MacBook Air 11" Screen "Flicker" and Freeze

Has anyone had Apple take their hardware and replace it?

Has anyone who has replaced their MBA because of this issue had the same problems on the replaced MBA? I'm wondering if the problems are related to an early production run or if MBA's purchased right now are exhibiting this problem.

I really want a new 13" MBA but I'm going to wait until this issue has been resolved. The nearest Apple store is a 3.5 hour drive from where I live.

I have the 13 inch 4gb 128gb BTO. I use a 20" 1680x1050 monitor hooked to MiniPort to VGA. I use XCode, Safari, Preview all at once. I did not install flash since this is a coding machine. I have not had any issues. Ordered on Oct 28, 2010. All updates applied.

although I have had to go through two replacements I no longer have this issue with my new MBA.

The first time I had the video issue

The second time I had a "clicking" noise coming from the left part of the keyboard.

Third time so far has been a charm. Have had the laptop for four days with no issues.

I'm on my first replaced machine and have had 2 panics today. Losing my cherub-like demeanor on this. Guess we'll call up the Apple support line again.

Hi everyone,
I have the same problem on my MacBook AIr. I've tried to use without the charger, and the problem has not occurred. The problem also only occurs when the battery is fully charged. I believe the problem happens when the battery is fully charged, the charger continues and the computer does not recognize it.

2 weeks heavy use now with a replacement and no freezes or panics..working perfect..Have also been using with my 27" imac as external monitor at least four times with no issues.

Hello everyone.

i think i know whats the issue. of course its sad. but this is what happens to me:

i've a 11" 1.6ghz 4gb Ram. 128gb storage.

the screen flickering started just randomly when i thought that was caused by the bluetooth ON.

then i tried to turn it off and it was just fine. (this was yesterday).

i've updated all the Snow Leopard software updates so i have the latest software installed.

and today i've enabled bluetooth with the magic trackpad and no issues!

so, the bottom line IS that there was only ONE thing remaining for me to test.

as i've seen on the videos the other users shown here, i can tell u guys WHAT IS THE REAL problem behind this nonsense.

its the USB PORTS!!!!

the USB ports cause this flickering horizontally and sometimes it turns the screen white ...suddenly.

only when USING the USB by plugging an iphone or whatever u plug. ...

and the fun part comes now, i was reading this posts and someone mentioned if using chrome was an issue... i've had chrome always when the flickering happened...

and a USB plugged 😀

so what i did now was plug a USB and CLOSE / QUIT Chrome ... and NO ISSUES yet.......

there is a mix between CHROME and THE USB PORTS in the MACBOOK AIR 11" that is causing the flickering and freezing.

COME ON APPLE! don't make me SWAP the computer because of this!

i'm in ARGENTINA !!! in the very south of the **** world...

so USB ports + Chrome = death 🙂

lemme know if your diagnostic is the same 😀 hahahahaha

😟

Marcelo.

For me with the 13" model ,the flickering started when I pulled my external minidisplayport cable out while the Air was open...the flickering was unbearable ,but leaving it on overnight ,it has lessened.I will be taking it to a/s to see if I get a new Air or if I have to wait for a patch newer than 10.6.5

My gut feeling is the 75Hz refresh rate from my Samsung 19" LCD has jumped/forced itself into the graphic settings of the Air screen and the Hz rate is not compatible.

I just got a replacement iPod Touch the other week as the power button had an intermittent fault ,so I was pleased with that instant replacement rather than it getting opened and some new switch stuck inside along with some annoying dust no doubt...
I'm in Korea right now en route to Australia...thank heavens for global a/s coverage......hope this bug is not going to turn out to be hardware or Apple will have a crazy recall cost. You'd think the would give the new hardware a really tough testing phase before releasing to the public...

Message was edited by: Electro 303

As a side note ,does anyone know what they do with brand new buggy hardware ?
Do they recycle the bits or what ?

thank you for the thread. Three weeks ago I bought am 11" macbook air. Brilliant. Today the battery was almost out so I plugged in the charger, then realised I needed to look up something, THE screen was BLACK. Left it on the charger until fully charged. Still BLACK. Couldn't power down and had to hard shut down. At least the mac booted up - but the screen is flickering. I've tried the ideas in a few streams,but it is still flicker (except maybe not so bad) or just wishful thinking. I bought the mac in Australia and I'm now in Chile - if anyone has anything else to try I'll be looking to hear!!! Thanks.

I called apple support yesterday and described my problem with my 13" macbook air a couple of weeks ago, computer locks up, needs hard reboot, strange colorized horizontal lines. The answer I got was that it was a hardware problem and to send it in to apple for a replacement. The difficulty is that I bought the mba in the states but live in brazil, and the word I got was that I have to take it back to the states to ship it from there to apple and then it goes back to an address in the states where I have to figure out myself how to get it back to brazil. Should have known not to buy apple first gen release. Even global applecare doesn't help, I can take it in locally for a repair, but then it doesn't sound like apple even knows what the repair is at this point, the impression I got is that they wanted this mac back at apple so they could look at it. Right now they think it's a bad video card.

"As a side note, does anyone know what they do with brand new buggy hardware? Do they recycle the bits or what?"

The computers are repaired, and are used as like-for-like replacements, and sold as refurbished equipment.

Assuming this flicker also causes a shift to iridescent colors as well as a degradation in sharpness, I am experiencing it on an almost year-old Mac Book Pro. For me, it started just a couple of weeks ago, after we upgraded to the latest Snow Leopard rev. But also after various other Apple upgrades.

It's very intermittent and I can't yet associate it with any particular action or state. One fellow suggested it only occurred from him when a USB port was in use, and that may be the case, as we've used one almost all the time. I'll clear the ports and see if it comes back. But days usually go by between color outbursts, so it will take a week or more to know if this was the case.

One good thing: I have found a way to get rid of it without rebooting. I launch Parallels6 -- just the app, not an OS. As soon as I do, the colors are no longer psychedelic and the screen flicker and poor imaging returns to Apple's superior norm. Quit Parallels and it stays normal.

Thoughts?

I have a new 13" MacBook Air, updated to the latest version of OS X, and I'm having a minor video problem.

When I hook the machine up to a 1080x1920 external monitor or projector (to show Keynote slides) the image "flickers" a little bit, with wavy lines through the image. Very irritating. But this only happens at certain resolutions (unfortunately, though, the one I need), and does not happen when I hook up the laptop to my new 27" Mac monitor, or older VGA-resolution monitors.

When I connect my external monitor / project, I only get a 60 Hz option to connect at 1080x1920. Why don't I have other Hz options?

What gives? I assume that this is related to the issues are facing above? Is another software patch in the works? I imagine this is just a driver / software issue, right?

Any help? Please?!

Thanks from snowy Minnesota.