30-inch Cinema Display flashing

Thank you for the posts everyone. Tim... your idea came to my rescue!

I purchased my 30" ACD from Apple as a refurbished unit. Two weeks ago, the display wouldn't turn on. I took it to the Apple Store—and they sent it to the repair depot. The people at the repair depot couldn't replicate the problem (strangely), though I'm told that they ran several tests anyway. Today, I received my ACD back from Apple, plugged it in, and.... drumroll... it still wasn't working (after 2 full weeks of "service." Maddening.

After finding this thread (which I read while holding my finger on the ACD's power "button", so my display would stay on—I came up with my own solution. Before running downstairs to look for foil, I grabbed a light magnet (it's from a toy set of magnetic spheres and cylinders... maybe called Magnetix, or someting like that... I can't recall at the moment).

Anyway, it works! My display stays on as long as the magnet is stuck to the power "button." Cheers.

-Jason

It's an old thread but I have the problem and I have success in stopping it for long period of time. Read on.

The situation is ELECTRICAL in nature and has a bit of voodoo in the silliness of the solutions, but who cares, I've stopped the problem. Once I stopped it for over 1 year before having to do it again. Coming up with these solutions took 2 days of experimentation between 3 workstations all with silver MacPros 2009/2010, and the 2 Apple Cinema Displays, 1 is 30 inch DVI, the other is the smaller one, all hook ups identical, and switching them off back and forth for testing.

firstly - take the laptop conversations all off the table and off this thread, they cannot be related.

- unplug every single thing from every single port and power source and start fresh. If you count all plugins to brick etc, there are about 6.

- you MUST MUST change the way power is drawn from your wall or home outlet. This means a direct plugin to the wall - NO USE OF POWER STRIPS or surge protectors if you can help it. (you either want a true solution or you don't).

- Go buy a battery backup if you absolutely must release multiple outlets around the situation. You should plugin your MACPRO to the Battery backup, and the MONITOR also to backup or at least the surge protection choices (I mean ON THE BATTERY BACKUP not any strips! Invest in a real one brand APS recommended).

- NO splitters, no sharing of power source with peripheral devices, no multi outlet strips

- experiment with switching the ports to sources until you find a combo that works

- find colored tape and mark all the hookups to match so next time you recreate the solution that worked.

- Don't use the side power button at all. It's related somehow. Turning it off in system preferences has no effect. Mine is on, I just try never to bump into it.

- Yes, people who mention that the brightness icon goes crazy during these events is absolutely true.

- Yes, Apple has never cared about this even with Apple Care, so don't waste your time lugging everything to an appointment. They won't replace.

- Keep cables still, keep pets away from them, keep them NEVER MOVING if you can help it. My cat thinks the light on a surge protector is a fun button to push so it's taped in place (although I do NOT USE any of those strips for this monitor or computer pairing)

My opinion is that even the slightest variation or bump in the way electricity flows to the monitor, or through the mac causes the issue. After 1 full year of no issues, I brought my workstation gently to a trade show, had no problems, got back and forgot what was plugged in where, had no problems for 4 days, then I started using the side power switch because ***the sleep feature in the drop down menu takes nearly 2 minutes to actually "go to sleep" otherwise. The monitor went absolutely insane on one accidental use of the power button and I went through all the troubleshooting steps above multiple times until I found a situation that stabilized everything.

Also - I rarely can turn the workstation off because another issue with this monitor is after being off fore more than 24 hours, the first startup will display what appears to be a really insane screen of rainbow lines and static that move. It's scary, it looks like your monitor has shorted out, and the only way out is to do the dreaded, ill advised, pull the plug out of the wall and restart. Sometimes this method takes 3 restarts, and all peripherals must be pulled out of all ports then put back in.

The monitor is gorgeous, and gets attention wherever I go, but these problems have existed for 5 years. I say a prayer every time I restart that the dreaded "day of doom" doesn't come.

I was here today because everything almost didn't work and while I was typing, it mysteriously stopped.

Good luck to all. I hope something here helps. Like I said, I got a year out of it once.

I know this is a really old thread but I will post my experience here just incase someone like me buys a second hand monitor ... I recently bought a second hand cinema display for my MBA and it has the same problem. Really odd but for me the solution seems to be to make sure the power plug is connected directly to the wall socket and not into a multiway of any sort.I know it makes no sense but that fixes the problem for me (in the UK).

I have been having this intermittent problem since acquiring my 30" Apple Cinema Display. Sometimes it happens 5 times a day; sometimes it doesn't happen for a few weeks. It has happened using two different Mac Book Pros. It has happened in the middle of an OS upgrade. When it occurs, it does not disrupt the MacBook Pro's functionality. If the blinks aren't too fast (they vary in frequency), I can keep doing whatever I'm doing until it gets so nerve-wracking I have to restart the laptop.

So far, Apple has replaced all of the hardware (the display, the power adaptor, the dual DVI adaptor, the third party firewire adaptor). I have replaced my MacBook Pro and the surge suppressor. I have checked the voltage at the electrical outlet. I have implemented the suggestion above from Roland Lee. No joy.

After nine visits to the Apple Store and several movies showing the aberrant behavior, Apple insists that the display is fine and the MacBook Pro is fine. They cannot duplicate the problem.

Apple insists this is a power problem, even though all the devices connected to the back of the monitor continue to work uninterrupted when the blinking phenomenon is occuring. Their latest request was to connect the display to a new surge suppressor that has nothing else connected to it. I did that yesterday and and today the problem recurred.

Suggestions, anyone?

Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

Helped for me

I have the same issue and it just started a few weeks ago. I bought my 30" Cinema Display in mid 2009 and this is the first time this has happened to me.

In-fact, I'll take it one step further, mine brings up the "brightness" icon in the bottom middle of the screen on and off as well as the screen flashing to look as though it's turning on and off.

While the brightness icon flashes, the brightness is automatically turning itself down, never up, always down, and it does it IMMEDIATELY when the brightness is above "0" until it reaches "0". Sometimes it doesn't even bring up the icon, it just automatically lowers the brightness all the way down in one fell swoop.

I have NEVER used the buttons on the side of the monitor for powering on/off or for brightness adjustments, so it can't be the overuse of buttons.

I went in to System Preferences / Displays / Options and I hashed "Display Power Button" to "Does Nothing" and Brightness Buttons to "Disable brightness buttons".

This morning the flashing did stop but I'm not sure if that was because I reset the SMC or because of the button preference changes, and it did stop the brightness icon from flashing and it turning it's own brightness down to the lowest, this I tried real-time and it absolutely corrected it.

This makes me believe there is a faulty connector or chip in the button panel on the side of the display which replicates button presses, since the only way to get this to stop was to disable the buttons from working.

Apple SHOULD address this, even for those who have had their displays for 1.5 years. I spent $2000 on mine and there is no way in heck this should have happened when those buttons weren't even used and my display is in absolute MINT condition, it's never even had someone tap it, this should not happen.

Apple, stop being like Microsoft and address your customers issues, those of us who have been with you for 20+ years are becoming upset at your elitist attitude toward your loyal customers.

WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO DISABLE THE FUNCTIONALITY OF OUR PRODUCTS IN ORDER TO GET THEM TO WORK.

You're pulling the same garbage with the iPhone and it's battery issues, making customers almost completely disable the functionality of their devices in order to keep battery power for more than 6 hours.

Sad, Apple, truly sad what you've become!

Some of you may find this hard to believe, but I think I found a simple solution to my 2008 (or 2003) 30" cenima display blinking problem.

periodically, if not constantly, my display would turn on and off. Apple will not repair it. They told me the problem was with the power inverter inside the display and no parts are available.

I have a different opinion. I may have mentioned that I could get the display to turn on if I held my finger on the (capacitance pad switch) power switch. Well, with some experimentation I noticed that my other fingers would have to make contact with the bezel for my finger on the button to be recognized. I then noticed that I could move my finger off the switch pad, while still touching the bezel with my other fingers and the unit would stay on, but only if my finger was within 3/8" out from the pad. If I pulled my hand away, however slowly, the display image would disappear. Well then, I decided to construct a capacitor of sorts. I took a strip of aluminum foil about 1/4" x 2.5" (folded this size to make stiff) and carefully taped the ends on both sides of the bezel such that the foil would hover ~1/4" above the pad. Guess what: it works (at least for now). It takes some experimentation just using your finger to cause the display to turn on while finger is in place. Then I install my $0.01 solution.

I don't understand this phenomena because I don't fully understand how capacitor pad switches? But it seems to work!

Some of you may find this hard to believe, but I think I found a simple solution to my 2008 (or 2003) 30" cenima display blinking problem.

periodically, if not constantly, my display would turn on and off. Apple will not repair it. They told me the problem was with the power inverter inside the display and no parts are available.

I have a different opinion. I may have mentioned that I could get the display to turn on if I held my finger on the (capacitance pad switch) power switch. Well, with some experimentation I noticed that my other fingers would have to make contact with the bezel for my finger on the button to be recognized. I then noticed that I could move my finger off the switch pad, while still touching the bezel with my other fingers and the unit would stay on, but only if my finger was within 3/8" out from the pad. If I pulled my hand away, however slowly, the display image would disappear. Well then, I decided to construct a capacitor of sorts. I took a strip of aluminum foil about 1/4" x 2.5" (folded this size to make stiff) and carefully taped the ends on both sides of the bezel such that the foil would hover ~1/4" above the pad. Guess what: it works (at least for now). It takes some experimentation just using your finger to cause the display to turn on while finger is in place. Then I install my $0.01 solution.

I don't understand this phenomena because I don't fully understand how capacitor pad switches? But it seems to work!

I have the same problem!!! Its driving me crazy. My power supply seems to be making like a *Tick* sound everytime it flashes. Sometimes it goes out and doesn't come back on. And sometimes if i unplug it and then dont wait long enough before plugging it back in, the monitor turns back on but is very static-y over the image.

Can an apple store help me with this? Is it my power supply being that it makes that funny noise? Yet everyone else is having the same problem.

Please help apple, do they even have a response to this issue?

I can only tell you that none of the things anyone has written above has solved the blinking problem I am having (blinking display NOT ticking power supply) with my 30" Apple Cinema Display. I have been to the Apple Store nine times now. The last time, they closed my case telling me it is an electrical power problem in my home, a problem neither of the two electricians I have hired has been able to identify. This situation is the one and only time Apple has failed me in 25 years of using their products, and I must say it is very irritating as I have an AppleCare agreement specifically for my display.

Since you seem to have a different problem, I'd start with AppleCare if you have an agreement or a Genius Bar at the store if you don't. Be prepared to have to take in both the display and whatever computer you have connected to it.