Monitor is flickering after upgrading to Mavericks

Hi eveyone,

As many of you already did, today I've upgraded my MacBook Pro i5 2.5 GHz/8GB RAM from Mountain Lion (10.8.5) to Mavericks (10.9).

Unfortunately, I'm experiencing serious and unpleasant issues since I installed the upgrade.

Specifically, my monitor flickers almost every time I scroll an application window (e.g., Safari) either using an USB mouse or the trackpad.

Moreover, when I pass the mouse over the Dock, this starts vibrating from time to time.

The same happens also to the external monitor I usually connect to my laptop via the MiniDisplay to VGA cable. The external monitor is an LCD Samsung SyncMaster B1940MR.

After several reboots and given that one of the new features of Mavericks is the new management of external monitors, I've tried to re-install from scratch the OS X upgrade without connecting my laptop to the external LCD but still nothing has changed.

I'm really annoyed by having both monitors flickering. Another particular thing is that if I try to click on the Finder menu appearing on the external monitor, this makes flicker the primary monitor approximately at the same coordinates (i.e., at the Finder menu of the laptop monitor).

It seems like something is going wrong with the video card drivers but this is just my conjecture.

Are you guys experiencing the same or is there anything you might want to suggest to solve these issues?

Thank you in advance

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 3:59 PM

41 replies

Mar 26, 2014 3:38 PM in response to Gabriele Tolomei

I experienced the Dock and Safari flickering today for the 1st time on my 2012 MBPR - definately only when using the internal GPU (Intel) as when I forced the nVidia to be active all was well.

I was thinking it would probably require a reinstall, however firing up AutoCAD and then closing it again have sorted it, wierd thing is I have been using AutoCAD today already?? 😕

Mar 27, 2014 10:40 AM in response to Gabriele Tolomei

I used SwitchRezX to fix my incessant flickering in Safari and Mail by simply switch from millions of colors to billions of clors. I suspect that you could do the same by swithchingback and forth from thousands to millions if you don't have a billions option.

My refresh rates are locked and not adjustable, so I didn't try that.

I have four displays on two cards, and sometimes one card will flicker two displays; sometimes the other. Switch rez fixes it instantly and seems to last until I reboot.

HTH

WagnerLD

Level 1

0 points

May 28, 2014 8:54 AM in response to Gabriele Tolomei

The AUTOCAD workaround solved my flickering too! I was desperate (even bought MacKeeper thinking that could resolve my problem, silly me....). Is this a problem of screen resolution?

Thank you! Saved my day!!

Jul 9, 2014 10:54 AM in response to Gabriele Tolomei

I'm having this flickering when scrolling online with my new standard 13 inch macbook pro. I wanted to ask how to run Xcode and how do you update it? Thanks!

Jul 9, 2014 10:56 AM in response to ChavRash

How can I get autocad without having to pay lots of money for it? Thank you.

Jul 15, 2014 10:42 AM in response to Gabriele Tolomei

I had the same issue, flickering screen on my 2008 20" iMac. Just installed trial version of AutoCAD 2014: SOLVED! Thanks for sharing this solution.

Jul 15, 2014 10:43 AM in response to marthafromlas cruces

Install the 30-day trial version. It just works! You can uninstall immediately afterwards.

Jul 15, 2014 12:22 PM in response to AlbertR-athome

Ok thanks! I will look for that link. 🙂

ariobeth

Level 1

0 points

Aug 8, 2014 5:16 AM in response to WagnerLD

I had iMAC 27inch (mid 2010)

I have maverick. It keeps flickering. Now install mac os yosemite beta. Still keeps flickering.

1. Install Xcode 6 beta. https://developer.apple.com/xcode/downloads/

2. Install Autocad 2014. Free trial. http://www.autodesk.com/products/autocad/free-trial

Completely amaze. Flickering problem solve. So strange. So complex.

Happy the flickering gone.

Umber79

Level 1

0 points

Nov 3, 2014 8:10 AM in response to Gabriele Tolomei

I have the same trouble too, and i run autocad 2014 , and the problem is solved.....!

Nov 5, 2014 7:15 AM in response to Umber79

Bummer. The free trial link is now for Autocad 15 & it didn't solve the problem for me.

I installed the trial software, ran it, (unplugged the external monitor before running & reconnected after application launched) & no luck.

It doesn't flicker AS much, but still happens often unfortunately.

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Monitor is flickering after upgrading to Mavericks