MacBook Air 11" Screen "Flicker" and Freeze

hi everyone.
my 3 week old mba 11'' 1.6 ghz - 4gb ram is doing exactly the same. for no reason it freezes using keynote.
the irony was (i am teaching at the university) that i just spoke about strengthes and weaknesses of apple products and said to the class that apples never crash. having said that, it was dead. hahaha. i was using a kensington remote via usb ⚠ port. in the second part of the teaching-day it was freezing again. as i already suffered twice with the old mba (having feedbacks of ventilator on the loudspeakers) with 2 different models same problems - i am done with air!! if its not for (nitrox) diving 😉 tomorrow i get my self a good old macbook pro 13''! mba = bad 😟

If you're not having issues with other apps, it could be a Keynote issue. The main problems as discussed in this thread are lower level hardware/kernel issues. I was having a screen flickering problem on my first, weird noise from the fan on the second. Third time was a charm. One month and no issues at all..and I'm glad I went through it because it's definitely the best macbook I've ever had in ten years.

Maybe you should get a replacement first before ditching it. It truly is an amazing machine.

Yes, they replaced mine, but it has not solved my problem. My first Air had four kernel panics in just two weeks, so I took it to the retail store and they replaced it. I have only had my second Air for three days, but it has already had two kernel panics. By kernel panic, I mean that the computer freezes and I cannot get it to respond to the keyboard or trackpad and I have to hard restart the machine. It is very annoying and I am not impressed. Each time the problem seems to happen when I have closed the monitor. When I open the monitor to continue working on the computer, I find that it is frozen. This does not seem to happen every time I close the monitor, but it seems that every time it has frozen, I have closed the monitor.

I have not had any problems with lines on the screen or other odd behavior with respect to the monitor as described by others.

I also have a problem with Macbook air 11 gray screen of death.
It happens about every other day. I am debating on taking it in, or waiting for a patch.

11inch 1.6 4GB 128GB

thats the same problem i had on my new air and then the replacement unit .. was driving me nuts till i figured that it was due to flash .. am betting you had safari pages open when you put the system off to sleep ? install clicktoflash to block flash in the background .. you can try out the new flash beta version as well i guess but with clicktoflash i havent had the issue in 10 days .. hope this helps.

My wife is running Snow Leopard on her MacBook and she has NEVER had a kernel panic in two years. I am sure many other people out there with Snow Leopard do not need to install this tool to block Flash when you put the computer to sleep without it taking down their machines. I doubt this is really the answer.

I'm new, have had my MBA 13 for 5 days now, so far it's going magnificent... I get paranoid that something will happen... I love it more than my gf lol... Seen that vid, I'd take that thing in immediately and demand a new one and not leave till they called security

I also got some kind of glitches on my Macbook Air 11 when using
an external monitor. Every now and then the screen flickers.
Upgraded to the latest update, but the problem remains.

I hope this can be resolved with a future firmware/os fix soon 😟

I'm also having problems with an external monitor on my MBA 11.6". Internal screen works fine, but connecting an external display via DVI gives massive flickering of pixel "garbage" (external: 1920x1200). Sometimes the external screen even stays black completely. Never got a stable picture, even at other (lower) resolutions. I've tried all possible setups: awaking from sleep, while running, with lid closed, lid open, fresh boot, etc... (however, haven't tried VGA, yet.)

As I have a MBP 17" working perfectly in this configuration, it's definitively a problem with the MBA, not with the cable, adapter, or external display.

Just talked to Apple Care and they say they don't know about particular problems with external video on the new MBA. We'll try a series of "special reset procedures" next week when I get back to the office to try with the external display again. Will also test different external monitors. I'll report back on how things develop...

I've used my 24" monitor with an Older Intel Macbook 13" and a bunch of different PC's (VGA).
Never had any problems, so this is most likely a Macbook Air issue.

I just got off the phone with Apple Care and here is the instructions they gave me to resolve the external monitor occasional flickering. Since I've been off the phone with them I've seen two tiny instances which is a major improvement to the every thirty sec flickering.

Shutdown the computer and make sure the power cord is connected. Hold down:
Shift ControlOption on the left side along with the Power button for 5 seconds. You should see nothing happen but it does an internal hardware reset.

Next Turn it on and immediately hold down Command Option+PR until you hear the startup sound twice. After that login normally.

As I mentioned it made a significant improvement and as I do presentations for a living, I need this to be fixed. I'll update you guys if anything changes.

So the resets only worked for a little while. I had my hopes up. 😟

I called Apple Care and they said since you're within the return period go ahead and exchange your laptop. Just came home with the new laptop all excited, plugged it in without restoring my data from Time Machine and the External Monitor Still Flickers at 1600 X 1200.

Apple, this is now a known issue with all your 2010 airs. Please create a patch and no I'm not interested in sending in my 2 hour old laptop for a repair.

I was having some problems with my external display at my office. I was using the analog adapter and cable on this display and digital on an identical display at home. No problems on the home set up so I switched to the digital cable on the office display and all problems went away.

Having the exact same problems with external monitor using DVI. Flickering Pixel Garbage then flashing black screen no stable picture. Have tried two different brand monitors and a projector with same results. Even tried using my brother's MBA same config as my mine with same results. I.baum let me know if you have found a solution.

Unfortunately, no solution in sight, yet. This Monday, I tested three different monitors in the office (two different EIZOs, one NEC; all DVI) -- all with the same problem. Interestingly, I found some corelation with the "complexity" of the overall picture on the screen: as long as there is a plain single-colored desktop background and no windows opened, the picture is pretty clear. With a nice ("complex") picture for the desktop background and a few windows opened, it gets worse and more and more pixel garbage comes up.

I had another lengthy phone call with AppleCare. Special reset procedures didn't change the situation much. They gave me some special test programs to collect all sorts of data (video timings etc...), which I sent back to them. Result so far: the AppleCare guy doesn't have a clue and will check with engineering. He'll come back to me next week.

For me it's pretty clear that this a hardware and/or firmware design issue... and from the other comments in the forum I doubt that a replacement MacBookAir will actually work any better 😟