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Late 08 Macbook Pro screen flickering

MBP 2.53 screen flicker regardless of brightness setting...

MBP 2.53 has this flicker: every few minutes the screen goes black for a split second (actually, now that I read the symptoms here, it appears that the top half goes black) regardless of high or low brightness setting. So 'am ready to bring it in.

"Screen Reset"? that's a new one for me.

'Tried the Screen Reset: ctrl + shift + eject button about 15 minutes ago and have not had a flicker since. :confused:


'Could live with having to do a screen reset *occasionally*... .
 
yangzone said:
MBP 2.53 has this flicker: every few minutes the screen goes black for a split second (actually, now that I read the symptoms here, it appears that the top half goes black) regardless of high or low brightness setting. So 'am ready to bring it in.

"Screen Reset"? that's a new one for me.

'Tried the Screen Reset: ctrl + shift + eject button about 15 minutes ago and have not had a flicker since. :confused:


'Could live with having to do a screen reset *occasionally*... .
Click to expand...

That's just a shortcut to turn the screen off in OS X...
 
Apple Replaced my Screen

I went to the Apple Store earlier today and report the problem of the screen flickering and they told me they saw it flickers and offers me to replace the whole screen. Does anyone know whether replacing the screen ceases the flickering problem? I was expecting them to give me the new ones with the built in battery :D.

Mine bought in March'09 with 2.93 Ghz configuration.
 
Same problem

I have a 2.4 Unibody late 08 model. It's getting really bad lately. I have taken in one once already to have them tell me its perfectly fine. They had it for 2 weeks. I had to take my 4gb ram and the 500GB HD out just for them to tell me its ok. Anyone have any ideas what I can do? Obviously its a problem that needs to be taken care of. Im so glad i spent the extra money on applcare.:rolleyes:
 
Probz

smokedog said:
My problem is not with the image displayed but the backlight, which is producing a pulsing effect on low brightness.
Click to expand...

Regaj said:
Under Settings/Display, uncheck "Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes"
Click to expand...


I've got the same problem as smokedog, can't understand where any basis for Regaj's comment came from. I have a genius bar appt. today for another issue regarding a screw holding the hard drive bracket in being the wrong size so I'll ask them about this while I'm there. :apple:
 
LouiTheFish said:
I've got the same problem as smokedog, can't understand where any basis for Regaj's comment came from. I have a genius bar appt. today for another issue regarding a screw holding the hard drive bracket in being the wrong size so I'll ask them about this while I'm there. :apple:
Click to expand...

I have this problem too...I think people are suggesting the ambient light sensor because they come default set to adjust the screen brightness automatically depending on ambient light...it can cause the screen to dim and brighten if the sensor is blocked by your body or something...but this isnt the cause of the issue we are talking about because we have turned the auto bright off and it still happens.
 
I get this now BUT only after having had my screen replaced for a different reason, I got it back, installed 10.6 and boom my screen starts flickering intermittently. I've tried diff dim settings and auto-dim settings etc, switched from the 9400 to 9600 and still the same issue.
Why now? They never replaced anything but the screen, I never had this issue before.
Anyone having luck at the genius bar? I dont want to have to sit there till my hands warm up just to show that I'm not lying.
Whats the issue with MBP's man, this is my 1st apple, I've had a few HP's in the past and not one single hardware issue with them, yet they're half the price...:mad:
 
I've reported this bug to Apple Engineering, and they've confirmed that they are acknowledging it and that the Engineering dept is in the process of investigating this issue.
 
Problem finally fixed

I have a late 08 2.4GHZ MBP with both screen flickering issues described in this thread. The low-brightness pulsing (especially on the 4th lowest bar), and the top half of the display flashing to black every so often. Both of these issues were only seen on the 9400 graphics. I made one trip to the Genius bar several months ago and after 15 minutes of waiting, the tech saw it happen. He told me I would have to send in my machine, (not an option for me, sorry) so I left the store. A few days ago, after the issues became worse, I returned to the Apple store for another appointment. I showed the Apple Genius the video on this blog. He said that he had seen this problem before and agreed to replace my logic board that evening. That was about a week ago, and all the issues have yet to resurface. Just to be sure, I've been running strictly on the 9400, with the brightness set to the 4th bar for about a week.
The genius also told me that screen replacements were not working on similar situations. Hopefully by now, this problem is becoming more well-known, and everyone having this problem get taken care of.
 
I'm dealing with this issue outside of my Applecare protection now…Any ideas if I can get help?
 
Get used to it.

Glueeater said:
I'm dealing with this issue outside of my Applecare protection now…Any ideas if I can get help?
Click to expand...

I was told by the "genius" that it's just what led backlight screen do. Has anyone had a PERFECT experience with getting our problem fixed.
Honestly, maybe the led backlit isn't just ready for prime time yet. Let us know what happens with you and anyone else going through this. If they can't figure it out. Please give me a NEW computer. Am I aslng for too much?
 
I can confirm I have this issue as well. I have a 2.53 Ghz Unibody MBP manufactured in November 2008. This is getting really annoying.

Some interesting info about this issue, it does not show up on an external monitor. For instance, I have seen the screen on the laptop flicker like this, but the Dell 2408wfp that I have it hooked up to does not flicker. Seems like something with the screen on the laptop itself.
 
scubasteve03 said:
I was told by the "genius" that it's just what led backlight screen do.
Click to expand...

Rubbish, I had mine a year before I took it in after the 10.5.7 update maimed her.
Had the same thing, day I got it back it was fine, I installed 10.6 and boom it's been happening ever since, I called tech support and they had no idea, considering the turn-around time(last time they took 2 MONTHS to repair it) I thought I could live with it, but it's been getting worse.
I'm going to get myself a little netbook on payday and take my MBP in, along with a video of it acting up, the the Genius bar at Whitehall and see what they come up with this time!
Really shoddy on apples behalf, I've never had hardware issues like this with any other laptop I've had.
 
I have a 2.53 late '08 as well with the same issue. Every time the 9600GT is turned on, it *NEVER* happens. Right when I switch back to the 9400m only, it starts again.
:confused:
 
My 2.53GHz MacBook Pro just had it's screen and logicboard replaced for this issue. I now have the 9C85 screen, looks like junk compared to the old screen but no flickering as of yet. I honestly hope it does since I want a newer one with a Matte screen, which weren't available when I purchased mine.
 
This started happening to me just today on my MacBook Pro 5,1. It only lasted for a minute or so. I turned up my screen brightness and it stopped. I'm doing something really processor-intensive, so that may be what precipitated it. However, if this keeps happening, I hope I'll be able to reproduce it for Apple because this will be my 4th time needing to have work done on this computer and I really just want a new one at this point.
 
I've had this same issue since I got the computer last year and frankly ignored it until my logic board was replaced two weeks ago (bad headphone jack).

I called Applecare and they had me run a series of tests (SMC + PRAM, etc.) and had me go to the genius bar. Genius bar turned off ambiant light sensor and sleep for the display, said it was a "somewhat known issue" that he had seen before. Told me to come back if it gets worse. I left, went home, tried it out with his new settings....no change.

Only happens on 9400M at brightness below 4 bars, 9600 no issues.

I called Apple this morning and spoke with a product specialist (now senior advisors) who got all of my information. Prior to calling, I decided to try some things...

I booted from 10.5 fresh install on an external firewire hard drive, issue persisted. I also notice it in the boot manager screen as well, and only on the 9400M chipset. I also hooked it up to an external LCD monitor (HP w2207 22") via VGA and ran it off of the 9400M chipset....no issues, video looked perfect.

He said he would contact their engineering people and get back to me within a day or two. It's not a huge issue but I would like it if my computer didn't flicker in dark rooms. If I were to guess, it's a voltage or power management issue, but I'll know more when I hear back from Apple about it. On the plus side, the support people couldn't be nicer.
 
Not to revive an old thread but...

My MacBook Pro 2.8GHZ 15" Late '08 has this flickering problem. Only on the 9400M and either battery or Charger. It happens at any brightness. Do you think Apple will fix it for me if I take it to them? I bought my UMBP from a friend who upgraded to the i7. It's currently missing the glass sheet over the LCD, but I've ordered one.
 
i got this issues on my mid 2010 13" MBP.. its 2 weeks old and I got a replacement unit for it. hopefully the replacement unit doesn't have this issues again. :mad:
 
jonrwg said:
i got this issues on my mid 2010 13" MBP.. its 2 weeks old and I got a replacement unit for it. hopefully the replacement unit doesn't have this issues again. :mad:
Click to expand...

yep I heard that there is still this issue on the new macs ... kind of strange that they haven't fixed it.
 
I finally gave up and bought a 13" Sony Vaio. The screen is gorgeous... no flickering at low brightness, no random blanking, and no more headaches. I've been using it for over a week and haven't had a headache using this thing at all. Ya I'll miss using OSX but I still have my iMac for anything I can't do on Windows 7. So far I haven't found anything ::knock on wood::

Bottom-line: A (then) $2,500 laptop should not flicker. I'm getting rid of this thing once the semester is over.
 
Hey,

My 2.53 ghz MBP had this same issue that I started noticing a week or so after I got the machine. I took it in to the apple store last week after my semester was over/could go without a computer for a little while, and the genius ran graphics tests that showed that the video card failed the 2d acceleration test or something like that. I'm assuming it was the 9400m that failed since I only noticed flickering under os x and I never ran the 9600 under os x. So, the genius replaced the logic board, and I haven't noticed any flicker over the last week since that's happened.

So, bring it into the apple store and hopefully they'll fix it :)
 
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