Macbook pro retina flicker

I just went to the Apple store and showed a video I recorded of the flickering. He sent it for diagnostic and I am waiting. If they can't replicate or find the problem are they just going to send it back?

I've taken mine to my local Apple store twice. Neither time would it replicate the flickering but both times I showed them video of it. I made sure that the date/time was clearly visible in the videos. Both times they took my computer in for repair without hesitation.

The first time they sent it to the central repair place for a new motherboard; the second time they kept it in the shop and replaced the screen/clamshell. I got it back 3 days ago and so far so good . . . .

Mine was one of the ones that if you put your finger above F2 touching both the body and the screen surround, the flickering stopped. I told this to the genius. He said they knew about this - that there are connections running through the left hand hinge and those wires get trapped sometimes, which causes the flickering. Touching both screen and body somehow remakes the connection (or makes a new ground stopping a short, or something). He said replacing the screen/clamshell assembly includes new wires and solves the problem.

I have had the same issue. It is driving me nuts. Every time I take it in to the geniuses I can't reproduce the problem. I believe it occurs when I'm running intensive programs and the fans become audible. There isn't enough time to make that happen in the short appointments. It also seems to stop when I plug into an external display, which is what they do when I'm there.

My issue is the same one as others, I can stop the problem by putting my finger above F2 between the body and the screen. Unfortunately it's usually way too hot to let me leave my finger there. Has anyone come up with a way to explain all this to the genius in order to actually get a repair? They just send me away after doing a diagnostic that proves nothing.

I took video of it and showed the geniuses the video because it never did it in the store for me either. They accepted that without question (twice!!). The first time they replaced the logic board but that didn't fix it. The second time they replaced the screen and clamshell in the store instead of sending it to Apple Central Repairs. I told them about the F2 thing and they said they knew about it - that a wire connected through the hinge at the left side could get trapped and by replacing the screen and clam shell they fix the problem. So far so good for me.

Hello all.

a brief history, I am on the 3rd rMBP 15 because the first 2 were broken out of the box. After a lot of trouble apple replaced it and im on my 3rd one. after i got this one I noticed a clicking noise coming from the bottom case and a screen flicker. I had it looked at and got the motherboard replaced. this fixed my clicking noise issue but not the screen flicker. Ill be taking it in this summer to get it looked at....I sware to god if they ask me to pay for any of the repairs i will loose it.

Nevermind, the issue keeps happening, but I have figured out a consistent way to reproduce it:

It only happens if I put the machine to sleep by closing the lid. Then it does all its flickering after waking up and never seems to stop (it doesn't flicker continuously, but does it sparingly).

But if I turn it off and back on, no issue.

It's a huge incovenience though, but a somewhat acceptable workaround.

That's what I did the first time. I brought in a video but they couldn't reproduce it there. So they kept it for a diagnostic that, naturally showed no problems. So last Thursday I took it back in. They gave me the same genius who continued to treat me like I was making it up even though I had a new video.

She hates when I refer to the communities because "anyone can post on them and they all have very different problems, you can't be sure they are speaking about the same problem ad you." Which is a valid point but I think pressing your finger over the F2 button to stop the screen flickering is a bit too specific to be a different issue.

Anyway, she still said apple isn't aware of any specific flaw causing this problem, but this time she sent it out to the repair people. Its apparently had its logic board replaced and I'm hoping to pick it up later today (after 5 days). What are the chances I'll still be having problems?

Pretty high, most people that just had the logic board replaced seem to have problems come up again within a few weeks. I had both the clamshell and the logic board replaced and haven't had a problem since

@the42ndfl00r - This is Apple's MO for many years now... to deny awareness of a problem widely known about on their own forum. And yes, they hate it when you mention the forum, which really begs the question about why they provide the forum to begin with. Seems to me that it would be trivial for a good lawyer to prove in the eyes of the law that they had knowledge of issued widely reported on their own forums.

The geniuses at my Apple store (in the SF Bay Area) know all about the problem and didn't dispute it for a minute even though my MBP didn't exhibit the flickering when in the store. I did show them video. The first time they replaced the logic board but the problem came back after a few weeks. The second time they said I had a much better chance of the problem being fixed if they replaced the screen & clamshell in the store instead of sending it to Apple's central repair place. I told them (and showed them video) about the finger above F2 thing and they said they knew all about that too - the problem is caused by a trapped connector in the hinge on the left hand side of the screen. Bridging the gap re-makes whatever connection is damaged. I've had the computer back about a month now and so far so good.

@davidbsmith - That is great! Maybe the quality of genius is inversely proportional to the distance from Cupertino... here in Arlington, VA, quality is typically not great (though I've had exceptions).

Flicker problem just started on my MBPR today. I put my thumb between the key board and the screen (the gap just left or right of the hinge). By joing the connection between the screen and the central keyboard the flickering went away. It is clearly a wiring/grounding issue. If I tilt my computer to the side of the power cord, the flickering also seems to stop. Something came loose and is now shorting the screen causing the flickering. All programs seem to run at 100% regardless of the flickering.

@davidbsmith: Which Apple store was this ? I am afraid of the geniuses not believing me as it happens randomly - I can't seem to reproduce the problem on demand. Someone else I know - in London - had this problem and the genius told him that if he couldn't reproduce the problem in store that meant the problem was with something the user was doing that was outside of Apple's control and hence not fixable by them ...

@harshw I had an intermittant flickering problem with my MBA; I recorded a video of the screen in action and went to the Grand Arcade Apple in Cambridge (UK). Showing them the video was enough for them to take it in and replace the circuit board and screen clam shell.

FWIW - I believe there was also an issue with Chrome causing flickering; you may want to make sure it isn't that.

@harshw: I went to the Corte Madera store in Northern California (Bay Area). I went two times, and neither time would it show the problem at the store. But because I had video of the flickering the geniuses completely accepted that the computer was defective and took it in for repairs without question. The first time they sent it to Apple's central repair place for a new logic board, which did not fix the problem. The second time they suggested keeping it in store and putting in a screen/clamshell assembly. That seems to have fixed the problem - I've had the computer back about 7 weeks with no sign of flickering. One of the geniuses in the store said that the problem is a wire or connector from the computer to the screen that runs through the left hand hinge and can get trapped, which is why bridging the gap with your finger (the so-called F2 effect) stops the flickering. As an aside, I was lucky - my first screen was an LG which suffered from the ghosting problem. The new screen is a Samsung, which does not have the ghosting problem.

This issue is now well enough known that all Apple geniuses should be on top of it and should take your word if you have video of it. Good luck!