Q: Screen Flicker with External Monitor

I had the flickering issue Under Snow Leoaprd, Did a clean install of Lion on my Early 2011 17" Macbook Pro and there is no flicker on my 24" Display.

Ahmed

Well. It was short lived. The screen started flickering again, this time th whole screen would wiggle for a short period. Noticed it happens when the display wakes from sleep. Will try to disable screen sleep and report on the results.

Ahmed

Also disabled automatic graphics switching!

I cannot believe this issue has not been fixed yet!!! COME ON APPLE.

I have escalated and had an Apple person I was emailing directly with and who finally told me to basicially bugger off and wait for the firmware update. I agree with others.

A $3,500 computer and $1,000 monitor should work as they were promised to. I should not have to go out and buy another stupid cable.

Not to mention the last time I got a cable the Apple Store guy gave me the wrong one so I am having less and less trust in their advice these days anyway.

THIS IS RIDICULOUS. IT IS AFFECTING MY WORK.

debito -

where did you find the non-Apple dual-link adapter for so cheap online? I'd really appreciate a link!!

-matt

Monoprice.com

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10428&cs_id=1042802 &p_id=6904&seq=1&format=2

I've fixed my screen.

I wanted to reduce the amount of glare, so I removed the front glass panel from the Cinema Display (it's a 24" LED). It's very very easy, just use suction cups. You can get them from any home store - even small ones will work, the kind that are used behind hooks that suction to bathroom tiles or kitchen tiles. Suction the front and pull it - it's only held on by a few magnets.

Removed the glass and kept it off... since then, no screen flicker (switching on and off) or horizontal tearing across the bottom. Working great for 5 days now.

Not ideal for everyone, but maybe a clue for Apple.

Same problem here (just adding my name to the list if this isn't getting the appropriate attention from Apple). Brand new 2011 17" MBP Pro (Thunderbolt) some upgrades - $4200 machine with a $900 monitor. Slightly older (DisplayPort) 24" Cinema Display and I can't use it - the flickering is (randomly) occasionally so bad I need to unplug and use the laptop directly.   Worked fine with my 15" 2008 Macbook 3,1 with a Displayport to DVI adapter.

This is not up to Apple's QA standards - didn't they test this before releasing the Thunderbold MBP's?

Downloaing 10.7.1 now - fingers crossed this solves things. Can anyone confirm it has?

10.7.1 Fixed nothing. This is unacceptable, and a big big problem.

Going down to buy a DisplayPort -> DVI adapter, as I already have a DVI -> DisplayPort adapter.

It is a shame that Apple has done nothing about this yet - I thought these were supposed to be premium products.

Its been months and Apple has no FIX to this problem. Whats taking you sooooooooooooo long Apple. I thought all this while Apple would listen and act on the probelm.

Please do something quick Apple.

Have you tried this work-around (I use it whenever I get the flicker syndrome)?

     [1] Set the monitor (external) to a lower setting, e.g., 1600x1000, then

     [2] Re-set the monitor (external) to your desired level, e.g., 1920x1200 (varies by monitor).

DS

I've tried this and still gives me the flickering.

When you do this it stops flickering? When does it start again?

My monitor was flickering on every resolution except 640x480. Changing it had no effect whatsoever. Using a Dual-Link DVI adapter has been the only solution that works for me so far.

It does for me, yes.  I have not yet determined what/when/why it restarts, but it seems related to coming out of sleep, or perhaps to prior operation independent of the monitor (I use a laptop and an external monitor at two desk locations, and the laptop independently at others).   I often run the laptop for weeks without actually shutting down, i.e., merely "sleeping" between uses and locations.

DS

Possible fix  after 10.7.2

About two days ago I attached my MacBook Pro, core i7 2.2GHz 256 SSD, 8 GB RAM, to my 24" Cinema Display and the screen started to flicker; 10-15 in a minute.I did a clean install with Lion 10.7.1 and the flickering persisted.

In my developer account it was a beta combo update to 10.7.2 (11C40) which address some graphic drivers improvements. After I did the update flickering was reduced considerable, to 2-3 blinks  in an hour and increased when a movie was playing (10-20 blinks in an hour) or running flash in Safari.

Also a permanent blank screen occurred. In that situation, the system recognized the display, the resolution could be changed, arrangement of the screens could be switched but cinema display remains blank. After sleep/wake up, everything was back to normal.

In Console was no message at that time.

And I observed that cinema display fans are running very intensive during blinks, for about 1 second.

Today Apple pushed a new build for 10.7.2 (11C43). After I did the update and restarted the system, blink frequency was increased with or without running programs.

I restarted again and boot on Recovery partition, where I ran Safari for about two hours without any blink.

Restarted again in Lion 10.7.2, running a HD movie  and no blink for about two hours.

Now I'm running at the same time an intensive render test with Cinebench, 3 X 1080p youtube movies in Safari, 8 x 720p movies in live mix with Modul8 and output results in MadMapper thru syphon server. Also iTunes  is running, Mail and iPhoto.

No more blinks and no crash at these intensive tasks.

I will shut down the display and the computer and do some tests after one hour, and repeat the steps.

I don't think is a permanent fix but I hope it will came in  final release of 10.7.2