Macbook 2016 HDMI output flickering

I can confirm the new MBP has this issue. I have received my MBP (15 inch) on Wednesday. One of the first things I did was connect two external monitors. Within a few minutes, one monitor started going black for a second a couple times a minute. Maddening as ****, as most of you have experienced. Long story short, my research lead me here. I installed beta 3 and purchased Apple's pricey dongles. Things have been working since then.

I'm sorry for those who have not found a solution. I was contemplating returning my $3500 MBP if I couldn't get it to work. Most here don't have that option. I feel for you, Apple needs to get this figured out.

Just got my 2016 Retina MacBook back from the AppleCare repair shop. They replaced the following components (as listed on the repair receipt):

- Logic Board, FCC, 1.3GHz, 512GB (item # 605-01248)

- Display Assembly, Space Gray (item # 605-01265)

- I/O Board (item # 605-01294)

- TCON flex cable (item # 632-00651)

The issue persists. To be clear, replacing the aforementioned components did not fix the problem. It seems like this is either a hardware-wide product issue (less likely) or an OS-level issue (more likely, as we've seen improvements in the beta).

This entire experience has made one impression in my mind: Apple does not care about transparency with customers. I had a Late 2016 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar on order. I cancelled my $3500 order with Apple because of the way they've handled this issue.

Apple: you need to make things right with your customers with regards to this issue.

I have recently got LG UltraFine 4K, the problem persists, with the supplied cable. So it should not be a problem in adapter or cable.

Previously I experience the problem with the official 1-to-3 adapter and Dell P2415Q.

A shutdown-start cycle eliminates the problem mostly/completely (not sure).

Well...

seems to me if you are a software company and want free beta testers you give away beta software. But if you want to keep them working for you, you have to give something back. As I see it, two things are missing on this relationship:

- no logs of what a given beta brings/solves

- no feedback on issues that tester is trying to help

just my 2c.

My take on new MBP:

There are two main uses for laptop computers: on the move and stationary.

ON the move batttery life, size and weight are mandatory. They dropped the ball by putting too much emphasis on weight and leaving battery life behind. The space between cells could have maybe give 2 more precious hours of battery life. I would happily trade 100g of weight for that.

On stationary you want hassless PnP compatibility with displays and peripherals. Now we all know how Apple is (not) handling USB-C connections properly.

All this is an even more overpriced laptop. You can ask the price you want, as long as you deliver accordingly.

Again, my 2c.

Running Sierra 10.12.2 Beta since a few days now (without reboots but lots of sleep/wake cycles). Looks good, no more flickering so far.

Testing the macOS Sierra 10.12.2 beta 3 for almost 2 weeks now. So far no flickering with external monitors and projectors and MINIX NEO C adapter over VGA. Though few issues with the LG 27UD88 monitor over the USB-C cable. So definitive not perfect but far better then the 10.12.1.

Beta 4 available.

Beta 3 has been more or less stable in terms of flicker. Hopping this one is even better.

Switched to Beta 4 today. Just disconnected my HDMI monitor and then the internal display started blinking like mad, had to reboot to get out of that state. Didn't see this with Beta 3.

Thanks for the update tom-ch. Based on your feedback I'm going to pass over Beta 4 for now. I'm really happy with the stability with Beta 3 and don't want to jeopardise it. Perhaps next week when I don't need an external monitor as bad!

Didn't see any flickering of the external (HDMI) monitor with Beta 4 so far, it was just the weird behaviour of the internal display after unplugging the HDMI adapter. Anyhow, needs some more testing time...

Haven't seen the flashing on internal or external display on Beta 4. Currently testing it on 4 identical 2016 MacBooks.

No flicker or blink on beta 4 so far.

However, on one external projector today I got the weirdness again after reseting the resolution. This time it didn't went away after a few seconds, I had to reboot.

On other two external monitors no issues so far.

Ok, i ran into this issue as well yesterday. I thought it was a defective monitor at first.

I have a Dell U3415W. I tried rebooting at first and it didn't help. I found out when i went into the system preferences > displays > color that it was set on a generic monitor profile. I changed it to U3415W and now i don't have any issues.

Don't know if this actually solves the problem for good? I'll have to test it a few days longer. Can someone else with this problem check to see if this is the fix?