Unibody MBP Screen Flickering: Does Yours?

Please check these two sites:

http://www.csse.uwa.edu.au/~lucas/background.html

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/inversion.php

...and tell me if your screen flickers when either viewing them stationary, or when scrolling up and down the webpages. Mine does.

Please indicate your MBP panel, as well.

This has annoyed me for a while now. At first I thought it was imagination; Apple owes an explanation.

 

YES. mine has been doing that, but only on the integrated chip. I figure I'll deal with it till it's about time for my warranty to get replaced and then send it in. It's not terrible to look at, but awfully annoying.

also, my screen tends to "blink" every now and then as well.

 

No, mine does not.

Either when viewing stationary or scrolling content.

 

Nope mine doesnt either.

 

Mine flickers on the first site, the whole background.

The second site, only 4a flickers for me...

 

Could you guys kindly indicate which screen panel you own?

I'm on the LG 98C4.

 

9c84 (LG) for mine.

 

Same for me. Sensing a trend here.

 

I have 9c85...I stared at all the backgrounds. No flickering.

 

How do you determine which panel you have?

 

System preferences > Displays > Color > Open Profile > #13

 

Ah, ok, thank you very much!

 

Your welcome.

No flickering (LG display).

 

I've got the 9C89 on my Alu-MB, and it's doing some flickering to an extent to where it's getting annoying. Don't know if this is a bad screen or not, but do the screen models differ from MB to MB?

 

yeah, definitely. its the subject of much debate. a bunch of people return their macbooks to try and score a different (better) screen.

 

It is! I've gone through 3 Macbooks before I finally returned it and the one time I got the 9C89, it flickered like crazy. Turn the brightness down to 1/2 bars or just wait for your screen to dim and you'll notice it a lot more. The 9C8C screens are a lot better and exhibit NO flickering. Too bad the Apple still has crap quality control.

 

Well, I guess I'll just have to deal with my 9C89. Not too bad IMO, mabye most people have stricter standards than me..

 

4b only slightly flickers on my MBP screen.

 

I guess my Apple 24" LED display is faulty too. Flickers on the second one, scrolling.

My point is this test is ridiculous. I've seen this sort of thing on EVERY LCD I've owned.

 

Guys - there's a possible solution... in advanced preferences, change the screen type, say, to W. I believe it could be a presets problems like on many laptops.

 

There is no solution because there is no problem. I just have to force myself not to visit those 2 sites anymore.

 

MBP 15" ---- 9c85 screen ---- works perfect !!!
Guess I got lucky

 

Mines 9c84, I guess 9c84 and 9c85 seem to be the best of them.

 

my brothers mbp with lg is ok.

 

I don't really have a problem with my screen at all. It looks beautiful.

 

9c84. No flicker.

 

I have a 9C84 which does not flicker.

 

Did everyone who indicated that they have NO flickering also try SCROLLING through the websites to test the same?

 

Yes, as I indicated earlier, I noticed no flickering both when viewing static content and while scrolling.

 

Yes I did, no flickering on LG screen.

 

Must be my screen, then. Perhaps it's poorly calibrated.

I'll look into the matter more fully and post results later.

 

Don't know what to tell you. I can scroll, render, and I work with photo's regularly. ---- No problems with the screen.
In fact, looking at the posts, I'd say Apple has done a fair job at built quality on this model. If most everyone has no screen problems, it likely tells me this is not an issue (with exception) of this model

 

My screen flickers... I have the 9C85.

 

My screen flickers as well. 9C85. Gee wiz I just bought this thing yesterday.

 

Yeah I bought mine a couple days ago as well... really though, as others before have mentioned, this screen flickering deal is not a big deal at all... most if not all monitors do it.

 

My 9C85 flickers on the first background, and also on the second page (only when scrolling). This happens for both graphics card. However, I had not noticed this until I found this thread.

To be honest, we'll always find a way to show a 'blind spot' in the design of things, but I never felt and still don't feel this screen flickers! Only when I see that particular background... Probably has to do with the polarizers in the screen itself, but I don't worry about these things too much. I don't try to find problems or shortcomings: i try to use the MBP positively.

 

9C84 no flicker for me.

 

Just out of curiosity I just did this test on an expensive desktop LCD and it flickers slightly. Funnily enough though, my wife who was standing beside me didn't notice any flickering. IMO this is a somewhat subjective test and a pretty rough tool to detect a defective LCD.

 

I have to agree, because the human eye is a very unreliable way to test something.. ... It could flicker for somebody, but could be perfectly fine for somebody else. It's all what the user can see..

 

I completely agree, this is a subjective test. If you read through the thread, it appears that, for both the 9C84 and 9C85, there are users on both sides saying that they do/do not see the screen flicker. An inconsistency like that must also take into account different levels of user sensitivity towards being able to even see flickering. I know that I have very sensitive eyes and ears, and can pick up bad screen refresh rates and high pitched tones that my colleagues and friends do not even see/hear.

At the end of the day, as I said in my previous post, I think what counts is whether you see the screen of the Unibody flicker in general usage (and not JUST on those two webpages). Although I see the flicker, it's ONLY on those two pages, so I'm not worried about a defect in the screen.

 

I just tried the tests at work on a high-end 19-inch Dell flatscreen lcd (not sure about the backlight source). No flickering on the first page, but on the second page, 2a and 4a flicker EVEN when not scrolling... So on one count better and one count worse than the MBP. I'm going to try this test on as many screens as I can this week: I'll post my findings!

 

My iMac does it.

 

My 9C85 unibody MBP screen flickers a little on the 4a, 4b and 5 fullscreen tests and at the first fullscreen test URL.

 

hello guys.

i bought a 2.4 MBP beginning of Feb. since then i have kept sending back the machines. Reason: screen flickering. exactly that one on the live score site and also when its just white i can see the flicker some times and my eyes start burning after a while. never had that eye burn with another screen before.

so i did some checks, i have an old dell laptop (inspirion 14", 2004) result: no flicker
tested also my dads powerbook (g4 12" 2004) result: no flicker
asked my frd to test his 2007 MBP 15", result: no flicker

so i called up apple support withing the 14 days. quick, they said they send a new one. ok, perfect. got the new one (N° 2) a week later, same problem. called them up again and they said send a new one (N° 3). Now I just got N°3 and i see the same problem AGAIN. Called them up and said every machine is checked before it is shipped (pfffffff.. my ).

so i went out to do some more checking. went to an apple store and checked their MB and MBP. the MBP had a horrible flicker, even worse than all 3 i had so far. Strangely enough the MB 13.3" didnt have that flicker.

I am really ****ed off about this. i didnt pay more than 2000$ for a machine having such problem, waited for more than 1.5 months and after 3 defect units still left with no functioning machine. apple gave me a little discount, 110$ and asked me to try one more unit. if that one will not work i will just ask for my money back. its a shame cos apart from this defect the machine is FLAWLESS, but let me tell you, for 2000$++ it is simply unacceptable to say its normal, cos its not. ive tested it on many machines, especially older apple products and they are perfect what concerning the screen.

all MBP models i had until now were with a 9c84 screen. the one i have now the colours seem a little washed out too, that wasnt the case on my other two replacements.

cheers, donato

 

I have had my 2.66 mhz MBP 15" for 5 days and have not seen any flicker. I'm not sure which display I have because when I go to: System preferences > Displays > Color > Open Profile > #13 , there is no #13 ???


Thraak

 

@ thraak

thats really interesting. maybe ill just get my money back and get a 2.66 then.. can you confirm that also on this site there is no flicker for you on the left and right hand side?

http://livescore.com

please also try in low brightness

thanks & cheers

 

yep, mine does a low brightness levels.

 

i have the 9c85 ... i only notice slight flickering on those tests... barely noticeable with the 9600, slightly more noticeable with the 9400. My old MBP with a x1600 flickers too, as well as my Linux desktop with a 24" Dell LCD monitor. I hooked the Dell into my old MBP and my newer MBP and it flickers on both of those tests on these machines too... Its not a problem I've ever seen before without running those specific "tests" so I don't care about it at all.

 

i have a 9c85 and mine only flickers on the first link but it's no big deal for me. I don't use my laptop to such an extreme condition.

 

uuuuyyyyyyyyy