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MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.3

This is interesting... as is the timing of this update!

I bought a 2.4GHz 15" MBP last night. It looked fine when I opened it straight after purchase, I didn't notice any screen flicker/ "rolling bands" as someone called it.

Then I decided to reinstall the OS from scratch to remove unnecessary apps and when it came back to the welcome/registration screen on the dark grey background I started seeing this "rolling bands" problem when the display brightness was set to anything other than 100%. Arrrgh, not *another* issue I thought, as I'd already returned 3 MBPs for other problems... :rolleyes:

I then ran the software updates and restarted a couple of times. Then spent the evening on iChat and the web but no longer noticing this flickering screen issue. :) So perhaps this update did indeed fix the problem! Will have a closer look at the display again tonight, at varying brightness levels.
 
I have a week 26 2.2 with LG screen, which I bought only yesterday, & I have only just finished calibrating the battery so I don't know if that's improved, but, (this could & very well may be just my imagination) my screen doesn't look like it has as much of a sepia tone to it now when looked at straight on- it's quite yellowy when looked at on an angle (which I understand is the norm) but I'm sure it's better now.

Other than that it was perfect before the update (though I think it may be even more perfect now ;))
 
I have the LG screen. It was absolutely perfect before the update and remains perfect afterwards. Reported battery life seems a little higher but I've only just updated so I'll have to give it a couple of days to see if it really is.
 
i dont get flickering usually, i only get flicker when there are horizontal alternativly shaded lines close together, e.g in protools (from the screenshot that was posted on here somewhere)
i believe this is something to do with the refresh rate frequency conflicting with the lines.
 
Well after ive downloaded the EFI 1.3 update It tells me that i dont have to install this update?. Model is a MBP 2.2 with glossy.

Should i try anyway?:confused:
 
I have noticed the following definite change in behavior.

Previously going from no display illumination (off) to on resulted in a bright flash of maximum brightness.

Now there is no bright flash, the display is changed directly to the correct brightness.
 
So this is my attempt to reason the stated information. A few people are claiming increased battery life, and this only affects the LED screens. Think it's possible they could change the way they are driving the LEDs? I think in fancy flashlights and other LED based light sources, don't they "flicker" the LED on and off rapidly, lengthening battery life and tricking us into perceiving the light source is continuous? Could they have updated this -- which causes an interference pattern with the refresh rate the display is being updated with?

Just a guess. Could be way off. I have no idea how these screens work anymore.
 
i dont think the refresh rate of the backlight has anything to do with the picture refresh rate frequency. They have probably changed the display refresh rate so that it does not interfere with the rate of the LEDS
just a guess
 
I don't see it... thank goodness.

opticalserenity said:
Yeah, me too :mad:

I have the same rolling issue. You have to look at times to see it, but otherwise its getting pretty annoying. Wow...APPLE PLEASE!

If you want to see it, put your nose at the bottom of your laptop right in front of the trackpad, and look up at the screen. It is probably pretty noticeably yellow and darker, but you'll start to see the rolling patterns.

The darker the items on the screen, the more I see it now. Not good.
Click to expand...
 
mrwizardno2 said:
So this is my attempt to reason the stated information. A few people are claiming increased battery life, and this only affects the LED screens. Think it's possible they could change the way they are driving the LEDs? I think in fancy flashlights and other LED based light sources, don't they "flicker" the LED on and off rapidly, lengthening battery life and tricking us into perceiving the light source is continuous? Could they have updated this -- which causes an interference pattern with the refresh rate the display is being updated with?

Just a guess. Could be way off. I have no idea how these screens work anymore.
Click to expand...
That could be a possibility, but if it were true, that would mean that the eyes would get strained more easily, leading into tired eyes in shorter periods of time. That's definitely not a good thing. Even if it flickers in a speed that your brain can't detect, it would still strain your eyes. More or less like CRTs strain the eyes a lot easier than LCDs even when the CRT is set to a high refresh rate.

If anyone can tell us something about it... I'd definitely prefer a shorter battery life than easily strained eyes, unless of course they only activate the flickering during unplugged usage.

Edit: also if the screen refresh rate and the LED refresh rate don't coincide, it results in the banding of the screen.
 
justflie said:
I took the plunge, it worked fine for me. It seemed to get rid of the jitteriness/choppiness when I would expose all windows. Maybe it's just my imagination though. But certainly no problems here (except for 1 stuck red pixel, but that's another story).
Click to expand...

Justflie, try to use "pixel fix", might help your pixel problem :)
 
heffeque said:
Even if it flickers in a speed that your brain can't detect, it would still strain your eyes.
Click to expand...

All screens "flicker" at some rate, be it LED backlighted or not. The reason why LCD flickering is not as noticeable as CRT flickering is because the LCD panel itself (not the backlight) is not changing pixels if it doesn't have to, thus the image itself is not unnecessarily moving. The CRT image is never stable due to the nature of how the image is produced, and this instability is what strains eyes.

LCD backlight flickering is unnoticeable, because the backlight light source is not directly visible to us but the light comes via some kind of optical diffuser. Kind of like a paper lamp which produces very gentle light compared to direct light of a light bulb.

Can't explain it any better, because I'm not a native english speaker. My english is not that bad either, but in this case I feel the language is restricting my ability to communicate — haven't had this feeling in ages ;)
 
I was running late this morning and didn't have time to check this before I left the house. Now I have to wait 'til I get home from work to fiddle with this.
 
The update seemed to install fine on my machine.:)

Too bad they havent addressed the crappy graphics drivers for the video card yet. Still can't play cod2.
:mad:
 
JFreak said:
Can't explain it any better, because I'm not a native english speaker. My english is not that bad either, but in this case I feel the language is restricting my ability to communicate — haven't had this feeling in ages ;)
Click to expand...

Sina puhut hyvaa englantia
 
I can't believe its three pages in and still, nobody has thought to mention if this solves the bottom 3rd yellowing issue?

I mean it has been a very large issue recently and you would think this would twig???
 
FuzzMunky said:
I can't believe its three pages in and still, nobody has thought to mention if this solves the bottom 3rd yellowing issue?

I mean it has been a very large issue recently and you would think this would twig???
Click to expand...

I've never noticed a yellowing issue on mine. Sorry!
 
JFreak said:
All screens "flicker" at some rate, be it LED backlighted or not. The reason why LCD flickering is not as noticeable as CRT flickering is because the LCD panel itself (not the backlight) is not changing pixels if it doesn't have to, thus the image itself is not unnecessarily moving. The CRT image is never stable due to the nature of how the image is produced, and this instability is what strains eyes.

LCD backlight flickering is unnoticeable, because the backlight light source is not directly visible to us but the light comes via some kind of optical diffuser. Kind of like a paper lamp which produces very gentle light compared to direct light of a light bulb.

Can't explain it any better, because I'm not a native english speaker. My english is not that bad either, but in this case I feel the language is restricting my ability to communicate — haven't had this feeling in ages ;)
Click to expand...

I know how CRT and LCD screens work ;-)

LCDs don't flicker at all because they don't turn on and off all the time, they only change color without turning on and off (you may be confusing the term flicker as something similar).
CRT's pixels are 2 times off and 1 time on. Since the brain is able to detect more or less 24 fps, then on CRTs, 24 x 3 = 72 hertz is the minimum refresh rate needed to fool the brain into a virtually no flickering sensation (not quite true, but that's what's considered to be the standard).

The problem that's being questioned here is this: with LED back-light lamps now it's possible to turn the back-light on and off very fast. Actually that's what LEDs in alarm clocks do for example. Although the LCD's pixels don't turn on and off (they only change color), the back-light can be turned on and off very rapidly resulting in flickering.

That's what we want to know: is this firmware introducing back-light flickering to reduce power draw while unplugged? If it is, it would be good to know.
 
^re: flickering stuff

What I noticed was probably more accurately described as a kind of pulsing set of horizontal lines or bands, travelling slowly up the screen. A bit like watching film credits, though rolling in reverse!

I haven't seen any "flickering" other than this scrolling bands issue. Just wonder if that's actually what people mean by the term "flicker" or if there are two different types of display issue here (*other than the yellowing of course*)
 
Well, I did it: after NVRAM reset, return to normal in OSX without scrolling bands , but the bands are still rolling out like it's the halftime show under XP.
 
I did the update and then. . .

-my screen got brighter.
-my battery time got much longer.
-my machine started opening windows faster (yes, snappier)

and all this made me happier.

Nothing but positives!
 
heffeque said:
I know how CRT and LCD screens work ;-)

LCDs don't flicker at all because they don't turn on and off all the time, they only change color without turning on and off (you may be confusing the term flicker as something similar).
CRT's pixels are 2 times off and 1 time on. Since the brain is able to detect more or less 24 fps, then on CRTs, 24 x 3 = 72 hertz is the minimum refresh rate needed to fool the brain into a virtually no flickering sensation (not quite true, but that's what's considered to be the standard).

The problem that's being questioned here is this: with LED back-light lamps now it's possible to turn the back-light on and off very fast. Actually that's what LEDs in alarm clocks do for example. Although the LCD's pixels don't turn on and off (they only change color), the back-light can be turned on and off very rapidly resulting in flickering.

That's what we want to know: is this firmware introducing back-light flickering to reduce power draw while unplugged? If it is, it would be good to know.
Click to expand...

They may not "flicker" but they do refresh. That refresh rate combined with the "flicker" of the LEDs would produce the interference pattern.

EDIT: Also, it doesn't seem to matter whether I'm plugged in or not, I see it either which way.
 
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