Late 2008 MacBook Pro "blackout" screen flickering - Revised

My MBP is also flickering as described in this thread. If I choose "Higher Performance" in Energy Saver, it goes away. It only happens on "Better Battery Life"

Any ideas yet?

LukeD wrote:
_*MY SOLUTION*_

I have written this post to confirm that I have resolved this issue by having found that it is definitely linked to Snow Leopard 10.6.2.

I had performed an erase and reinstall, and I had gone back to 10.5.8. I had carefully tested all programs that I had loaded.

In 10.5.8, I had not experienced the screen flicker whatsoever, and I had tested it for almost two full days.

I had then upgraded to 10.6.0, and I had found no issues as well. As soon as I had upgraded to 10.6.2, I had experienced the screen flicker.

This will most likely fall on deaf ears, but I hope that it may save some from unnecessary grief and pointless logic board replacements.

I really hope that Apple takes this information seriously and develops a solution in 10.6.3.

I thank Eww, Travis A., and Charlie for their help!

All the best,
Luke

Message was edited by: LukeD

Awesome news, and what I expected -- Snow Leopard is the cause. Is there any way you can report this to Apple directly?

Hi Luke,

Snow Leopard may exacerbate the problem, but there are certainly reports of something that looks very similar (identical?) from some users before installing SL (see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1807105&tstart=0 for example).

I found myself wondering whether it may be somehow due to the fact the when running under the 9400 the processor calls on the regular RAM for graphics memory, and perhaps some RAM just isn't quite up to the demands imposed by this, and that this somehow becomes more apparent under SL because of other demands imposed by the new OS version.

I wonder whether anyone has noticed any difference (positive or negative) after either installing more RAM, or replacing it with a different brand, or the like?

This is complete speculation , based on nothing more than thinking about what the difference is when running under the 9400 rather than the 9600, I hasten to add. Not in any way suggested as a "fix" , but simply a possible hypothesis that it might be worth definitively eliminating.

It certainly sounds like an annoying problem!

Cheers

Rod

I had my hard drive fail..so machine sitting at blinking folder icon. The screen still flickered enough for the genius bar technician to offer a logic board replacement. That's a very basic image loaded, for it to experience issues to me would exclude leopard vs. snow leopard (or application/driver issues).
I think there may be multiple problems and unfortunately when you have many people respond to a posting you get the range of issues (some overlapping in appearance)

Sorry to toss in a monkey wrench here, but this is most definitely NOT a Snow Leopard-only problem, as I am one of the many people who had this exact problem under Leopard. I understand that some people did not experience this problem until they upgraded to Snow Leopard, but I assure you, it definitely existed for many people under Leopard.

FWIW, I did get a logic board replacement (on my Late 2008 MBP), and it did seem to solve the problem. I had been having flashes (2 to 5/day) almost every day, and then after the logic board replacement, not a single one for a week and a half. That says something. What? Who knows. But, for better or worse, the people who replaced the logic board didn't really know what they were doing, and I had other problems, which led to other problems, which eventually led Apple to just replace my computer with a new one (one with only the 9400). So far, knock on wood, no blinks with this new one (though I am not convinced it won't start happening any day). I only had the new logic board for a week and a half, so there's no telling if it would have started up again, but there were no blinks during the time I had it.

So, the lesson here is that yes, a logic board replacement can solve this problem, IF it is installed correctly, which is, apparently, not easy to do. So, it is a risk....

Count me in too. I got a 15" late 2008 exhibiting the same drop outs from those videos.

My 17" MBP (early 2009) has the same graphics but does not have this.

Does this mean that the 17" is the true Pro of the MacBook line? It seems that all the other MacBooks are riddled with problems.

That's a shame because I am hoping to buy a 13" for travel purposes but I just do not trust Nvidia.

My 2007 MacBook Pro had major Nvidia problems too. They replaced the board 3 times before junking it and giving me a credit for a new one. I cannot tell you how frustrating that experience was!

How many times must Apple be bitten by Nvidia before it drops Nvidia once and for all. I am sick of this!!!