Macbook Pro display flashes to black when moving cursor.

TheSteezsicle wrote:

1. Hi all,

I haven't been able to find anyone having this same issue, so I'm hoping I can find an answer here.

I have a 2016 13-inch Macbook Pro with 2 thunderbolt 3 ports. It is running macOS Monterey 12.7.4, as that is the most recent supported version for this old mac.

When I move the cursor at all the screen flashes to black several times, even after I have stopped moving it. However, if I don't move the cursor for a while it will stop. The more I move the cursor the more violent the flashing is. It looks like the display is turning off briefly, it is not going to sleep though.

It does not exhibit this behavior when in safe mode or when I have an external display hooked up. As soon as I plug in a display, the built-in display and the external monitor both work perfectly.

Things I have tried:

I have reset NVRAM/PRAM, and SMC, I believe, but am not 100% sure as there is no real confirmation that it has been reset.

2. I have restarted

3. run first aid on the disk from recovery, no issues found.

4. Run apple diagnostics, only issue was warning of an aging battery, but it was only an early warning, not a catastrophic issue.

I'm assuming that the fact that it works in safe mode shows it is a software issue not a hardware issue. So, what should I try next?

Thanks,

Adam

An external Monitor (as well as high demand apps ex. Photos.app) trigger the Discreet GPU.

by deafult the lower power Integrated GPU is not typically the one that fails...

Your Safeboot test is telling—

You can get a good look at your User/System config. and reveal conflicts or issues, you can download/run this trusted utility https://etrecheck.com

If you need help interpreting the report you can post it here in its entirety in the "Additional Text" box in the editing toolbar below, in your reply.

In general—

unplug all non-essential peripherals when testing

Uninstall any and all third party Antivirus, Cleaners, Optimizers, VPN, speeder uppers....

all known to cause issue

also third-party sync software like: OneDrive, GoogleDrive, BackBlaze or DropBox

have been known to cause some issues