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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

Reply
515 replies

Sep 8, 2012 10:30 AM in response to Richhep

Just got a new Mac Mini replacing an older Mac Mini, connected to an Apple LED Cinema Display. The mini displayport connects to the new thunderbolt port, have now been getting flickering, on and off, and wierd display glitches. This seems to have fixed it:


This Cinema Display Update fixed it for me 🙂


LED Cinema Display (24-inch, Late 2008): Intermittent flicker while connected to a Thunderbolt port

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4045



Now I just need to figure out why the new Mac Mini wakes from sleep on it's own...just like the last one did!

Jan 21, 2013 7:22 PM in response to Richhep

My Oct 2010 27" Cinema Display used with a 2011 17" MacBook Pro (ATI 6750M) had brief flickers to black for about a week and now it just goes black and stays black. Picture is good when it's on. When it goes to black the mouse plugged into the monitor still works on the laptop and the laptop is still charged by the power adapter.


I can unplug it and it will work for a few minutes, then cut out again.


Worked fine until now. Pretty bummed. Babied. Sat unmoved on a table for its short life.

Apr 14, 2013 6:00 PM in response to Richhep

Last week I brought my 27in iMac in for a new hard drive.. Mine was recalled so they replaced it for free. They also said the fan needed to be replaced so I went ahead and paid for that to be fixed. I turned my iMac today and I am getting random black screen flashes. Sometimes it happens every 5 mins, sometimes it happens every 30 min or hour or every few hours. I am extremely upset because my iMac was working perfectly before I brought it in and had it repaired.. I made a genuis bar appointment for friday because I work all week and I need the computer. I also wanted to wait a week so I can record how many times it does it while I am on it and using it. But I am sure there isnt a solid yes or no if its going to be fixed.


Is there anything you all can reccommend doing before I bring it back in?

May 10, 2013 6:00 PM in response to Richhep

I just solved my problem. 27" iMac with 30" cinema attached via dual link DVI. My problem started for the first time today at the moment I plugged a USB flash drive into my cinema display. The monitor started flashing black every second or so. I tried all the usual fixes (reset SMC, unplug and replug cinema display, reboot etc.) none of which worked. Going on a hunch that it might be USB related, I used compressed air to clean both the usb ports and plugs that were plugged in as well as my thunderbolt port and the mini display port plug from my adapter that was connected to the iMac.


BINGO, problem solved and a lot of money saved!


I'm convinced this was a USB related problem.


Hope this helps someone.


Hardware Overview:


Model Name: iMac

Model Identifier: iMac12,2

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 3.4 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 8 MB

Memory: 12 GB

Boot ROM Version: IM121.0047.B1F

SMC Version (system): 1.72f2


AMD Radeon HD 6970M:


Chipset Model: AMD Radeon HD 6970M

Type: GPU

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 2048 MB

Vendor: ATI (0x1002)

Device ID: 0x6720

Revision ID: 0x0000

ROM Revision: 113-C2960K-152

EFI Driver Version: 01.00.507

Displays:

iMac:

Display Type: LCD

Resolution: 2560 x 1440

Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Built-In: Yes

Connection Type: DisplayPort

Cinema HD:

Display Type: LCD

Resolution: 2560 x 1600

Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Display Serial Number: CY9030CNXMP

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Adapter Type: Apple Mini DisplayPort To Dual-Link DVI Adapter

Adapter Firmware Version: 1.02

Jun 13, 2013 7:02 AM in response to Richhep

POSSIBLE NEW INFORMATION

Maybe this can be used for troubleshooting.


Background:

I've had this issue for a few years on this 2010 23" Cinema. The logic board was replaced at the local Apple store with no resolution.


Symptoms:

Occasional flashing to black, non-rhythmic, maybe twice a second.

A 'second phase' with multi-colored snow added to the flashing.


Observations:

I haven't had the issue for a few weeks. Yesterday our air conditioning needed to thaw out from being frozen up and was turned off. The temperature in this home office was 80-85 degrees. The monitor flashed all day long, non-stop. This Mac Pro doesn't get turned off, the display isn't allowed to sleep, and the mac isn't allowed to sleep. Today the air is fixed, it's 73.3 degrees in here now. No flashing.


Could it be temperature related? Could peterfrommilton above this post simply have cleaned out the cooling pathways with the air blasts?

Jul 2, 2013 5:58 PM in response to Richhep

More possible information: I began having the flashing to black on my 24" Apple Cinema Display today when I connected the display to the Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock, which I attached to my early 2013 MacBook Pro Retina (13-inch). When I move the Displayport connector from the Belkin Dock to the remaining Thunderbolt port on the MacBook Pro, the flashing stops, and the display is rock solid as always. (The audio and USB connectors from the display remain connected to the Belkin Dock.)


I tried swapping the Thunderbolt cable (between the dock and the Mac) and the Displayport connection between Thunderbolt ports on the dock and then on the Mac, with no effect. So it seems that it's not the particular port.


This is my second Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock in a week. I exchanged the first because it was tripping the circuit breaker for this particular circuit in my house. I've been hesitant to apply the firmware update because of the warning that I should only apply it if I have a flicker. I think a flicker is different from the flash to black that I'm experiencing. And the problem goes away when the Displayport connector is plugged directly into the MacBook Pro.


What could be causing this?

Oct 10, 2013 7:59 PM in response to Richhep

This is for FYI as I'm going to talk to a genius about it.


I'm wondering if this is some sort of software problem.


It first happened yesterday when I was using Intaglio, a vector drawing program. I switched to another layout & suddenly I had rapid black flashing. I could see the program under it between flashes. The flashing stopped when I quit the program.


Then I rebooted the program & opened another much bigger file & it was OK. Nothing I did triggered the effect. When I opened the original file, the same thing happened.


I rebooted the mac, and although the file opened OK, it appeared to have been corrupted, as it would no longer accept changing fonts. I began a new file & copied & pasted the data into that which remained stable re fonts. I then deleted the corrupted file.


Today it happened again this time with Safari. I logged into my ISP account & as it opened a page with an animated usage graph the flashing began. Again, quitting stopped the effect.


My mac mini is 2 months old & is the i7 model running OS 10.8.3, with 16GB of Kingston RAM I installed. The display is an Apple Cinema & is about 8 years old.


I'm not running anything Thunderbolt, except the display via that dongle, have no other USB peripeherals attached that were working at the time.


I will add I've had some other odd things happening with the mac. Maybe it's the OS?

Display flashes to solid black intermittently

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