M1/M2 flickering, ghosting with external display [Merged]

[pocketlight]

Did you test the flickering screen on a different laptop right after the flicker started while connected to the m1? The reason I ask is because several users (including myself) have the m1 causing flicker and image retention that persists on the screen even when you connect the screen to a different laptop after the fact. The flicker/retention goes away after powering off the screen completely for a while.

Even in my case, the m1 would cause my screen to flicker and image retention which would persist when I would immediately disconnect the m1 and switch the screen to a different windows machine (even on a different port, hdmi to dp).

I've returned my m1 and its been more than 2 weeks now with no issues anymore with my ultrawide connected to my windows machine as usual.

I disconnected my laptop and then I connected another M1 based laptop to the same screen using the same USB-C cable. Weird that the screen would retain the flicker even with a different laptop? 🤔 I've tried "rebooting" the screen, and swapped the cable but the flicker was still there.

Though the flicker went away after a while, and has now been gone since my last post. It seem to do this once in a while, though I can't confirm if it is the screen or not, since I plugged in my laptop on another screen (another model too) using USB-C and it did not flicker then. The screen did continue to flicker on it's own though, unconnected. So this to me says it's something wrong with the screen and not the same issue?

 

[Mewcenary]

I disconnected my laptop and then I connected another M1 based laptop to the same screen using the same USB-C cable. Weird that the screen would retain the flicker even with a different laptop? 🤔 I've tried "rebooting" the screen, and swapped the cable but the flicker was still there.

Though the flicker went away after a while, and has now been gone since my last post. It seem to do this once in a while, though I can't confirm if it is the screen or not, since I plugged in my laptop on another screen (another model too) using USB-C and it did not flicker then. The screen did continue to flicker on it's own though, unconnected. So this to me says it's something wrong with the screen and not the same issue?

Not weird if it is an issue with the M1 devices in general which is causing incompatibility with your monitor.

 

[pocketlight]

Not weird if it is an issue with the M1 devices in general which is causing incompatibility with your monitor.

Sure, but I would assume this would only happen when the machine is connected to the monitor, and not while being disconnected or a completely different machine (that has yet to show any proof of flicker) is connected.

 

[Wirt7]

I've experienced macbook air M1 flickering issues as well. I think that M1 laptops temporarily damage monitors and make them flicker. It usually disappear after few minutes if you connect different windows laptop/PC.

 

[The.Walrus]

MONITOR : LG UME7300PUA (2019)

CABLE: HDMI

APPLE 3 WAY DONGLE: USB-c | HDMI (x) | USB 3.0

CALDIGIT MiniDock: USB-c | HDMI (x)

M1 MAC PRO 16G - Flickering, Intermittent Off/On, Loses Complete Connection and Re-establishes it, Lose Picture and Sound as connected to monitor speakers as well.

Also I've tried using Airplay to get it to work, and its works ok except the resolution choice is suboptimal and it loses connection also and i have to recycle the monitor completely off to reestablish connection. But its not really a choice because the resolution is so poor. Not even sure why it is Apple doesn't make it better to watch pictures, movies and so forth. But they confirmed the supported resolution isn't ideal.

View attachment 1740518

This is precisely the issue I am having with my M1 MBP and a Dell S2721QS. Sometimes it goes days without happening, other times it's near constant. I am at my wits end. Just work, damnit!

 

[iioewr505]

I run into the same issue. Beside, I can still see the ghost image after I unplugged the cable from my dell U2720q monitor!

 

[Mewcenary]

That's just freaky. What on earth are the M1 devices doing?!

 

[oz_rkie]

Apple's complete silence on this matter is also pretty disappointing. Its hard to tell if this is a software issue or a hardware issue with the m1. Personally I am leaning toward it being the latter.

 

[ThisWeatherford]

Wow my M1 Mac mini with Dell 2720Q is leaving ghosting that retains on the monitor even after I turn off the Mac.
I’ve tried using hdmi and thunderbolt.
This seems like a max hardware issue as my other sources don’t cause this.

 

[pocketlight]

Hm, well this is quite interesting... I wonder what kind of magic Apple has managed to do for this to be a thing.

Also not completely surprising that they are quiet, legally "better" to be quiet than admitting to something. (Harder to get sued, etc)

 

[iioewr505]

Wow my M1 Mac mini with Dell 2720Q is leaving ghosting that retains on the monitor even after I turn off the Mac.
I’ve tried using hdmi and thunderbolt.
This seems like a max hardware issue as my other sources don’t cause this.

After I upgrade to 11.3, the flickering issue disappeared. However, when I restart my M1 MAC today, it reappeared. I have to switch to a 1080P monitor for now. So disappointed.

 

[dylg]

Yup, same problem here - M1 MBP, Philips 328E1, 2160p60 running at full resolution with a fancy DisplayPort 1.2 -> USB-C cable. macOS 11.3.1, restarted recently.
1. Vertical bars
2. Flickering rapidly
3. (very infrequently) display going black for 2-5 seconds

(not the ghosting)

Observations: Night Shift or Flux ALWAYS triggers it as it fades to a redder temperature. Setting those tools to certain temperatures (like anywhere 1600k-1800k, and 2100k-2900k apparently) causes reproducible flickering. It has something to do with blacks/grays and transparency. MacRumors does consistently trigger it, as does a dark mode on VSCode. Switching to a different tab/window/scrolling down either eliminates the flickering or the bars or causes one or both to occur. Scrolling in Factorio's mod list always causes it, when you're "between" items. Anyway.

I seem to have mostly fixed it. Fingers crossed this holds, but combo of this significantly improved it!
1. turning on OSD
2. setting the screen size to 1:1 ratio instead of native (necessary because of OSD)
3. setting native gamma to 2.4
4. switching the display's native color temperature to 5000k instead of native (native seems to be around ~5500k)

Flickering + vertical bars now only happen at 1900k and 2900k, not the full range it did before. Definitely an Apple incompatibility with color profiles/correction/something, at least with my non-ghosting problems (those sound way worse). But try the OSD + color temp trick and see if it works for you.

(obviously changing gamma + native color temperature is less than ideal but for a dark space at night these were actually welcome changes and fixes this till Apple can actually solve this)

 

[johannes.c.meyer]

I have the same problem on my M1 MacBook Air.

It occurs on both the 4k Dell S2721QS and the HP EliteDisplay E273q.

I found the following post, maybe it will cheer someone up:

Apple investigating Mac Mini M1 display flickering on dark backgrounds

Things have recently taken a turn for the better with flickering issues on an external monitor/display when connected to the Mac Mini M1.

piunikaweb.com

 

[pocketlight]

Alright, so there is one specific website that we use internally at work. It triggers the flickering every time I visit it. The website doesn't use a lot of dark colors, it's mainly white, black text and a light-medium gray. So far it is the only thing that triggers it for me. I'm even using dark mode so most apps and websites are already dark or black. So weird.

 

[bbednarz]

Welp, just bought 2 new Samsung A700 monitors and noticed this. Thought it was the monitor. Seems real bad when I use the HDMI port on the Mac mini. Since switching to a thunderbolt-HDMI cable (10 minutes ago) it has seemed much better. Well see if it sticks... Both monitors have the exact same issue described in here. Gotta be something with the mini.. I have a support session lined up at 11am.. doubtful there will be any resolution, but well see.

edit:
lol. That lasted 11 minutes.

What's strange is that I have been using this M1 mini since December with a different Samsung 4k Display, the UJ59. Had no issues with that display at all.

 

[bbednarz]

My call with them was mostly pointless. Did some troubleshooting, but it all ended up pointing to the monitor being the issue.

My old Samsung 4k UJ59 monitor does not show these lines at all and theres no flicker or anything. My new Samsung A700 4k monitor does show the lines and has the random flickering/going black for 2-3 seconds randomly. I did point out that using a Windows machine with the same cable did NOT produce the same results, so I definitely believe its something with the Mac in some way. We did a screen sharing session and he was not able to see it on his end which lead him to believe it was the monitor.

My main goal for chatting them was to make sure it was another voice telling them there is something wrong. I really think it's a hardware issue and nothing short of a recall will fix this. Hopefully I am wrong. Just annoyed that I have to return these 2 new monitors and look for something else because this likely won't be fixed before my return window expires.


Edit:

Is FreeSync maybe playing some kind of role here? My old Samsung had FreeSync and it does not show the lines. My new monitor does NOT have FreeSync and it does have the lines. I don't even know what FreeSync is.. I'm just trying to make sense of it so when I return these, the new ones don't have the issue.

 

[jdb8167]

Is FreeSync maybe playing some kind of role here? My old Samsung had FreeSync and it does not show the lines. My new monitor does NOT have FreeSync and it does have the lines. I don't even know what FreeSync is.. I'm just trying to make sense of it so when I return these, the new ones don't have the issue.

FreeSync is a variable refresh rate for gaming displays with AMD graphics cards. I doubt it has anything to do with this and isn’t supported by Macs as far as I know anyways—definitely not on M1 Macs.

 

[bbednarz]

FreeSync is a variable refresh rate for gaming displays with AMD graphics cards. I doubt it has anything to do with this and isn’t supported by Macs as far as I know anyways—definitely not on M1 Macs.

I just wonder if it's playing a role in some way to mask the issue. Between my old and new monitor, this is really the only difference (that I can see) outside of HDR, which I don't have enabled.

 

[oz_rkie]

I just wonder if it's playing a role in some way to mask the issue. Between my old and new monitor, this is really the only difference (that I can see) outside of HDR, which I don't have enabled.

Don't think it has anything to do with freesync. I have used an m1 macbook air with both a freesync monitor and a g-sync (native) monitor. The m1 has something weird going on which seems to cause issues with a number of monitors. I know there are a large number of people that do not have any issues with certain monitors, but there are also a non trivial number of users that do (as evidenced in this thread).

 

[pocketlight]

I installed 11.4 the other day, and the website that triggers the flicker for me has yet to trigger it. I will monitor it and see what happens. Sometimes it takes a while after a reboot for it to happen.

Edit: Some hours later, the flicker has returned. Though this time it feels like it not as strong. Maybe at a quicker frequency too.

 

[iMnlx]

Hi, I have the same problem here with my Mac Mini M1 + LG 32UN550 4k Monitor, I just solved the problem of vertical lines just activating HDR on screen preferences, I readed that some of you feels the screen color washed, I solved this problem too on Accesibility - screen - and adjust contrast I wanted. With this I've fixed my problem and I think that looks awesome now. I tried to stress the mac and monitor to see that vertical lines again but I didn't see it anymore. However, I prefeer to think that this problem will fixed in a in coming macOS version...

In siimple words, just turn on HDR and adjust the contrast in accesibility preferences

Don't forget to reset your monitor settings to prevent saturation of colors

 

[Crackman]

So I came across this thread researching similar issue. I am using an LG 38GL950G monitor that has worked without any issues for over a year on my main gaming windows PC. Recently I bought two new macbook airs m1 and have occasionally experienced similar issues as those described in this post.

The issues I've experienced are

1. The screen sometimes (seemingly at random?) starts flickering.
2. Along with the flickering, sometimes there is image retention. The image retention persists even when switching from mac to windows and only goes away after powering off monitor for a while.
3. Vertical lines/banding in some areas of the screen (noticed this on the spot where a chrome window was open)
4. All the above issues strangely persist even after restarting and even after switching to my windows PC (the issue always seem to start when connected to the mac, never on windows atleast so far)
5. The only thing that seems to solve the issue is powering off the monitor for a while and then back on after about a couple hours.
6. There was however one occasion where switching the image preset from my monitor's OSD right when the banding issue appeared resolved the issue right away.
7. Tried with different cables with same issue and also directly connected to mac versus connected through a Caldigit TS3 plus. Just noting that this issue does not happen a lot and seems to be random for me.

In any case, I first thought that my monitor went bad (maybe that might still be the case?) but I came across this thread that is making me think twice since the issues only start when monitor is connected to my mac and never happened before.

My monitor is still under warranty so I can get it replaced but I just wanted to chime in and see what other people's experience are. Is this a monitor issue or a mac m1 issue? Has anyone had any success with a replacement m1 or any specific docks etc?

I experienced the exact same issues on a MSI PS321QR.
The image retention persisting on different monitor inputs made me think it was a monitor issue, but now I'm not sure.
I sent my monitor in for repair, but that was before I read all these threads about m1 external monitor issues.
It almost seems like the m1 is sending out a kind of destructive video signal. I'm hessitant to hook it up again when I get my monitor back.

 

[bobcomer]

Hi, I have the same problem here with my Mac Mini M1 + LG 32UN550 4k Monitor, I just solved the problem of vertical lines just activating HDR on screen preferences, I readed that some of you feels the screen color washed, I solved this problem too on Accesibility - screen - and adjust contrast I wanted. With this I've fixed my problem and I think that looks awesome now. I tried to stress the mac and monitor to see that vertical lines again but I didn't see it anymore. However, I prefeer to think that this problem will fixed in a in coming macOS version...

In siimple words, just turn on HDR and adjust the contrast in accesibility preferences

Don't forget to reset your monitor settings to prevent saturation of colors

That can only work if you have a monitor capable of doing HDR..

 

[Falcon9]

I can confirm that the LG UN850 works flawlessly with an M1 Mac. No vertical lines like I was getting on my 1080p HP and Dell monitors. Really nice quality screen too. Feels on par with the 5K iMac in my house.

 

[walnut]

Had this issue with my M1 Mac mini. My monitor is a new Dell P2721Q, which has a 4K 27in screen. Replicated flickering on dark gradients/colours and the associated image retention. An example that caused this for me was the NoMachine website, which has a black banner at the top and a very dark grey colour right underneath it.

I noticed that this issue was sensitive to the colour profiles I applied to the monitor. I changed to the "sRGB IEC61966-2.1" profile and found that this reduced the frequency (maybe it lightened the screen slightly as well). I also turned the monitor off more frequently when not in use, just in case this was a hardware issue. This only reduced occurrence.

Since there were anecdotes about HDR modes on monitors causing this, and my experience of it being affected by colour profiles, I looked into the colour output by the M1. M1 seems to output in YPbPr mode by default to many monitors using USB-C, DisplayPort, or HDMI. On my monitor, the OSD menu says YPbPr rather than RGB. Turns out, there's people complaining about YPbPr output from the M1 Mac. Luckily, someone figured out a fix (it's in that thread). Ran through the fix, and haven't had issues since (2 weeks and counting). The NoMachine website doesn't cause flicker any more.

Interestingly, DVI connections don't support YPbPr. So if you're connecting with DVI, you may not get this problem. But for many running 4K 60Hz screens, the norm is to connect with USB-C, DisplayPort or HDMI, which do support YPbPr.