Mac Mini (M1) 2020, LG UHD monitor flickers on dark colours.

both iMac 2020 (intel) and Mac mini suffers horrible keyboard lag at times so I just connect them back to the lightning cable at times to resolve it.

Mouse does lose connectivity often on the Mac mini and it's annoying AF.

I’m only talking about the LG monitors specifically, but it’s interesting to hear that similar stuff is happening to other monitors.

my LG 32UN500 was flickering really badly on every setting, apart from HDR mode, and when I change the Black Level on the monitor in SDR mode. Both of these resolve it completely for me.

Hi -

I just wanted to say that I've got the EXACT SAME ISSUE.... Brand-new Mac Mini M1 with 2 x Samsung U32R59x 4k 32" Curved displays. One is connected via HDMI and the other via DP via a CalDigit TS3+ dock. Most of the time, both of the displays are working fine at their full resolution (3840x2160), but whenever there's a scene that's fading from black to white or vise versa or when watching movies (especially full screen), it flickers like crazy. When it's "flickering", there's very fine vertical grey and green lines.

It's definitely not the monitors as I've gone through 3 of them now (Amazon was more than happy to send replacements). Also, it's the same when using HDMI or DisplayPort (DP) via a dock. I've also got expensive $50+ HDMI and DP cables in-place. The change to the expensive cables did not improve the issue. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any solutions or work-arounds... I've tried different resolutions, different colour profiles and tweaked all of the settings on the menus of each monitor -- to no avail. This is definitely an issue with the Mac Mini 100% as this issue is not reproducible on a Windows-based machine. Hopefully Apple releases a patch soon, but I'm glad it's a "common" issue as I was starting to go crazy!

Yes this seems to be a very common issue that also affects all M1 Macs.

Has anyone got any news from Apple though? Do we know for sure that the patch is in the works? I have to admit the lack of any form of an official response is stressful to me...

Thanks for sharing :/ I can confirm after some weeks that mine (EW3270UE) works fine. There are all sorts of problems with those new Macs. E.g. my external SSD did not work via USB-C and via USB-A barely gave USB 2.0 speeds. The company issued a firmware update (Adata) and now it connects but still does not read at proper speeds (Blackmagic read: 500-600 MB/sec and write: 800MB/sec). I also have problems with disconnecting Wifi (occasional) and Bluetooth (occasional, esp. Apple keyboard). Those problems all seem like software problems, but if at least some of them are hardware connected, it remains to be seen.

Hello, I have had the same problem with a 4k monitor. What I do is to move any open windows around and problem just go away..., I know its very annoying because wow Mac mini M1 so powerful but these little things are very sad.

My wife bought a new Mac Mini M1 and we got a ASUS 28 inch 4K monitor and ran into flickering issues using the HDMI cable. I did some more searching around the community and found that some people had success by going to System Preferences -> Display -> Hold Option key when clicking on the "Scaled" radio button. Make sure to then check the "Show Low Resolution Modes"

This should allow you to set the refresh rate. I choose an appropriate resolution and hard set the refresh rate; happened to be 60hz for this monitor.

Sadly it didn't completely solve the issue, what did though, was a combination of the above and getting a USB-C to DisplayPort cable. Since then no flickering has been reported by my wife.

Having the same issue with a Dell S2817Q — It works fine on my ancient 2010 Mac Pro, but exhibits the flickering behavior you describe when connected to the Mac Mini. I've tried HDMI to HDMI, Thunderbolt to DisplayPort, Thunderbolt to Mini DisplayPort, Thunderbolt to HDMI, and HDMI to DisplayPort (!!!!) cables with it to no effect. Swapping in a lower-resolution monitor like my old Dell U2713HM works fine, but the 4K monitor flickers intermittently.

Mine seems to flicker regardless of the background color; what's on the screen certainly seems to affect it (dragging a window a few pixels to the side can stop the flickering for a moment, but it starts up again after a few seconds). Love the Mini in every other way, but this is making it reallll hard to switch my actual work to it.

I also have the LG 32 UN500-W and have the same flickering issue.

When I boot the Mac mini, the sign on page background is all vertically lined (corrupted) until I sign in, then it's OK.

Also, if you visit this page: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/ there is a video playing at the top of the page, it causes terrible flicker.

I can get rid of the flicker if I go into the monitor settings and change the black level to "High"

(Picture -> Picture Adjust -> Black Level - High

Although this works, I would prefer not to have to set this, I don't like the look as much, the blacks look washed out.

Seems like a software issue to me.

Regards,

Derek

I was having the same problems as many of you are reporting here. I was able to get the monitor to stop flickering, but I'm not sure it's the ideal solution.

I have a Dell Dell U2718Q

It's connected via an HDMI to HDMI cable

If you go into the monitor settings and change the refresh rate to 30hz instead of 60hz. After doing this, I don't get any flickering. It's not ideal as I'd rather run at 60hz, but it beats having my screen flicker every few seconds.

The problem seems to have something to do with the refresh rate since I tested it at 50hz and still get the flicker, BUT it's a slower flicker and is different than the flicker I get when trying the 60hz setting.

Give it a shot and report back since I'd like to know if others are getting the same results as what I've gotten by changing the refresh rate.

I have just received Mac mini M1 16G/512 SSD connecting via HDMI cable to LG 32UN650 4K monitor. I have flickering intermittently also. The screen just flickers and restored regardless if I do anything special ... Apple, please fix this. I have 10 other computers running windows and none have the issue with the display.

This seems to be an Apple problem and not a Monitor issue.

I have a similar issue. I get flickering on the internal screen of my M1 MBP running MacOS 11.1. I use a Dell U3818DW ultra wide 38" https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073FHWTPL/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 via a DisplayPort to USB-C style cable that came with the monitor.

I have never noticed flickering on the Dell monitor, only the internal one.

The flickering goes away when I uncheck "Automatically adjust brightness" in the display settings. I do not have to change my refresh rate.

When I re-check the box. I get intermittent intense flickering.

Hope they can fix this in a future release.

Hope this helps others!

Same issue, Macbook Air and LG 32UN500-W.

Doesn't seem like flickering on my other FHD Acer SA240Y. But i don't use that heavily (since Macbook M1 supports only one external display...) so maybe i didn't notice yet.

Contacted both Apple and LG, not much help from either.

Same issue here for me with my Dell S2817Q 4K monitor.

Have tried HDMI - HDMI and USB-C to DisplayPort but issue persists.

Just got off the phone with Apple who advised I need to drive a 4 - 6 hour round trip to an authorised service provider for them to investigate and try to repair, or wait until local lockdown restrictions end before I can book an appointment at an Apple Store.

They are not able to send me a replacement until a technician has investigated and I can't send it off to be looked at because the M1 Macs are "so new". Apple shipped my Mac from China to the UK, but I can't ship it anywhere in the UK because it's "too new".

Anyways ... my response from Apple is basically "sorry, you'll just need to put up with it until a technician can authorise a replacement".

currently experiencing this same issue on my M1 MBA with the LG 32UN500-w monitor. I have ordered apples multiport adapter to see if it will rectify this flickering issue. So far I have tried a usb-c to display port 1.4 cable and the HDMI cable that comes with the monitor along with an HDMI to USB c adapter and both flicker occasionally and always on dark screens or 4k content on youtube.