Macbook 2016 HDMI output flickering

Is safe mode still working well for you?

Thank you for continuing to run this down!

I've not actually tried Safe mode again since I was asked to by the support team. Again this might be a bit subjective but it feels like perhaps things have improved since doing the safe mode test. I think I'm getting less flickers.

I should have a further update after 1200 GMT today as I have a scheduled call with the engineering team!

Any news regarding the latest beta of MacOS next release?

Does it solve this terrible flickering problem?

I only see news of emoji as the big thing on this next Sierra release... a sign of times... all people (or the media that cover apple news) care is some new emoji??!!!!... And a serious bug is apparently still left unattended and out of the news focus??!!!... what a crazy world we're living in!...

Hello all,

New Macbook 12 m5 gold. Have same issues as described, connecting to projectors in my school. No problems whatsoever with previous model (Macbook retina 2012) even in sierra. Found this thread and now I am sharing my experience.

Went through Apple support call yesterday. Mac unusable with external monitor, flicker and sides of image disappear. Also problems with projection, but no image view change. All using original VGA adapter with latest firmware. Technician very helpful, a very nice woman, who never heard of such issues.

Solutions provided:

- create another user (if solves user-data related)

- boot into safe mode (if solves, third-party software related)

- fresh sierra install on new partition (if not solved maybe hardware issue?)

None of such solutions appealed to me at first. In an unthinkable manner I went to CleanMyMac3 and run some maintenance scripts. Well, I even selected a disk check. Well, disk check failed so I booted in recovery mode. First check could not repair disk, asked me to make a backup... Sweating I tried again and it worked. One more try and disk was ok, back to normal boot.

Normal boot ok as always, disk utility with no issues. Using external monitor for 4 hours now, not even a screen flick to show for. Coincidence? I will post more info as the time elapses. Maybe things will go awry in a couple of hours or days I do not know. What I know is that I made several tests with laptop on sleep, waking without adapter, waking with adapter, so far no issues.

Monitor is in auto detect mode, has inputs for DVI and VGA but no HDMI. 24inch 1920x1200.

Have anyone tried the same approach to check for disc errors, or is this just a coincidence?

Update: issue not solved, but greatly improved.

I'll try the safe mode boot and see where it gets me.

Safe mode includes disk checking so maybe they are related.

Today only had 3 flickers on a 2h class. Much better than 3 flickers every 5 minutes or so, but still no cigar.

Can others post follow-ups on their experience so far?

Thanks!

Hi all,

I did receive a call from my Tier 2 support guy where he read back the Engineering teams response, it basically boiled down to:

- the one 24" Dell monitor you supplied the model for only has a DVI jack. The USB-C port does not support DVI only HDMI

- the one 27" Dell monitor you supplied the model for has a HDMI jack but has "known interopability issues" and should not be used

- I should have updated the firmware of the Apple Av dongle when I had it

I was furious. I am awaiting part of the engineers report being forward to me so I can response inline. I will be responding as such:

- DVI and HDMI are the *same* electrically. Barring HDCP support, digital audio transmission and EDID being a smidge different, they are the same. The issue occurs exactly the same in both HDMI-DVI and HDMI-HDMI cabling scenarios. All display devices logged work perfectly with 15" MBPs own HDMI port and numerous MBA's using both 1st and 3rd party thunderbolt to HDMI adapters, they have also worked with a wide range of Windows laptops from a wide range of manufacturers.

- do not say "not supported" without explicitly stating a comparable model which *is* supported and entirely compatible. I'm willing to buy any 27" 1440p model they recommend if it helps this conversation.

- I did update the firmware on the Apple dongle. It was still a garbage fire. Hence it was returned.

I've still not received this email from my Tier 2 man. He promised it last Friday PM. I did transform in one fall from "the nice MacBook owner who really is trying to help get this resolved" to "the angry man".

Will keep you all posted. It a good start with the engineering team.

I have also been in contact with Apple's engineering people; like others, they have had me collect log information and make note of dates/times when the flickering issue occurred. The person I spoke to did at least seem to take the complaints seriously, and he referred to this discussion thread during my discussions with him. Keeping my fingers crossed; in the meantime, daily reboots seem to keep the problem at bay.

Looking at the reviews on the Apple site: http://www.apple.com/shop/reviews/MJ1K2AM/A/usb-c-digital-av-multiport-adapter?p age=0&rf=1

This is obviously across multiple monitors -- has anyone else tried the adapter on anything but a 12" MacBook? Like on the new MacBook Pro?

Have people returned their 12" MacBook over this issue? Are people considering it?

Really wondering if this is a hardware issue on the 2016 MacBook that isn't going to be reparable in software. There have been several beta/stable updates released since this issue was discovered with zero improvement. I can't imagine how this got past Q/A. It simply isn't possible that Apple hasn't been able to replicate this internally. I have 3 2016 MacBooks purchased over the span of 5 months that all have the same issue with the Apple Multiport and 3rd party docks/adapters. We have literally spent over $1000 on different docks/adapters/cables even new monitors trying to solve this issue for our staff. NEVER have I owned an Apple product that has been this disappointing. Honestly surprised there hasn't been class action talk yet, The computer is a failure at this point.

Mhohman - I'm still hopeful that this can be resolved through a driver fix. That safe mode does not seem to suffer is to me heartening, but then perhaps I don't understand the HW-SW stack as well as I could.

With regards to Class Action this is definitely an option worth considering. I will wait until I've got eyes on my own actual response from the engineers but in the mean time shall we start collecting a list of adapters and displays devices on which we've experienced the issue?

Perhaps a Google sheet? I'd be happy to start it but would need help maintaining its updates from someone else in this thread. Anyone got the time?

Unfortunately I suspect the safe mode fix is only because the machine rebooted. I generally have good results with my adapters for up to 24 hours after a reboot depending on the number of times I dissconnect/sleep my machine. Sometimes rebooting only fixes the issue for 2-3 hours.

That could certainly be true :( my own safe mode test was only an hour.

In that case then it's definitely worth starting to capture all the details together in one place. The is issue as far as we can tell is indemic to this model of the MacBook.

So, as the solution is currently being found by ambanmba, our posts are censored by Apple bacause the solution is in a an upcoming (not released, not to say β version) of Sierra and we can't talk about this kind of things here. Yay! So much fun.