Q: Macbook pro retina flicker

Thanks @showerkv

That seems to have stopped the issue right away, but I'll post back if the flickering returns. I have noticed it more prominently as the computer "warms up" after having been in sleep mode when not using it for a while.

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

I actually started getting this problem _after having_ my logic board replaced. I have an MBA11" (2012); the screen flickering varies, but at times renders the computer virtually unusable.

@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).

Well I'm in the Chicagoland area... The countdown for the flicker to return is on.

I had the flicker problem but it was most noticeable on the toobar at the bottom and in web pages.  Your milage may vary but for me it involved a re-install and a restore from a cloned disk.

1. Cloned my machine to an external HD using Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Reinstalled the latest OS
3. when asked to migrate I did from my external HD BUT!!! what I did was specify what to clone over.  I ended up cloning everything but the System Settings from my old machine. I had tried it with different settings and only when I copied over the System settings did the flicker return.

It seems there is some old setting in the previous OS that is not happy with the newest version (probably some graphics drive issues).  Everything else cloned OK (accounts, apps, docs, etc).

I wanted to add this is since I did find a solution to my own flicker problem and it might help others.

G