generally 30º - 38ºC. Occasional black screens but few and far between. Now that the weather was finally cooling down a bit the last week I noticed the twitching and blacks screens were happening much more frequently. Still usable, but now several times an hour and very annoying. I'm sure they would have only gotten worse as the weather cools down. I was contemplating either ditching the ACD or Mini which I didn't want to do because I like both of them very much.

I just did the update a few minutes ago but so far, so good. I'm glad they finally got around to fixing this issue.

My 13" MBP (OS 10.7.2) and 24" ACD just started doing this today. No Thunderbolt port so fix won't install. Did I miss something or is this still unresolved for mini-DA?

Hi, Aramid.

My issue was on an older Mac Pro, with no thunderbolt port. I had access to a Mac Book Pro with thunderbolt, so installed the display firmware from that computer. The 24" ACD is used only with the Mac Pro, and works perfectly now. No more irritating flashes!! So, I guess the answer is to see if you have a buddy with a new computer, or see if they will flash it at a Genius ba near your. The fix seems to be ACD firmware only, so it doesn't seem to matter which computer installs it.

Bill from Andover.

HI William I was somewhat heartened by your post. I have a similar issue, a 24" ACD connected to a MacPro via a Gefen DVI to mini DP adapter, experiencing intermittent flashes to black, perhaps 4-5 times an hour. What is weird is that this combination has been working fine up until a couple of weeks ago. So I am wondering if some sort of update has triggered this off.

I just connected this ACD to a MacPro with Thunderbolt, I am not experiencing the flashes on this Mac so I am thinking it is more about the MacPro or the Gefen adapter than the screen. When I trid to install the firmware update I got a message saying 'Your computer does not need this update.' So I am a bit stuck as what to do next.

From all the posts I have read it is not supposed to be the Gefen adapter or lead, and the apple notes on the download page for this firmware firmly state not to install the firmware update unless you are using a Thunderbolt Mac and not using and extension lead, so it sounds as though there is not solution for this MacPro without Thunderbolt...

Has anyone found a solution for a similar problem?

Phil,

Did you try the firmware update when you were connected via the DVI adapter?

Perhaps try it on a Mac with either displayport or thunderbolt? I flashed via a thunderbolt machine with no issue.

HI gekkonaut, no I haven't tried the firmware update whilst connected via the DVI adapter, I was a bit put off by the note on the download page saying not to do it unless using a Thunderbolt connection. I didn't want to cause another problem trying to fix this one.

I tried using a Thunderbolt Mac but it said an update was not needed, so I couldn't do it. Perhaps I will try the firmware update from the DVI Mac later...

PhilG007, mine was the same identical setup. Same Geffen adapter, too. On mine, the problem was definitely firmware in the display. I did the update on my thunderbolt equipped MacBook Pro, and the display has not flashed since.

The symptoms sound very similar. Everything working well until I installed an OS X update. Immediately, it started flashing.

They tried to tell me it was a bad cable or adapter. I didn't buy it because the blackouts were all the same time duration, about a second. If it was an intermittent connection, I'd expect some short glitches and some long blackouts. This was not behaving that way.

Apply the firmware with the Thunderbolt equipped Mac, and you will be a happy guy again. Follow the link about 7 posts above this to the firmware update and try again.