User profile for user: nonicoclolasos
nonicoclolasos Author
User level: Level 1
27 points

Flickering screen when scrolling

I have the new MacBook Air 13" and experience a problem with a flickering screen when scrolling when surfing the web (just regular web pages with text). This problem occurs both when using Google Chrome and Safari. When I do not scroll there is no problem; but when I use the trackpad to scroll down a page, there is distinct flickering (especially visible, and especially irritating, when scrolling down slowly). I have tried varying the light and varying the speed and acceleration settings of the trackpad, but these measures made no difference. Does anybody else experience this, and does anyone have an idea for a solution?

iMac 27" i7 processor, MacBook Air 13" (late 2010), Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Nov 12, 2010 7:34 AM

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43 replies
User profile for user: -ixen-
-ixen-
User level: Level 1
37 points

Jan 7, 2011 3:04 AM in response to nonicoclolasos

I had post this issue at Nov 2009 check this topic : Screen Tearing?
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2205868&start=0&tstart=0
My macbook’s mainboard was replaced for some extra reasons. The flicker issue still remains but not so annoying this time. Many people that I asked also experience the same issue which they did not realize until I told them.
In the test I see a strong flicker in all of the boxes as I am scrolling down and the 4a box flickers without scrolling at all.
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User profile for user: francomile
francomile
User level: Level 1
0 points

Jun 21, 2013 12:08 AM in response to nonicoclolasos

I have the same issue with a mid 2012 Ivy bridge 13 inches macbook pro, bougth it 3 days ago. I've opened a new thread on this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5117964?tstart=0

I´ve been in the store and every single macbook pros and airs had the same problem, I should have return it, witch I still can do, but I brought it home again because Apple has to take responsability on this, and need to find a solution, it causes great strain to eyes and for people that work on web design like me i'ts even worst. IT'S A GENERAL PROBLEM. Please give feedback so that Apple may take this serious problem in consideration.

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User profile for user: PlotinusVeritas
PlotinusVeritas
User level: Level 6
14,888 points

Oct 19, 2013 2:23 AM in response to francomile

francomile

I´ve been in the store and every single macbook pros and airs had the same problem, I should have return it,



Specify "flickering" in more detail.


I've had a bit more than 40 or so new 2013 Macbook Air in hand, never seen same, and own one.


As per the 2012 model Air Ive had maybe 50 or more thru hand and never seen same.


Can you take a video with your Iphone of this 'flickering', post it to youtube or otherwise for a look.


Deductively, SINCE YOU ARE IN EUROPE, Im making a groundless assumption at this point you have a power flicker. Do you only see the flicker when plugged in?


Was I the only one to notice that most (or all?) of people in this thread reporting same are in Europe or at least in the "Land of 220V" ??


Another thread on LCD Flicker of a IMac (doesnt matter if its an Imac....power is power.....LCD is LCD, realistically).


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4062983?start=105&tstart=0



vizh

Apple used cheapest screens on olmost $2000 MacBook Air


Baseless conjecture and 100% inaccurate. Even the MOST critical reviews out there LOVE the screen on the Macbook Air. I prefer same over my Pros in fact.


The 1440 by 900 display on the 13-inch model Air is superb.


Ive owned enough laptops to RE-sink the Titanic,...I cant recall a more buttery monitor I can stare at for endless hours than the Air.

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User profile for user: Chris Snyder1
Chris Snyder1
User level: Level 2
160 points

Nov 20, 2010 4:29 PM in response to nonicoclolasos

I saw the flicker when playing around with a 13'' in my local Apple store. I thought maybe an upgraded graphics card/memory might not show the same results, but it appears there is no "upgrade" for graphics when building your own on the Web Store.

I went over to a 15'' MBP and tried the same scrolling I had done on the 13" Air and no flicker. An 11" in my local Apple store also had the flicker behavior. I did not think to ask a store rep about it, just figured that was normal.
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User profile for user: Rinzwind
Rinzwind
User level: Level 1
0 points

Dec 17, 2010 2:28 PM in response to nonicoclolasos

My own 13" MacBook Air (late 2010) also shows flickering when scrolling the screen. I tried this LCD test which is, as far as I understand, designed to detect the cause of this problem:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/inversion.php

In my case, I see strong flicker on test pattern 3. To be more precise: at full screen brightness, the flicker on test pattern 3 is still visible from about 1.5 meters distance to the screen.

I did a quick test on two other 13" MacBook Air in two stores, and neither seemed to show similar flicker in the test. I did however forget to turn up their screen brightness, so I'm not entirely sure they did not suffer from the same problem. (The problem is less visible at lower screen brightness.)

As far as I understand, this is a hardware problem that can not be fixed through software. I would be interested in knowing whether Apple repairs this under warranty conditions, or replaces the screen/machine if you recently bought it.
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User profile for user: erick911
erick911
User level: Level 1
0 points

Dec 19, 2010 3:16 PM in response to hawleyrw

What I see is a flickering phenomena, only during vertical scrolling, which affects really the quality of the display. It affects also the color of some colored fonts: during the scroll, I can observe for example a deep blue color changing into a light blue one!
The flickering is so annoying that I would like to give my brand new MBA back to the shop and get my money back, although I find this machine fantastic on all other aspects.
But how can I convince the seller that my machine does behave quiet strange if 3 other MBA in the showroom are showing the same display weakness.
I can't imagine that I and my eyes are too sensitive with regards to this issue.
This is my first Mac, I have an iPad which doesn't show the problem when scrolling and I never experienced such a thing with a PC laptop for the past 15 years....
Please, I need feedback on this issue. I will be contacting Apple Care tomorrow for the second time since my Macline shop is reluctant to exchange the machine.
Thanks for your help.
Please, note there is another thread on the same topic.
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User profile for user: nkh
nkh
User level: Level 1
82 points

Jan 7, 2011 10:48 AM in response to Rinzwind

Thanks for the test link!

My 13" MBA performs miserably on all of the test images. Just the slightest vertical scroll causes all of the images to momentarily dim... leading to flickering if the scrolling is continued.

The same test on my 27" iMac produces a slight dimming only in images 5 and 6b when a slight vertical scroll is attempted.

This behavior of the MBA screen is quite annoying... I hope a fix will be forthcoming... but it's not a deal breaker!
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User profile for user: Juonio
Juonio
User level: Level 1
0 points

Apr 13, 2011 9:34 PM in response to -ixen-

I noticed the same on my new 15 inch anti-glare MacBook Pro. I used Firefox 4 and this issue clearly popped out on this site:
http://sage.ucsc.edu/~wgscott/xtal/wiki/index.php/Unixand_OS_X:_The_AbsoluteEssentials

If you have the problem, you can see it when scrolling up and down the page slowly. Fonts are dimming and brightening up. Theres some dashed lines and white table borders that also suffer this flickering.

I went to a market and tested other MacBooks with glossy screens. I used the same site for testing. I noticed flickering with all MacBook Pros (13",15" and 17"). There was no screen tearing, but I noticed later that it was because of Firefox 4. See: http://support.mozilla.com/pa-IN/questions/806026.

Even the basic MacBook had a little flickering, but not so noticable or disturbing.

At home I plugged my HP LP2475w display in to my MacBook Pro and there's no flickering on that even with slow smooth scrolling. So I deduce that this is not caused by graphics card, but by the display itself.

This problem is not only limited to web browsers. You can reproduce the flickering by opening TextEdit on full screen, writing text so that scrolling is enabled and scrolling it up and down. If you are in dark room you can't miss it, the aluminium surface in front of the display is flashing in light. This flashing is not happening on my external display.

I have tried to change settings in System Preferences > Appearance, but it doesn't have any effect.

I expected to get a high quality display. I have never seen this kind of thing before. It's straining my eyes in dark environment. Is this normal on LCD displays?
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User profile for user: conor-mac
conor-mac
User level: Level 1
0 points

Apr 27, 2011 2:42 PM in response to Juonio

I got my machine checked out at an Apple Premium Reseller.

They were very customer friendly.

But they could see no problem.

They did some color calibration.

They said display was normal.

I checked a MBP 2011 (gloss display) in the same shop - and noticed same problem.

They ran some diagnotics checks.

No issues found.


They offered to replace display (for free) since machine was under warranty.

But said I may not notice any improvement.

They replaced display.

I still noticed the problem.


I brought machine home.

I tried calibrating display since I now have a new display.

I tried the MBP15-9CBB.icc from http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=907257&page=2

Problem much alleviated!! :-)


I now have a slight text color change problem when scrolling - e.g. some web page links.

Maybe I need to further calibrate.

But this is a much lesser issue for me.


So did I just need to calibrate my screen or did I also need to replace it ?

I don't know!

The repair centre did try some color calibration initially.

But they couldn't see any problem in the first place!


So - try calibrating your color profile first!

Best of luck!!

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Flickering screen when scrolling

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