Retina MacBook Pro Screen Flickering

I've experienced screen flickering three times in the last week on my month old MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Each time it's happened I've had either Safari or Chrome running flash. The flickering gets worse when trying to jump to a certain time on a YouTube video and when scrolling. The issue disappears after a restart. I've tried to duplicate it on my own, but I can't. I had automatic graphics switching on and off and neither fixed the problem. I'm covered under Apple Care and I'm thinking of paying the Geniuses a visit.
I found a video on YouTube to give a better understanding of the problem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq0l-bHmSYE
It's identical to the video. I've not experienced any other problems other than this with my rMBP.
I have a few questions:
Anyone experience this? If so, what did you do?
Could this be a graphics issue? If it is, can it be repaired, or will Apple have to replace the Retina MacBook Pro?
Thank you.

Well i took mine back to Apple Store and got it fixed for free under my warranty. Mine was like 4 months old when the problem occured. If you still have Apple's warranty take it back and let them fix it, because there isn't anything you can do about it or fix yourself.

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My Retina MacBook Pro Screen goes gray

Hey, everyone.
I have an increasingly serious problem on my hands. I paid nearly $3000 USD for a 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display in August, and have loved it for the most part. But the screen has been flickering to gray/white lately. Usually, this happens if I just move the laptop a bit, or adjust the angle of the screen. Other times, it happens for no reason at all. The screen will be fine one second, and then it will go into this burned-out gray-white mode. Often, I could just move the screen a little bit and get my regular sharp color display back. But lately, the problem has become more and more persistent. Now it has gotten so persistent, I'm thinking of sending it in. I do not want to send it it if I don't have to.
I don't know if anyone else has ever experienced this particular issue. I've searched all over the web and, while I've read about flickering screens and burned-in images, I've never read a description that matches what I'm going through.
Has anyone else experienced this issue and successfully solved it? I'm really worried here.
Thanks in advance for any input or suggestions.
~ Brian W.
2012 Retina MacBook Pro
15.4 inches
320 GB Flash Drive, 16 GB Memory
2.6 GHz Intel Core i7

I have the 15" MacBook Pro, Retina, Mid 2012 also, same exact model. Kind of the same thing is happening with me. I will intermitentyl get a flickering on the bottom 1/3 of the screen, all the way across. It flickers/flashes on and off on the bottom half or third of the screen, when I am typing or when I am perfectly stil, doen't really matterl. Only happens for a split second, but can do it multiple times, or sometimes not at all. I can go tens of minutes without i hapenning, but I can also go tens of seconds with it happening multiple times.
It never goes black or grey or "out" at all, just randomly flickers throughout the day.
I do get burned-in images all the time, but they disappear within seconds. But this flickering is definitely worrysome. I did get the the Apple Care, so I am not too worried as Apple is usually good about this kind of thing, but I do have a similar problem to you and wanted to document this. I didnt find many other people oiut there with this problem, so let me know what has gone on since your post on the New Year. Any solution? Did you call Apple?
Thanks webrian.
2012 Retina MacBook Pro
15"
500GB Flash Drive, 16GB memory
2.6 Ghz Intel Core i7

My 2013 15" retina macbook pro screen has a yellow tint, should i ask for a replacement?

So yesterday i got my retina macbook pro 15 " and right away i noticed my worst fear ( since i previously had read some similar stories) my screen has a noticeable yellow tint specially on white tones, websites have a "newspaper look " to them, since i bought this computer because im starting web design in university in a couple of months i would say i'm pretty much ******, people say i shoud just calibrate it, but most people dont calibrate their screen, so it would be a mess, my work would look good on my computer but ****** on other's people computer
I'm very surprised because i thought this issue only affected the initial batch of retina macbook pros, but i checked my serial online and my computer was made in January 2013 so its quite new, the panel is a Samsung "LSN154YL01001.
I have read that usually LG panels don't suffer as much from the yellow tint but they suffered from Image retention, is it stil like this? what do you think i should do should i keep this computer with the samsung screen or get apple to give me a new one hopefully with a LG panel or at least a samsung without yellow tint

Actually MOST People that work in all parts of the Design field DO Calibrate their screens. It is the only way to make sure what you are looking at on your computer screen will be the same on other design professionals screens and to the general public.
Wherever you got the notion that Design professionals and or design schools of all types don't calibrate their screens is completely incorrect.
So it is up to you whether you calibrate or not and or to return that Retina for one that has a better color balanced screen from the start. Along with that the new unit you get may have other problems as the Retina models are plagued with random problems. The screens only be one of them.

Retina MacBook Pro screen(Samsung) compared to 2010 MBP screen

I was doing some comparison between my Samsung retina MBP and a Mid 2010 glossy 15" MBP in a room lit with daylight. The quality in the screen is amazingly better and I am not referring to the resolution improvement.
Both are using the standard color display profile, 10.8.2, and Safari 6. (rMBP = retina version below)
white saturation test: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/white.php
rMBP: only 254 is not disinguishable from nearly every angle.
MBP: you can only distinguish up to 248 with 0 degree viewing angle. Only when you start looking 60+ degrees off center can you distinguish up to 251 but then you have severe color distortion.
Black level test: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php
rMBP: Easily pick out down to 8. If I look hard enough I can distinguish down to 5. In dark room can barely make out down to 3.
MBP: Easily down to 7 and down to 5 if you change viewing angle.
Contrast: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/contrast.php
rMPB: see equal steps in brightness across entire range
MBP: past 24 the bars look fairly uniform and not easy to distinguish steps, last 2 bars are saturated
Viewing angle: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/viewing_angle.php
rMPB: red text on entire screen at 0 degree viewing angle with little to no change of text at different viewing angles
MBP: Looking at 0 degree viewing angle the text appears all different shades of red depending on what part of the window you look at. Look like black striped text at top of window and the correct "red" at bottom when viewing angle centered in middle of screen.

retina macbook pro late 2013 13 inch:
white saturation test: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/white.php
rMBP: All them are distinguishable, but you should look very close to see the 254.
Black level test: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php
rMBP: with brightness set to highest, I can't see first 5 squares in a room with daylight condition.
Contrast: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/contrast.php
rMPB: with brightness set to highest, bar 1 is still not distinguishable from background.
This is my first laptop, I thought is should be much better, since I had heard that the screen is jaw-dropping, eye-popping, But it is not at all something special, my old, low resolution, cheap LG computer monitor is better in some of the tests.

Is it normal for the retina macbook pro screen to wobble?

I have a retina macbook pro 13inch 2014 version. Whenever i play the laptop on a flat surface for the first time it wobbles a bit. Is it normal for the screen to wobble a bit while placing it on a flat surface? After that initial wobble there is no wobble.

No, that is not normal. There could be some problem with the screen.
As it is still under warranty, why not go to an Apple Shop and ask them about the problem?

MacBook Pro screen flickers and freezes after Snow Leopard/Safari 5 updates

Hi guys,
I have a silver 120GB 15-inch MacBook Pro from Summer 2007 with 3GB RAM and 25+GB free space which has recently begun to freeze irrecoverably. The first appearance of these symptoms seems to coincide with my installing the Snow Leopard 10.6.6 update via Software Update.
I'm not particularly well versed in computer technology, but will try to describe my problem as detailedly as possible.
What happens is this:
1. I start the computer as per usual, with only a couple of startup items. Everything's fine.
2. I start working. Use a lot of Safari 5 for browsing websites, often with some kind of Flash or "Flash-type" content such as banner ads, videos, even full Flash designs. I may also have programs such as QuickTime, VLC or an image editor open, if not necessarily "actively" doing anything. Everything's still fine - I'm able to both browse websites and watch videos as usual.
3. After a while of active working - say, 1-3 hours - I notice browsing websites gets a little choppy. Display features such as the file list view in Finder may or may not appear properly. The rotating wait cursor may or may not appear from time to time.
4. Immediately after symptom no. 3, the next time I start to watch a video, either via Safari 5 (say for example something on DailyMotion.com) or a file via QuickTime, something goes wrong.
Following no. 4, one of three things invariably happen:
5a) The video freezes and the entire screen flickers from black to the screen view very quickly two or three times, after which the computer or screen appears to freeze. The cursor still moves, but nothing reacts to it - open windows become completely unresponsive, nor does the top or any other menu react in any way to clicking. The "menu row" of application items, which normally appears when I move the cursor to the very bottom of the screen, doesn't appear. Restarting "blindly" by pressing the Off-button once and pressing R doesn't work. I'm forced to do a hard reboot, after which the computer is once again fine until the next two hours of active working. This usually happens ONLY when I try to watch a video in Full Screen-mode.
5b) I notice the video freezing only just in time, and am able to pause it and "esc" out of Full Screen-mode, and the computer remains operational. However, as soon as I again try to play video in Full Screen-mode, everything described in 5a. happens.
5c) The video stops playing, and the screen reverts momentarily to pale blue before switching to the login screen. I login again with my details, and everything appears to be fine again until the next two hours of active working. The computer "starts up" a lot faster than with a hard reboot. This usually happens ONLY when I've tried to watch a video in its original size, i.e. when not in Full Screen-mode.
This happens 1-4 times a day, and it appears to depend directly on how much work I've been doing on the computer. The less I use it in the course of a day, the longer it takes until the next time it freezes.
So, in a way, I'm able to replicate this problem. 95% of the time the screen has frozen while watching or starting to watch (usually already when starting to watch) video footage, but it has also frozen a couple of times just switching between e.g. Safari 5 and an image editor or browsing a website with a Flash banner ad or embedded video content (which however hasn't necessarily been playing); today, the screen froze when I tried to open a website made entirely with Flash.
Although it could be just a coincidence, I believe this issue first appeared when I updated Snow Leopard to 10.6.6 via Software Update alongside some other pending updates, including as far as I recall one for Safari 5. The update process appeared to have gone well at the time, though, and was not interrupted in any way. I have never had this specific problem with the computer/screen before, though.
I've read a couple of threads here regarding very similar issues with newer MBP models than mine, in which it has been suggested that the fault may lie in a malfunctioning NVIDIA GeForce graphics card. Now I've had that replaced already once because my screen went unexpectedly completely blank after a forced reboot 1-2 years ago (I don't remember exactly), but according to my System Profiler info the card still a GeForce 8600M GT. Can it be failing again?
I've also had some kind of a RAM card failure once. As far as I understood it, one of the RAM cards had fried and was preventing the computer from starting up. I replaced the bad 1GB card with a new 2GB one and the problem was resolved. Before the computer died, there were also other symptoms, but they were not similar to these.
I'm also doing the Apple Hardware Test tomorrow. Any other suggestions, though, than the graphics card?
*Could this have to do with Flash or Safari 5?* Just hear me out. Even though my computer has frozen from watching a video in just QuickTime, Safari 5 has always been open in the background at the same time, and more likely than not with websites with "Flash" content open. And come to think of it, before I performed the Snow Leopard and Safari 5 updates, I used to have daily problems viewing Flash video in Safari 5, the video content either suddenly showing up as "Plug-in Failure" or crashing the browser; I've had both Safari 5 and the Safari 5 Flash plug-in "quit unexpectedly" countless times in the past, almost daily. Sometimes the "Plug-in Failure" could be fixed just by refreshing the browser view; at other times, Safari 5 would stop showing Flash content altogether - Flash banner ads (such as Google ads), YouTube and other Flash videos, everything - until I quit and restarted Safari 5. BUT - since the day I updated everything via Software Update, I don't remember this happening; it never gets to "Plug-in Failure" now. Could it be worth trying to use e.g. just Firefox for a while or is there something (e.g. Adobe Flash) that I could try reinstall? Or am I just clutching at straws here?
Thanks for reading this long, long post!

Do you have access to an Apple Store? If so, it may be worth making an appointment at the genius bar and having them run the test for the NVIDIA problem. Since your replacement logic board still has the NVIDIA GeForce 8600 M GT video chip, it could be starting to happen to your replacement logic board.
I also agree with all of CMCSK's suggestions. Freezing is often associated with hard drive problems. You might also want to run SMART Utility:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/systemdiskutilities/smartutility.html
You can download the demo and run it several times for free. It will give you a very comprehensive view of the physical health of your hard drive. If you still have the original one from 2007, it's getting pretty long in the tooth and may be approaching the end of its average useful life of 3-5 years. I just recently had to replace my original 2007 Fujitsu drive.
If your drive is headed south, and is also too small, it may be time to upgrade to a larger and faster drive.
The software update probably didn't cause the problems, but it may have exposed problems that were already in existence.
Good luck!

How long does it take for the Retina Macbook Pro screen to "burn-in"?

This might be a stupid question, but bare with me.
I left my Macbook Pro Retina Display 13 inch sit on my desk for probably about an hour and a half (maybe more, maybe less). When i left i didn't close the lid because i thought it would go to sleep by itself. However. it didn't. For that whole time the screen was on at roughly half brightness. Is this an issue? In that period of time could the screen have "burned-in"?

bday19 wrote:
...In that period of time could the screen have "burned-in"?
I guess the answer is another question: did it burn in?
If you can't see the image that was on the screen during that period when something else is on the screen, then it didn't. It's not good practice to leave it that way if you can shut it down or put the screen to sleep but I think another variable is how bright you set the screen to operate and half brightness isn't very bright, which is a good thing.

Macbook pro screen flickering brightness/black screen?

on saturday night I was using my MacBook pro and drinking water when my friend made me laugh so I accidentally spit like 5 drops of water onto my macbook screen. the drops leaking down into the base, not exactly the keyboard but just right under the screen where it would drip down. a instantly got a towel and dried it off but the macbooks screen statted flickering off and on. then it went permanently black but it seemed like it was still on. I tried to hold down the power button and it would make all the on and off noises just the screen wouldn't work. it would maybe flash for a second but then just go dark. I made the mistake of not turning it completely off when it first happened because I didn't know what to do but after maybe 10 minutes I turned it off and opened it up and kept it upside down the whole night to let the water come out if there was any. the next day around 12pm I turned it on and everything was working completely fine. no problems or signs that eer spit the water. then the next day (Monday) half way thru the day I was watching Netflix and I noticed every 5 minutes or so the screen would dim no matter what brightness I had it on and after a couple seconds it would go back to regular brightness. after like an hour it started doing that more frequently and it gave a black screen until I moved the cursor. I paniced and shut it off for the rest of day thinking it would be better the next day. well the next day (today) I turned it on and it was even worse. it's almost like the screen is having spaz attacks every 2 minutes. it'll go dim or bright randomly and then go black until I move the cursor and when it gowa dim there's these weird bright lights things coming from the bottom of the screen. but other then that the macbook works completely fine. iit's still usable, and the screen spasms are annoying but I could live with them. but first I want to make sure it's not going to get worse and worse everyday and just permantly die soon. im only 15 and Ive been dreading telling my parents what happened but if i have to replace something I have to tell them. I've tried researching what I have to replace but no one has my exact symptoms. I think I'd either have to replace the Lcd (whatever that is??) or the inverter. someone please help, thank you!!

on saturday night I was using my MacBook pro and drinking water when my friend made me laugh so I accidentally spit like 5 drops of water onto my macbook screen. the drops leaking down into the base, not exactly the keyboard but just right under the screen where it would drip down. a instantly got a towel and dried it off but the macbooks screen statted flickering off and on. then it went permanently black but it seemed like it was still on. I tried to hold down the power button and it would make all the on and off noises just the screen wouldn't work. it would maybe flash for a second but then just go dark. I made the mistake of not turning it completely off when it first happened because I didn't know what to do but after maybe 10 minutes I turned it off and opened it up and kept it upside down the whole night to let the water come out if there was any. the next day around 12pm I turned it on and everything was working completely fine. no problems or signs that eer spit the water. then the next day (Monday) half way thru the day I was watching Netflix and I noticed every 5 minutes or so the screen would dim no matter what brightness I had it on and after a couple seconds it would go back to regular brightness. after like an hour it started doing that more frequently and it gave a black screen until I moved the cursor. I paniced and shut it off for the rest of day thinking it would be better the next day. well the next day (today) I turned it on and it was even worse. it's almost like the screen is having spaz attacks every 2 minutes. it'll go dim or bright randomly and then go black until I move the cursor and when it gowa dim there's these weird bright lights things coming from the bottom of the screen. but other then that the macbook works completely fine. iit's still usable, and the screen spasms are annoying but I could live with them. but first I want to make sure it's not going to get worse and worse everyday and just permantly die soon. im only 15 and Ive been dreading telling my parents what happened but if i have to replace something I have to tell them. I've tried researching what I have to replace but no one has my exact symptoms. I think I'd either have to replace the Lcd (whatever that is??) or the inverter. someone please help, thank you!!

Late 2008 Macbook Pro Screen Flickers?

So I seem to have the problem that many other people have with the late 2008 Unibodies with the 9400m where the screen flickers every once in a while. I didnt pay attention before because it happened like once a week, but this morning it started happening every couple of minutes.
The bad part, my computer is out of apple care =/ How much do you guys think it'll cost me to get this fixed at apple? Also, if I do get it repaired by them, will I have any warranty after the repair so this issue does not happen again? Because from what I've read, when people sent it in for repair, sometimes it didn't get fixed.
Thanks guys.

Gallus.T wrote:
My question is that what i should do right now?? I bought this computer because I thought macbook pro is more reliable than other labtops,
MacBook Pros are the most reliable notebooks on the market today. However, every product line has its' lemons.
but I am so dissapointed with it right now. It already pass the 14 days to return the computer, what if the problem is still there when i get my macbook back?
I would call Apple Customer Relations.
I have noted the number for the US department herein.
Apple Customer Relations (800) 767-2775
Good luck, and let us know!

My macbook pro screen flickers and crashes computer - what is the problem

All of a sudden my macbook pro computer screen started flickering. Once this happens the computer freezes and it needs manual reboothing. Sometimes it comes back, buy it requires several reboothing attempts to get it going. What could be the problem, and how to fix it.

The proper diagnosis and fix will found at an Apple store genius bar. It is a GPU, display or display connection issue.
Ciao.

Macbook pro screen flickering/tearing

i m having the foll. problem with my mac , see the vids http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK_SJQ6UOlY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4V6xoJtM8
can any1 tell me what's going on ? what part of my mac has gone bad ?

any1 know abt this ?

Display flickering in Safari-Retina MacBook Pro

Certain pictures and spots on webpages flicker, disappear, get locked up, etc., on webpages on Safari on Retina MacBook Pro. The whole display has never been affected. It seems to only happen in Safari on websites such as Facebook. I'd take it to an Apple Genius but I can't get it to do it. It seems completely random. What could be causing this?

I am having the same issue. I have noticed that it only happens in Safari, and in my professional opinion as a software engineer, it is a software issue with Safari. I would say that the problem is due to the way that Safari handles scaling web sites to the high resolution display.
I have not tried this, but one could test this by switching the display resolution to "scaled for more space" in preferences. For the uninitiated, this will turn the "retina display" graphics scaling off, and give you the same 1:1 resolution you would get on a standard Mac display. That may turn off the scaling feature in Safari, and prevent the flickering issue. I would, however, not be surprised if it did not fix the issue.
Hopefully, to allay any/everyone's concerns, when an issue happens in a particular piece of software, but not in every piece of software then it is likely an issue with only that piece of software. I would not allow the Geniuses to replace your hardware in that case. You may end up spinning your wheels with no resolution to the issue.
For this I would just wait for the next release of Safari (as much of a pain in the behind as that is).

New Retina Macbook pro 15 Haswell system yellow screen??

Can someone comment or verify if there is a problem with the New Retina Macbook pro 15 Haswell system screen? Something concerning a yellow screen. Is this a problem?

Before you get too deeply into screen switching, you might take a look at what's probably the longest thread in the Apple Communities. Then, try the Expert calibration mode in Display Preferences>Color to see if that helps.

Retina Macbook Pro - Defective Screen (white pressure mark)

After waiting 3-4 weeks I was so excited to finally receive my retina macbook pro today. To my dissapointment as soon as I turned it on this glaring white light/cloudy mark behind the screen stabbed me in the heart. So dissapointing to wait so long just to get a defective unit.
I called AppleCare and they said I could either ship it back for a refund, or I could take it into the apple store for a refund. Apple store is only 30 minutes away so instead of putting any trust in fedex I decided to just go return it in person.
So now I'm waiting up to five days for the money to be refunded so I can order again and wait ANOTHER 3-4 weeks to receive a unit because I upgraded the base model to 16GB of ram, and it may have the same exact problem when it arrives... who even know...
I saw on macrumors a few others have had this issue so I'm not alone, but I do hate that I was unlucky this time around.
Here is what it looked like:
http://i.imgur.com/AimHC.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/zUFkW.jpg
Anyone else this unlucky?

I've experienced this. I think they're called muras but I'm not certain. They weren't there when I bought the mid-2012 15" Retina MacBook Pro, they developed months later. First one, then two. I brought it in to the Genius Bar and they say both muras and replaced my display. The replacement display I got was horribly yellow tinted and muddy looking whereas my first display with the muras had brilliant colours and sharp text. Apple considers a consistently-yellow tinted display normal and refuses to replace it. The Spyder4Elite colour calibrator can reduce the yellowing but does nothing to help the muddy colour quality and blurriness.

Retina Macbook Pro randomly jumps to logon screen without warning

My Retina Macbook Pro randomly jumps to the logon screen while I am using it. When I log back in some programs have stopped running and any unsaved work has gone. It has happened while I am not typing or touching the keyboard or mouse as well.

I have the exact same problem with my Retina MBP. At first I thought it was occurring when I CMD+Tab-ed between apps but I've had it jump to the login screen without even toughing the computer. Very frustrating. Upon login I have to wait for apps to reload and I lose unsaved changes. Anyone have any advice?

Retina MacBook Pro Screen Flickering

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