Some 2013 MacBook Air Models Exhibit Severe Flickering With Photoshop

[3282868]

1st gen. hardware + unstable drivers. What do you expect? A production ready machine, or what!?

Whoa, wait, what? That's a huge pass for any company. The MacBook Air is not a brand new model, it is simply updated specs. If these new specs derail it from working as any commercially available notebook, then it should not have been released. I'm not debating the numbers of users who bought 2013 models versus those who are experiencing issues, the fact Apple acknowledged it so quickly speaks in of itself.

Computers are expensive, selling a system as a finalized product then recalling it paints a picture much bigger than "oh, it's just too new, bugs are expected". No way, Chrysler didn't get away with it in the recent Jeep Grand Cherokee fiasco, neither did Toyota/Lexus. Those brands took a hit. Company brand is only as good as their latest product, and lately quality has become an issue with Apple.

 

[Amineben]

my iphone 5 did the same thing recently when I started the camera.

 

[mchoffa]

I thought it must just be a small issue since I'd already used photoshop a few times with no problem, but I fired up Photoshop CC on mine again just now and tried a few things. Smaller brushes don't do anything out of the ordinary for me (at least in my quick test), but any brush over 400px and it starts up. The bigger the brush, the more extremely the issue shows itself.

My main machine is a maxed out 2012 iMac + 2 displays, but I will use the Air occasionally for editing work while on the road. This is an unacceptable issue. Hope it's resolved before it affects anything I might need to do!

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

...Computers are expensive, selling a system as a finalized product then recalling it paints a picture much bigger than "oh, it's just too new, bugs are expected". No way, Chrysler didn't get away with it in the recent Jeep Grand Cherokee fiasco, neither did Toyota/Lexus. Those brands took a hit. Company brand is only as good as their latest product, and lately quality has become an issue with Apple.

I agree, bedifferent. Toyota deserved the bad press, IMHO.

 

[Nik]

I have also issues with CS6

Got the very same issue with Photoshop CS6:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6gX2ydkVz4&feature=youtu.be

 

[flux73]

I thought it must just be a small issue since I'd already used photoshop a few times with no problem, but I fired up Photoshop CC on mine again just now and tried a few things. Smaller brushes don't do anything out of the ordinary for me (at least in my quick test), but any brush over 400px and it starts up. The bigger the brush, the more extremely the issue shows itself.

My main machine is a maxed out 2012 iMac + 2 displays, but I will use the Air occasionally for editing work while on the road. This is an unacceptable issue. Hope it's resolved before it affects anything I might need to do!

Does it stop if you shrink the brush back to under 400 px? And does it stop when you take your finger off the touchpad?

 

[Ryth]

Am I the only one that thinks it's amazing that an AIR can even run a full version of photoshop?

Seems like just yesterday we were blown away that Jobs could fit one in an envelope, now we expect it to handle high end graphics applications.

Photoshop isn't a high end graphics application.

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Thankyou! The MBA is many times as powerful as high end laptops from ~5 years ago. Why couldn't it run photoshop? Even HD video is doable albeit not ideal.

True but also 5 years ago, many of these apps don't have the features they have today.

Power/features go hand in hand in evolution.

 

[Nik]

I know exactly WHERE the problem occurs mostly: It's when you have the mouse cursor in between the menus and the picture itself.

You can see this in my second video (will be up within minutes!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMH6EczMrSI

 

[twoodcc]

not good. glad i didn't buy one of these airs

 

[Nik]

not good. glad i didn't buy one of these airs

I doubt this is a hardware issue.
It does happen in certain areas in Photoshop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMH6EczMrSI

 

[AppleMacFinder]

I love these. Upgrade to an unreleased OS and problem solved.

What do you do if you're not a developer? Apple has to fix it in 10.8.

I have to admit, those who experience this Apple problem, have the right to download and install it,
even if they are not developers

 

[petsounds]

That Chris Cox guy never admits any of Photoshop's many bugs, it's always either the customer's fault or some other company. He's often defensive and arrogant on the support board. When I've presented actual evidence, my message has been deleted.

This hostility towards customers was bad enough, but after this rental-only Adobe cloud BS, I'm never buying Adobe products again.

 

[Nik]

In my third video my MacBook Air 2013 crashes(!) because of screen flickering in Photoshop!

-> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElofXqNnJ58

 

[dlbmacfan]

I'm having the same problem with my Haswell 1.7 GHz i7/ 512 GB/ 8 GB. I get the problem when I zoom in on a photo to over 500%. Interestingly, I tried to use the program ScreenFlow to capture a video of the flickering, and even though my screen flickered fairly dramatically, the video I created showed no flickering at all.

 

[inlinevolvo]

you should know that one shouldn't ever buy a first run production model of anything apple.

but the air isnt a first run product...

 

[macs4nw]

Why should I expect any less from a company who markets their machines as the best of the best and charges top dollar from them to boot.

Is it acceptable if your new Porsche constantly stalled on the highway based on the grounds that it was a new model year? What do you expect? A production ready car?

Even though it appears to be a small percentage of users affected, you do have a valid point.

 

[iamsen47]

For Graphic/Web Design I think

Yes please, tell us more about how we should do our jobs.

 

[GSVAI]

MBA 2013 Haswell incompatibility with CS6

I am one of the silly guys spending a lot of money for an MBA assuming it can be used for basic photo editing using Photoshop.
Like many others I have posted the problems with screen flickering in various discussions. I suppose all we ask for is for both Apple and Adobe to talk to each other to keep their customers satisfied. Just acknowledge there is a glitch and let us know how and when it will be fixed.
If I wanted a laptop for surfing the Internet, using Skype and other basic stuff while travelling I wouldn't buy such a high performance laptop. So guess what, I forked out good money because I wanted high performance and reliability realising its not a desktop machine. But c'mon....this screen flickr shouldn't happen on an MBA 2013.

 

[mattferg]

Just tried this out with my 2013 Air and a copy of Photoshop CS6.

Opened a JPG from my DSLR and starting using large brush tools on it... no issues whatsoever.

Am I doing something wrong or am I just one of the lucky ones who have neither this issue nor the WiFi one?

 

[zmanfx]

OS X 10.8.5 developer seed top two focus areas:

- Wi-Fi
- Graphics

Hopefully it'll address these issues with the new MBA if possible.

 

[malman89]

Am I the only one that thinks it's amazing that an AIR can even run a full version of photoshop?

Seems like just yesterday we were blown away that Jobs could fit one in an envelope, now we expect it to handle high end graphics applications.

No.

My Late 2006 Core 2 Duo MacBook runs the full CSS5.5 with little to no issue. I'd expect as much as the bare minimum considering my hardware is 7-8 years old.

 

[wizard]

Bad hardware, take it to Apple!

Seriously folks, you buy new hardware, which is under warranty, but are unwilling to take a malfunction device back to the store. Instead post silly videos all over the net to try to get some sort of confirmation.

The hilarity here is that Apple has some of the best support programs going. Take advantage of those programs when you have new hardware, that is why they are there.

 

[wizard]

I am one of the silly guys spending a lot of money for an MBA assuming it can be used for basic photo editing using Photoshop.
Like many others I have posted the problems with screen flickering in various discussions.

Have you taken the machine to an Apple store or in other ways tried to contact Apple about the problem yourself. Frankly rushing to a forum over a broken laptop isn't the most productive way to a fix.

I suppose all we ask for is for both Apple and Adobe to talk to each other to keep their customers satisfied. Just acknowledge there is a glitch and let us know how and when it will be fixed.

First off you would need to know if it is a hardware or software issue. Some of what I've seen seems to indicate a hardware issue. That doesn't completely rule out drivers though.

Beyond that you can hang around forums and feed your concerns or you can do something about it. Talk to Apple! Further there is a very high likely hood that you aren't even discussing the same problems when you converse with a bunch of random forum members.

If I wanted a laptop for surfing the Internet, using Skype and other basic stuff while travelling I wouldn't buy such a high performance laptop. So guess what, I forked out good money because I wanted high performance and reliability realising its not a desktop machine. But c'mon....this screen flickr shouldn't happen on an MBA 2013.

No it shouldn't. At the very least you need to get this problem on record with Apple because honestly if the coming driver updates don't fix it you will want to have the hardware replaced. At least one of the videos I've seen leads me to suspect hardware but you really never know.

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In my third video my MacBook Air 2013 crashes(!) because of screen flickering in Photoshop!

-> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElofXqNnJ58

So have you taken it back to Apple for replacement, examination or at least get the problem on record? Seriously, if you are having problems why are you posting here?

 

[wizard]

Why should I expect any less from a company who markets their machines as the best of the best and charges top dollar from them to boot.

Expectations have to be reasonable. The reality is there isn't a GPU driver out there that is perfect, even NVidia has bugs in their drivers. A new product like this will have more bugs than something that has had time to gel in the publics hands.

The big problem right now is determining which products have software bugs and which ones have hardware issues.

Is it acceptable if your new Porsche constantly stalled on the highway based on the grounds that it was a new model year? What do you expect? A production ready car?

The difference here is that a Porsche owner will call the dealership and demand a resolution. Here all we get are serial me too's with few people indicating that they have even tried contacting Apple directly. If nothing else you might have people getting some sort of confirmation of where the problem is and what to expect resolution wise. No instead everybody whines on the forums.

There are some indications that drivers fix the issue, the reality is an update is not far off. Like all past bugs of the last several decades all will be forgotten the minute the update is installed. Contrary to popular belief driver issues are nothing new and this is not a significant slip in Apples QC. One app causes these glitches and even then you have to be holding it the right way. ############################

 

[jm001]

News Flash electronic products, or any consumer products for that matter have duds. Hell, even some of the oranges I buy there's bound to be one or two in the lot that are tasteless. The article did mention it was a small group of people experiencing the said problem. Why are people even commenting on this article? Wait, did I just comment on this article?