2016 tMBP 15" display flicker :-(

[cmaier]

Well so much for that. Was running time machine backup and a handbrake job for a few hours, and came to the computer to find the screen complete messed up (shaking, broken lines, etc).

Turned it off and restarted. Now I get flickering in the middle of the screen, in the shape of the two windows that were open. NVRAM and SMC resets do nothing. Still happens when i change screen resolution or turn off auto switching graphics. Also happens in safe mode.

Does NOT happen on the "black" screens (boot up, shutdown, etc.).

The flickering stops when I move the mouse cursor.

Guess this is going into the Apple Store and I'll sit around and wait for a replacement (problem is, because of holidays, I can't even get an appointment until Saturday).
[doublepost=1479881572][/doublepost]Update: running gfxcardstatus, looks like it only happens when using integrated graphics.

 

[Daventry]

Wel that sucks.

My 2010 MBP always kernel panics when using dGPU.

In case of GPU woes my backup was to return my 2016 15" MBP and get a 13" one but if intel cards are crashing too now I'm not so sure...

 

[devniel]

Hello,

@cmaier what dGPU do you have ?

 

[cmaier]

Hello,

@cmaier what dGPU do you have ?

460.

 

[mi7chy]

Does it look anything like this?

 

[Pootmatoot]

Additionally to the likely hardware issue here, there's also some issue going on between the the touchbar and screen.

See this review at 5:55.

 

[cmaier]

Does it look anything like this?

Not so much. Here's a video that doesn't really show it in full glory (hard to video it because the shutter rate in the camera interferes with the flicker frequency).

Weird part: it SEEMS to have stopped finally this morning. At least I can't be sure I see it (which means it isn't nearly as bad as it was). I was going to walk-in to genius bar today, but I'll keep my appointment for Saturday and see if it recurs before then.

 

[mi7chy]

Weird part: it SEEMS to have stopped finally this morning. At least I can't be sure I see it (which means it isn't nearly as bad as it was). I was going to walk-in to genius bar today, but I'll keep my appointment for Saturday and see if it recurs before then.

It might appear under specific conditions so keep a note of the status of your laptop when it happens such as on battery or AC power, battery percentage, brightness level, CPU and GPU utilization, etc.

 

[brewmonkey]

Additionally to the likely hardware issue here, there's also some issue going on between the the touchbar and screen.

See this review at 5:55.

The flickering Dock at 5:55 is very weird (and the reviewer either doesn't notice it or just ignores it). Has that been reported anywhere else I wonder?

 

[cmaier]

It might appear under specific conditions so keep a note of the status of your laptop when it happens such as on battery or AC power, battery percentage, brightness level, CPU and GPU utilization, etc.

Yeah been trying to alter all those to see. As a former microprocessor designer with a Phd in electrical engineering i find it baffling. Best guess is that a memory structure involved in the backing store or the bitblt somehow got stuck (hence the flickering formed the shape of the two windows that were showing), maybe due to overheating or something, and that the "stuck" bits are clear now. But i can't think of a good reason for that to happen, as that should all be volatile memory that gets wiped by reboot (or Nvram reset or smc reset).

I will keep an eye on it and let everyone know if it repeats.

 

[Pootmatoot]

The flickering Dock at 5:55 is very weird (and the reviewer either doesn't notice it or just ignores it). Has that been reported anywhere else I wonder?

She mentions it in the written review and in the comments: her view was that it was likely a software issue that would be soon fixed, and therefore not fair to mention in the video which will likely last far longer than the bug.

I can see lots of little bugs like this when you start messing with the numbers of screens: just look at the difficulties Microsoft had making Intel play nice with the Surface books detachable screen.