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Weird and a bit annoying display flickering while MacBook Pro M1 14' being turned on

I've got a weird display flickering, for many times when the laptop is turning on it adjusts the contrast or something with brightness, blacks out several times and when it's ready (turned on after password - everything is loaded at that point) after a while monitor blacks out for a while again


I can't see any problem while working. Only when it starts up.


On my previous lapton MacBook Pro 13 Intel i5 I never noticed such kind of thing happening for years.

I tried to find something on the internet but apparantly I can't reset neither NVRam nor SMC with my M1 chip


Maybe you could give any hints on how I can conquer that flickering or that's ok for all new MacBooks?

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 13.3

Posted on May 8, 2023 2:22 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 19, 2023 5:07 PM

valeryioleinyk wrote:

I've got a weird display flickering, for many times when the laptop is turning on it adjusts the contrast or something with brightness, blacks out several times and when it's ready (turned on after password - everything is loaded at that point) after a while monitor blacks out for a while again

I can't see any problem while working. Only when it starts up.

On my previous lapton MacBook Pro 13 Intel i5 I never noticed such kind of thing happening for years.
I tried to find something on the internet but apparantly I can't reset neither NVRam nor SMC with my M1 chip

Maybe you could give any hints on how I can conquer that flickering or that's ok for all new MacBooks?



No SMC or NVRAM on the M1/M2 SoC the equivalent is—


Shut down, close the lid 30 secs+ , reboot as normal.

and a SafeBoot How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support to sort anomalies.



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3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 19, 2023 5:07 PM in response to valeryioleinyk

valeryioleinyk wrote:

I've got a weird display flickering, for many times when the laptop is turning on it adjusts the contrast or something with brightness, blacks out several times and when it's ready (turned on after password - everything is loaded at that point) after a while monitor blacks out for a while again

I can't see any problem while working. Only when it starts up.

On my previous lapton MacBook Pro 13 Intel i5 I never noticed such kind of thing happening for years.
I tried to find something on the internet but apparantly I can't reset neither NVRam nor SMC with my M1 chip

Maybe you could give any hints on how I can conquer that flickering or that's ok for all new MacBooks?



No SMC or NVRAM on the M1/M2 SoC the equivalent is—


Shut down, close the lid 30 secs+ , reboot as normal.

and a SafeBoot How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support to sort anomalies.



Jun 26, 2024 5:44 PM in response to valeryioleinyk

When you start your Mac up from powered OFF, the first displays you see are using a really "easy" resolution that is sure to work, and a really simple driver that does not take much GPU power either. It may be FAR lower resolution that what you intend to use on a daily basis. But you are almost certain to get SOME picture.


Later in the process, the rest of MacOS starts up, and the resolution is set to the one last-stored in VRAM by the Admin User. These settings are pulled from NVRAM, so resetting NVRAM will make your complaints WORSE. The display software also transitions to the fully interrupt-driven MacOS software display driver, and goes to full automatic. That is likely where the longest blank screen is seen.


Then your individual user account is started up. if your stored resolution is different from the main System stored resolution your User resolution will be used, and the transition may make the screen flicker again.


That's three different potential re-programmings of the display settings.


To reduce the number of changes, you should save the ones you want most often from an Admin user, and those should become the saved Overall system default settings.


Weird and a bit annoying display flickering while MacBook Pro M1 14' being turned on

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