Screen Flickers after High-Sierra Update

Update: I reached out to Slack, since their app has been flickering the most for me. Here is their response:

Hi Andrew,

Thanks so much for writing in today and letting us know about this. You're definitely not the first user to see this issue, and I'm really sorry about the trouble it has caused you.

It turns out that there is a bug with Chromium (we use it in the underlying framework for Slack) conflicting with Apple's High Sierra (10.13) and NVIDIA graphics processing units. It sounds like Chromium has patched the bug in their latest version, so we're working hard on this end to get that into our next Slack app release.

If you're noticing this is really disruptive, you could give Slack a go on a browser, or trying the the steps below (though I'm afraid the steps are not a guaranteed fix!).

• Open Terminal on your Mac
• Paste in the following:

  cd /Applications/Slack.app/Contents/MacOS/ ./Slack.app

  And then put in

  --disable-gpu-rasterization

I'm actively watching this bug Andrew, so I will let you know as soon as we have any updates on this. I'm sorry for the inconvenience in the meantime. Please do not hesitate to let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.

All the best,

Emilee

I came across a fix - so far so good

The usual fix for this is the reset PRAM cmd-option-p-r on restart

I did this and nothing really changed

So I tried again and then shut-down completely. On restart I did shift-crtl-option while pressing the power button and held the power button for 10 seconds until the mac let out a sound. Apparently this drains all the power from the mac and it starts from fresh. Hmmm not sure about this explanation - but it has worked. coincidence or other

Worth a try

This thread is old, but I just upgraded to High Sierra with the same issue still present on my second monitor. My flicker seems to be as a result of using the J5 Create JCA374 adapter. After updating the drivers of the adapter, the problem still existed. I defaulted to the Apple adapter and the flicker issue no longer exists. Note: I'm on a 2017 MacBook Pro 15". Appears my investment in the J5 adapter was a short term investment (purchased in June of 2017, no return at this point). However, the issue of second screen flicker no longer exists.

Good luck to those still experiencing the issue.

I would suggest taking it to a Genius Bar and have them diagnose it. If your experience is like mine, it will get worse to the point where you cannot see anything on the screen while restoring.

Apple told me I have a hardware issue and charged me to replace the screen. They tried to tell me it was a coincidence but I know it was high Sierra that caused the flickering and burnt out the screen

Hi,

I had the same problem, went to apple support and they have no clue and claims it is a hardware problem but the hardware test detects no problem....i mirrored my display with an external monitor through HDMI and it worked, although once i remove the hdmi the screen flickers again finally after a lot of formatting my ssd i booted a different os and it worked for me, now i am stuck with a mac and using windows, i guess it is better than spending to fix a perfectly working hardware i guess.

For the bluetooth issue i connected my mac with mobile hotspot and bluetooth started working it is wierd but see if that helps you.

now i am waiting for the future update when there would be some patch which will address this issues, till then using a different OS

I recently updated my mac pro 5.1 to high sierra, and immediately started to experience this random flickering issue. Its extremely annoying. I tried the power nvram and swc resets as suggested, numerous times (even used a wired keyboard to make sure key input was occurring) but problem persists. After two weeks i started to notice a pattern. The flickering occurs during internet browsing. I primarily use Firefox but issue occurs with Safari as well. However when i play a video game in full screen mode, and it is the only app running i can play for hours without a screen flicker. Once i go back to browsing the screen flickers anywhere from every five to 20 minutes.

Given that it is now May2018 and seeing this issue date all the way back to Oct2017, possibly even longer, Im very disheartened to see the quality control of apple products go so badly (dont get me started with latest IOS issues). Ive noticed other idiosyncrasies with High Sierra, such as itunes becoming unresponsive, locked with spinning colorwheel after I click fast forward to next track. I should have heeded the warnings to update to highsierra. I never had these many issues with 10.11.

I have had problem #2 since the High Sierra update went public. My screen occasionally flashes. It seems to happen in spurts. It is still rare enough not to trouble me, and it doesn't appear to be getting worse. For now. FWIW, I don't have problem #1. I did upgrade my SSD to APFS, and I had trouble with the installer hanging; I manually rebooted the computer and the drive had been formatted correctly (as far as Disk Utility could tell).

I upgraded to High Sierra and my screen immediately started flickering. It became progressively got worse after a restartso I thought it would be best to do a time machine restore.

Upon starting that process, the screen not only flickered but my screen had grey vertical lines. I continued to let it restore through the night but the next morning, I couldn't see anything on the screen. I turned off/on the Mac and nothing.

Phone support couldn't help so I brought it tot he Genius Bar on Madison Ave. Apparently and conveniently, the genius says its a hardware defect and would cost $475+tax to repair.

Odd, a perfectly good MacBook Pro screen goes bad immediately following my "upgrade" to high Sierra.

Mine seems to be related to html rendering. I see flickering of web pages, Slack, and Postman, which I believe are also based on web views. This happened immediately after High Sierra update and happens about 10x a day for me, often without any interaction required to trigger it.

This Bug exists because it has not been reported to Apple.

Once Apple receives at least 10 reports it will be worked on.

I get flickering associated with TextEdit only. Only the TextEdit app itself is flickering. Nothing else.

Feedback - macOS - Apple

Add me to the list

Got a Mac Pro that I use for work, had various problems with High Sierra (or Apple Vista as it is now known)

First it was disappearing icons, then tearing and now flickering. I have tested changing the gpu graphics card but the problem still exists.

I have a Radeon 280 with the internal drivers so it is something that is wrong with the update.

Such a poor upgrade - so bugged

Hello all,

Also having this problem on a freshly purchased 13" MBP (No touch bar) that came factory with High Sierra. This is worrisome and I seriously thought I had just lost the screen after owning this laptop for 2 weeks.

For the laptop screen, getting a second or so of teal and purple block artifacting opening the screen after the laptop has been sleeping with and without browsers open, its only been during wakeup thus far or when connecting other displays...

Been getting LOTS of flickering, artifacting, etc via an apple HDMI+USBC+USB3.0/3.1 adapter; multiple people in my office on newer MacBooks and MacBook Pro's all with apple branded adapters are having issues with connecting external displays, TV's, etc. Theres an entire process of having to be logged in, running none of the apps people have noticed issues with; then plug in the adapter with no other items plugged in; then plug in the monitor; then unplug the monitor because it will cycle flashing all screens involved then unplug the adapter again; then plug in one at a time again; and most of the time that will work, but sometimes it will be 5-10 tries. Sometimes you will have the laptop settle down, no display output, and then magically 5-45 minutes later you get graphics out of the monitor... We have laptops because we also work from home or out on the go regularly so we need these to work regularly, and its making the office really frustrated that hardware isn't working right with brand new laptops.

Having power plugged into the adapter will cause a for-sure failure to connect to the external monitor. Having power plugged into the adapter will cause sporadic disconnects of the monitor/tv, Insignia 44" HDTV, Samsung 34" ultra wide, Asus ROG 279Q, and older Dell 2405FPW's, Viotek GN32LD and NB27C...

Also, are there still compatibility issues with non-Apple branded adapters, because I would love to test out the Juiced 6-in-1 dock with the HDMI port...

the same just happened to me.. Any updates here? my mac was working perfectly fine until i "upgraded" to high sierra.

i am a bit annoyed about this, actually... 😟

I'm getting the same thing - an odd flickering when switching from the macOS screen to the Parallels Desktop screen. It began immediately after installing High Sierra. The flickering seems to be limited to when using Parallels and switching back and forth as shown in the video I made. I get two types of flickering - the first reminds me of an accordion opening/closing (see video) and the other is a straight up flicker - each occurring when switching to Parallels.

Here is the video:

macOS: flickering video after installing High Sierra - YouTube

I didn't get any messages during installation about a CUDA driver - or any type of issue while upgrading - for me the upgrade was business as usual.

Here is my system info:

mid 2015 MacBook Pro

(2.8GHz i7, 16GB, 1T SSD, AMD Radeon R9, Intel Iris Pro)

macOS High Sierra 10.13.1

Parallels Desktop 13 Pro Addition

David

I have just installed High Sierr and my Excel keeps flashing when i try to scroll with my mouse or click on it anyway. I use this program ever day and this will make it impossible to use. can you please advise how i fix this issue. i never had it before the update.