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Does your November 2018 MacBook Pro have a flickering problem?

  • Vega 20, yes

    Votes: 42 54.5%
  • Vega 20, no

    Votes: 33 42.9%
  • Vega 16, yes

    Votes: 2 2.6%
  • Vega 16, no

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    77
This is scaring me. I just ordered a Vega 20 today. Maybe I should cancel it. How widespread is this?
didn't you advice against mini for audio production?

if so; i had the i9/560x and returned it to buy a 13+Mini. Going from Mini i7 to 15" for audio is going worse.
 
I was seeing some flickering on the internal display when connected to my 30" ACDs at home and work, but I'm starting to think that might be related to one of my mDP->USB-C adapters which has since failed as of last night. The second adapter is working fine and am not seeing any flickering at the moment, but keeping an eye on things to see if it happens again at all.
 
I was seeing some flickering on the internal display when connected to my 30" ACDs at home and work, but I'm starting to think that might be related to one of my mDP->USB-C adapters which has since failed as of last night. The second adapter is working fine and am not seeing any flickering at the moment, but keeping an eye on things to see if it happens again at all.

My flickering has become much much more rare but still occurs, does yours only happen with an ext monitor hooked up? I've never noticed mine flicker when it is by itself.
 
My flickering has become much much more rare but still occurs, does yours only happen with an ext monitor hooked up? I've never noticed mine flicker when it is by itself.

Yes, I've only noticed it on my internal display when connected to my 30" ACD at home and work. And, I've barely noticed it recently, so I think maybe the one adapter that failed on me might've been the culprit, and maybe are the culprit in general — but also might've had something to do with the last macOS update. Not sure, but it's definitely not a noticeable problem at this point for me! :D
 
Yes, I've only noticed it on my internal display when connected to my 30" ACD at home and work. And, I've barely noticed it recently, so I think maybe the one adapter that failed on me might've been the culprit, and maybe are the culprit in general — but also might've had something to do with the last macOS update. Not sure, but it's definitely not a noticeable problem at this point for me! :D

Nah it's not the adapter, I tried multiple adapters + cables and I still get the same effect, also other users did the same with different dongles. It's likely a software issue with mojave.2 that changed some monitor settings (look up the change log). Glad I got AppleCare so I can make my case a few months from now.
 
Is the flickering you people talk about exclusive to full-screen mode when playing videos in Safari? If so, that is def. a software bug. I had it with earlier Mojave’s versions but it completely disappeared some time ago.
 
Is the flickering you people talk about exclusive to full-screen mode when playing videos in Safari? If so, that is def. a software bug. I had it with earlier Mojave’s versions but it completely disappeared some time ago.
The flickering I got was on the internal screen if the machine resumed from sleep on a non-default resolution and using the discrete rather than onboard graphics (whether forced through Energy Saver or not - ie something on screen that was using the Vega 20 as soon as the machine woke up). Once the flickering started a reboot was the only way to stop it - putting the machine back to sleep, changing the resolution, shutting down whatever was using the dGPU etc had no effect.
 
The flickering I got was on the internal screen if the machine resumed from sleep on a non-default resolution and using the discrete rather than onboard graphics (whether forced through Energy Saver or not - ie something on screen that was using the Vega 20 as soon as the machine woke up).

That one sounds unfamiliar to me. I was asking since some posters over the last few pages were mentioning full screen mode etc. it’s very possible that multiple issues are being conflated here. Flickering with fullscreen video playback is def. a software bug. What you describe sounds like a driver bug to me as well, but who knows.
 
I had some early signs of flickering, only when connected to monitor via USBC.
I think mine may have been caused by the type of USBC adaptor, mine was the type that plugged into two USBC ports (like a hub)

Since I have switched to just a single input USBC adaptor, things seem okay. (using it more in clamshell so hard to tell)

Just wondering if others experiencing issues, may also be using the DUAL USBC adaptors, perhaps this is causing some kind of monitor/usbc port switching errors/mess?
 
^That's the kind of flickering I had. And I'm wondering if 10.14.3 did anything to alleviate it.
Before I returned it I had installed 10.4.3 beta 4, as the full version had not come out at that point. That did NOT alleviate it.

I have not replaced the machine as I also had the audio problems.
 
I never had the wake-up flickering but I got the flickering that someone posted the youtube video about where the MBP screen flickers even when you are not doing anything.
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I had some early signs of flickering, only when connected to monitor via USBC.
I think mine may have been caused by the type of USBC adaptor, mine was the type that plugged into two USBC ports (like a hub)

Since I have switched to just a single input USBC adaptor, things seem okay. (using it more in clamshell so hard to tell)

Just wondering if others experiencing issues, may also be using the DUAL USBC adaptors, perhaps this is causing some kind of monitor/usbc port switching errors/mess?

Hey man I have a USB-C -> HDMI and USB-C -> DP and they still have the same effect. I don't think it's a dongle thing.
 
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More problems with the TB MBPS. Go figure. Crazy that this wasn't noticed in development.
 
The flickering I got was on the internal screen if the machine resumed from sleep on a non-default resolution and using the discrete rather than onboard graphics (whether forced through Energy Saver or not - ie something on screen that was using the Vega 20 as soon as the machine woke up). Once the flickering started a reboot was the only way to stop it - putting the machine back to sleep, changing the resolution, shutting down whatever was using the dGPU etc had no effect.

A quick way I was fixing it was by having the app gfxCardStatus present at the top in the main toolbar. It allowed me to swap between the dedicated gpu to integrated gpu to back to dedicated gpu within seconds, and it would always temporarily solve the issue until the next instance of waking up from sleep. However, doing this every time to fix the problem became way too annoying that I ended up just switching to using the native resolution for the laptop and haven't had an issue since.
 
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Nah it's not the adapter, I tried multiple adapters + cables and I still get the same effect, also other users did the same with different dongles. It's likely a software issue with mojave.2 that changed some monitor settings (look up the change log). Glad I got AppleCare so I can make my case a few months from now.

I'm nearly certain it's an adapter issue for me. I just spent several days working at home during a snowstorm and that adapter is flickering fairly regularly, whereas the one I have at my office is not at all. I'm continuing to keep an eye on it.
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That one sounds unfamiliar to me. I was asking since some posters over the last few pages were mentioning full screen mode etc. it’s very possible that multiple issues are being conflated here. Flickering with fullscreen video playback is def. a software bug. What you describe sounds like a driver bug to me as well, but who knows.

My flickering is also only on the internal screen when I'm plugged into my 30" ACD, of which I have one at home and one at work. I have a USB-C adapter on the USB-A part, and a mDP to USB-C on the other part. One of my mDP/USB-C adapters already failed, and I am fairly sure now that the replacement I have at home is flickering while the one at my office is not, so I'm thinking it's just a flaky adapter thing, in my case at least. It has nothing to do with resolutions (my internal screen is scaled to Looks like 1920x1200 always), and I am not using any browser in full screen mode or anything else. Connecting to an external monitor *always* triggers the dGPU regardless of what you're doing, so it's not a switching thing to the best of my knowledge, unless the flaky adapter is causing momentary dropouts or something (though in that case I'd expect the ACD to flash too).

Either way, it's largely not a huge issue for me. I just want Apple to release new Thunderbolt displays so I can retire these old beasts. :)
 
I'm nearly certain it's an adapter issue for me. I just spent several days working at home during a snowstorm and that adapter is flickering fairly regularly, whereas the one I have at my office is not at all. I'm continuing to keep an eye on it.
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Interesting... I tried multiple setups with direct cables and adapters (usb-c to hdmi hub -> hdmi or vga/hdmi) and they all flickered on the internal screen only when hooked to multiple monitors. But it took time, I initially thought it was a dongle issue too until I got flickering on every setup eventually.
 
I'm nearly certain it's an adapter issue for me. I just spent several days working at home during a snowstorm and that adapter is flickering fairly regularly, whereas the one I have at my office is not at all. I'm continuing to keep an eye on it.
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This is how it looks on my 1 week old MBP 8850/32/vega20 and I am sure that this is not an issue with the adapter, because I have 3 adapters (2 different satechi multi adapters with hdmi and 1 adapter for VGA). It occurs on all of them. Tested on 2 different displays (HDMI and VGA) and on Acer Projector. I don't know if it happens without external display, because I always have something connected.
I am so mad ... I think this is my last apple device.

 
Mine was a MacBook 2018 issue with the flickering display , so , that was my bad . Not the right forum .
 
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My DEC 2018 MBP 15 (2.6/32/V20/1TB) does the Vega Flash when connected to external monitors via the Apple USB-C to HDMI/VGA dongles.

It will do this Vega Flash thing continuously 100% of the time from my observation, but sometimes it doesn't always happen right away, maybe after 10 - 15 mins of external monitor use.

I am a teacher, so in my case the external display is a projector, and it doesn't affect me much to have a flashing laptop screen. That said, as soon as I have a few weeks of no teaching I will have it replaced - just worried that as I know my build won't be stocked in the Apple store and I will likely have to wait.
 
I experienced screen flickering with my 2018 macbook pro with Radeon pro 560X.

It was only present if automatic graphics switching was enabled. If I disabled it, no flickering. I started experiencing the flickering about a week after I got it (august 2018) and found the "solution". So I just kept the automatic graphics switching disabled. I do notice that the battery drains quicker do to the machine always using the 560X graphics.

Anyways I sent it to service about two weeks ago. They "didn't find anything". Two days after I got it back I saw the first flicker again although now it happens less often (before service it probably was 2-3 times per minute). Now it is probably 2-3 times a day. I want to sent it back to service, but not without any video evidence. How should I try to capture it?
 
Is this issue resolved or still present in 2019 mbp w/ vega?
I have it on my 2019 MBP / Vega 20 -- occurs with or without display connected, in default resolution, with graphics set to intel, or Vega, occurs about 2-3 times / hour. But doesn't happen if I boot windows 10 from bootcamp...
 
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