External display blinks/flashes when connected to MBP

[yojitani]

What I'd like to know in this thread is if I should get a new mini displayport DVI connector or if there may be a problem with either my macbook pro or my monitor.

I use my MBP connected to a Dell U2410 and everything has been ok for the last 5 months or so (I got the MBP around the beginning of Feb.). However recently, my display will start flickering (blinking) a blue screen up to the point that it is completely unusable. Often if I simply unplug the mini displayport from the mbp and plug it back in again, everything goes back to normal for awhile. Just now I was able, between flickers, to switch from the integrated graphics card to the dedicated (?) graphics card. Although I did get a few flickers logging back in, so far it's been ok. (spoke too soon. It's starting up again :-()

Now, I should say that I have been a bit worried about the fan noise coming from the NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT in particular. Both GPUs tend to get really hot (according to iStat), particularly when connected to the display. It's just worse on the 9600M GT.

So, is this a computer issue? I do still have applecare so it could be sent in if necessary.


FYI. I am using a 15" MBP 2.53 unibody. NVIDIA GeForce 9600M/9600M GT. 4 GB RAM etc etc. Connected via DVI!
Thanks~

 

[yojitani]

Just to let everyone know that the problem was a faulty display adapter. I bought a medium-priced third party adapter and it failed. In fact, in the last 5 months, 3 have failed on me. Because the first two failed within a few weeks, I figured I was unlucky. I bought an apple one this time. Build quality does seem better. We'll see how long it lasts.