24" LED Display with 2011 15" MPB

oh no! i just ordered a new mpb 15. this is happening on my mac pro 2008 with the ati radeon 5870 graphics card with the 24" led cinema display. i thought i was going crazy with the rapid horizontal shifts. i'm also using an older 20" cinema display as a second monitor and it's perfect. it started when i upgraded the graphics card... ***! do you think it's an ATI thing? anyone else with a 2008 mac pro 3.1 with 5870 with the same issue?

I have the exact same problem with my brand new 2.3ghz 15" MBP with 24" LED Display. I noticed that the problems happens more and more frequently the longer I use the monitor. When I put the display to sleep for a few hours and come back, it usually works fine for a while and then starts to happen with increasingly frequency (up to once every 1-2 minutes). It's very annoying.

Interesting to see this. I thought it was just an issue with my machine.

This has been happening with my MacBookPro5,3 (June, 2009) and the new 24" monitor I got this past summer. My screen has been going black (2-4 seconds). Happens intermittently; and I cannot track down the cause.

I am having the same problem, but with a 27" iMac and 24" Cinema Display. This does not seem tied to MBPs. Is this a problem with my iMac or Display hardware or is it a software problem?

Same problem here. New 15" MBP i7 2ghz. 24" ACD

One other thing to note that happens for me. The flickering and stuff only seems to occur when I first use the mac in the morning. Seems like when its cold. After about 15 - 30 minutes it no longer occurs throughout the day.

Same problem with my 27" display. it is driving me crazy. Anyone have a solution?

Same issue here. 24" LED Cinema Display, worked fine with my late 2009 13" MBP. Same flicker as everyone else is talking about with a new 2011 15" MBP with 2.3GHz i7, highres glossy display.

i have this exact issue. very repeatable. will make a video demo of it.

i have fixed the problem, but not practical for most people:

i have the matrox dualhead2go digital version that i previously used to have dual screens on my mbp with 2 24" LEDs. Now, when connecting my 24" LED through that instead of straight from the laptop to the montior there are is no flickering at all.

I have the issue with a mid-2009 15" MBP a 24" Cinema Display as well where the screen blacks out or parts of it shutter. I thought this was just me until now and haven't had much luck getting Apple to pay attention.

Having gone through a long and drawn out process to get the known flickering issue straightened out with my late-2008 MBP, I'm VERY disappointed to have another video display flickering issue.

I too am having the same problem with my brand new 2011 15" i7 MBP and the 24" Cinema Display that I purchased about a year ago. The cinema display randomly shuts off and turns back on while the MBP display stays on. I never had this problem with my previous MBP, a mid-2009 model, and I don't have this problem with my Dell-branded monitor at work (connected via a mini-displayport to DVI adapter).

same issue here...

Here too, MacBook pro 2011 15" 2.2Ghz with 24" Cinema Display that works fine with a late 2009 MacBook Unibody. I've also filed a bug report with apple

Here's another one …
MacBook Pro 2011 + 24" Cinema Display.

- flickering
- going black for a second
- artifacts in certain areas (rare)

I've noticed it gets better after a while, but it never completely stops showing this behavior. The first time I connected it and before it ever went black, it froze with the graphics completely messed up.

This is NOT a new issue, at least for me. I have a 2009 MacBook Pro 17", identified as MacBookPro5,2. I have a 27" screen at work and a 30" screen at home. The latter is a Dell with native DisplayPort input, purchased specifically for this laptop since Apple got rid of the vastly more useful DL-DVI port and replaced it with this miniDisplayPort garbage.

If I use the integrated graphics (nVidia chipset), then a few times an hour, the image will go momentarily blank. This happens with both displays. A friend who has an Apple 30" display also has this problem when using the mDP->DLDVI adapter. If I use the discreet graphics (nVidia GPU, no automating switching on this model) then there is no problem with it going blank during use once I already have a picture.

I have to say once I have a picture, because I don't always get a proper one when I first connect. With the 27" display, I have about a 75% initial success rate, the other 25% of the time I get no image on the external display when I plug it in. Sometimes the laptop acts like there is nothing plugged in, other times it shifts all the windows off screen as if it knows there is an external display, but the monitor just stays blank and in power save mode. Often I just have to unplug and replug the mDP cable to get it going, but sometimes I have to do it several times or put the laptop to sleep and then wake it again to get any picture on the external display. A co-worker with a 2010 MBP 17 "also has this problem with his 27" display.

With the 30" display, I have a 50% initial success rate at best. On those occasions where it works initially, I feel lucky because it takse so much effort to get it going right when it first doesn't work. I usually get some sort of picture on the first attempt, but half the time its either completely scrambled or is stuck at 1600x1200 instead of 2560x1600 and with no resolutions listed above the current low-res mode in the displays system preference. If I click the detect displays button it sometimes will then find the higher resolutions, but then choosing the right one cuts off the output from the laptop and the display goes to power save mode. Either way, I have to unplug and replug the mDP cable usually at least half a dozen times to get an image that is native resolution of the panel, not scrambled, and not blank. When it is blank on this display, the laptop usually thinks it is connected as evidenced by window placement, yet there is no signal coming from it. It does sometimes refuse to even recognize the display and then no amount of replugging works, the only solution is reboot.

I have not really tried the Apple 24" extensively. A co-worker got one some time back and I tried plugging my laptop in just to test it since she was not present with her laptop when it was delivered. When I plugged it in, my laptop screen went blue as if it had detected a display and was switching, but then it never left that screen. The 24" display stayed blank and the laptop screen stayed blue. I tried unplugging and replugging several times to no avail. I eventually had to hold down the power button on the laptop to make it turn off because it seemed to be hard locked (no response on the network to ARD or SSH).

Also, I can't help but notice how awful the image looks when using the DisplayPort connection. The image on the internal LCD looks fone on the laptop. The image on the 30" screen with my desktop (PowerMac G5 w/ Radeon X800 XT) plugged in via DL-DVI looks fantastic. The image on both the 27" and 30" displays with my laptop connected by mDP looks terrible. No matter what adjustments I make, which color profile I pick, or waht I choose during screen calibration (or just skip that), the best I can get (its easy to go far worse) is an image which has very desaturated colors and way too much brightness. This washed out/blown out image looks rather awful, but at least its native resolution and is ok for writing code all day at work, but totally unacceptable for watching videos or looking at pictures at home. The 27" looks worse than the 30", probably because on the 30" I at least have some decent controls on the monitor to partially compensate.

All in all, the switch from DVI to mDP on the laptops has caused nothing but pain and added cost (especially if you buy adapters, its over $200 to get all the adapters to replicate what can be connected to the previous DL-DVI port). I am never buying another Apple laptop as the combination of useless display output, child's toy style keyboard, perpetual overheating and short battery life (they claim 8 hours, I get 4 at best working, 5 if it sits idle, 2hours or less using Skype) make it utter garbage. I had the first MBP 15" and while it had a decent keyboard and working display output, it too overheated and had more severe battery problems (on the 4th battery now, none could run over 2 hours, the first died at under 200 cycles, second died at 38 cycles, third died at 18 cycles, 4th is under 20 cycles and not dead yet but it was a real fight to get Apple to replace these obvious defective batteries).

I miss my old iBook G4. It ran 5 hours on battery while getting real work done, and it never got noticeable hot, whereas all the Intel machines feel like they are going to burn a hole in the desk (don't try putting one on your lap!). Post-PowerPC, the Apple hardware is just the same as any cheap PC inside, just a fancy case outside and a huge price tag. Oh, and that fancy case usually doesn't leave room for proper cooling.