Screen flashes unexplicably.

Does anyone know why my screen occassionally starts to flash for no apparent reason. Usually it stops within a few minutes, but I am curious so I can address any issues. Any help would be appreciated! I have a MacBook 13", 2006 model, 1st generation.

Hi Eddie, Jr.
Welcome to the Support Communities!
The article below may be able to help you with this issue.
Click on the link to see more details.
Apple computers: Troubleshooting issues with video on internal or external displays
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1573
Cheers,
- Judy

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My MacBook was acting weird so I restarted it and when I login a white screen flashes and goes back to the login page. Help?

My MacBook was acting weird like sometimes I would log on and I wouldn't be able to type my password for a couple seconds,but it usually logged in after that. Then I left my computer open after installing the recent update after that all my applications were not responding. So I shut it down, when I turned it back on about an hour later it went to this loading screen and then to the login like usual. After I tried logging in a white screen flashed and it went back to the login/ password screen like nothing happened. Any ideas on what happened and what I can do to fix it?

Reinstall OS X;
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

When I turn on or restart my Macbook Pro Retina 15", my entire screen flashes completely bright yellow for a few seconds and then it goes to the normal Welcome screen. How do I fix this??

Hi Everyone,
This problem just started today. When I turn on or restart my Macbook Pro Retina 15" (Mid 2012 version), my screen is light gray like normal, and then after a few seconds my entire screen flashes completely bright yellow for a few seconds, and then it goes to the normal Welcome screen (where I choose to login as myself or a guest user). This suddenly started today and has not stopped since. This keeps happening every single time I turn on or restart my computer.
Yesterday I installed all the Mavericks and other updates that were available in the App Store, so I'm wondering if this is related to that since this never happened prior to my doing those updates yesterday. When I first installed the new OS X Mavericks (10.9.3) update, it went through the whole installation process (took about 10 minutes), and then during the installation I got an error message saying that it couldn't verify my iTunes application that was on my laptop, and then my laptop finished installing the updates. Then once my laptop restarted, the App Store "Updates" section said that I had to do the whole OS X Mavericks (10.9.3) and iTunes (Version 11.2) updates all over again. So my laptop did the whole installation again (took about 10 minutes, but this time I didn't get that "iTunes error message" during the installation process).
Now, when I go to the App Store "Updates" section, it says the following under "Updates Installed in the Last 30 days":
-Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update (Version 5.05) installed May 15, 2014
-OS X Update (Version 10.9.3) installed May 15, 2014
-iTunes (Version 11.2) installed May 15, 2014
-OS X Update (Version 10.9.3) installed May 15, 2014
-iTunes (Version 11.2) installed May 15, 2014
-Security Update 2014-002 (Version 1.0) installed April 22, 2014
I'm wondering if this flashing bright yellow screen upon bootup is related to the fact that my laptop installed the OS X Update and the iTunes Update two times each? Or is this new problem totally unrelated? It's just that this problem started a day after these 2 updates were installed twice.
My Macbook Pro Retina 15" (Mid 2012 version) is otherwise working fine at least as of now. The only issue so far is this flashing bright yellow screen every time I turn on or restart my computer.
If anyone could please help me fix this so that my bootup screen doesn't flash completely bright yellow anymore, I would be forever grateful!
Thank you so much for reading this and for any help you can provide.
hope everyone is well,
Elaine

Hey everyone in Apple world!
I figured out how to fix the flashing yellow screen problem that I've been having on my MBP! Yessssss!!!
I found this super handy website with the golden answer: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
I followed the instructions on this page and here's what I did:
Resetting NVRAM / PRAM
Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.
I went through the 6 steps above twice, just to make sure I got rid of whatever stuff was holding up my bootup process. Since I did that, my MBP boots up just like normal. No flashing yellow screen anymore!!
(Note that I arrived at this solution when I first saw this page: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570?viewlocale=en_US)
Let me know if this works for you!
Elaine

I have a 60 inch Sony XBR TV that has DVI input but not HDMI. I am using an adapter to get the video from my Apple TV, but the screen flashes a lot. Do I have any other choices other than buying a new TV?

I have a 60 inch Sony XBR TV that has DVI input but not HDMI. I am using an adapter to get the video from my Apple TV to the Sony, but the screen flashes a lot. Do I have any other choices other than buying a new TV?

Is this an iphone question?
You have posted in the iphone forum.

My macbook pro no longer connects to my tv through HDMI my computer screen flashes blue but my tv does nothing! could someone please help!!

HI i was just wondering if anyone could help me!!
i have a macbook pro and i have connected it many times to my toshiba tv through my HDMI cable, and for some reason now when i plug it into my laptop the screen flashes blue on my laptop but nothing happens to the tv it just says no signal and i dont know what to do!!
if anyone could help that would be fab!!
pretty pretty please!!

Hello ,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Please follow the steps below to troubleshoot having no display on the external display.
No video or no signal, image distortion, "snow," or flickering
Check connections
When using an external display be sure to check the following:
If you're using an Apple notebook, confirm the AC power cable or adapter is securely connected to the computer and the cable providing power to the display is also secure. It is always good to have your notebook connected to AC power when an external display is in use.
Confirm display adapters are fully seated in their respective connections and that they are supported models and for the computer and display. Refer to these articles to assist you with adapter compatibility and further configuration information:
Monitor and Display Adapter Table
About Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapters
Apple Mini DisplayPort adapters: Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Thunderbolt ports and displays: Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Remove all display cable extenders, KVM switches, or other like devices and retest to determine if the issue is resolved.
Try unplugging the video adapter or cable and then plug it back in.
If more than one video adapter is in use (or "daisy-chained"), troubleshoot by using only one adapter.
Example: A mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter connected to a DVI to HDMI adapter is an unsupported configuration because there is a series of adapters in use.
If available, try using a different display and or adapter (or use a different connector by using DVI instead of VGA, for instance).
Reset the system
You can reset the Mac's parameter RAM and SMC.
Reset the resolution
Start by resetting the Mac's parameter RAM. If the display does not come up, was previously set to an unsupported resolution, and still results in no video:
Start up in Safe Mode.
From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences.
Choose Displays from the View menu to open the preferences pane.
Select any resolution and refresh rate that your display supports.
Restart your computer.
Apple computers: Troubleshooting issues with video on internal or external displays
Take care,
Alex H.

Screen flashing between grey and background, dock not showing

I don't know how this happened, but I recently upgraded to Mountain Lion: as soon as I'd logged in, the Dock dissapeared, and the background started flashing between grey and my background. The only way for me to open anything is through Spotlight.
Whenever I try to make an app fullscreen, it glitches halfway through: half the screen is grey, and half the screen flashing. Opening Notification Centre flashes between grey and open and background and closed. Mission Control won't open, and CMD-tab fails to do anything.
Upon inspection in Activity Monitor, there is an abnormal amount of processes named "com.apple.dock.extra": closing them does nothing. One process exists and then doesn't in time to the background flash, and the amount of "dock.extra"s grows and shrinks from 3 to 10.
Can anyone help me with this strange problem?

Open Spotlight and type Terminal. Select the Terminal application.
Type 'sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Dock'. Ensure it looks exactly like that (minus the quotes) and hit enter. Type your password if you have one. Then, type the command 'killall Dock' and hit enter. The dock will terminate and restart, and it will hopefully be returned to its previous state.

I have a 16GB iPhone 3G and my screen will not work. When I have my sim card inserted into the phone calls go through, but I take it out and they don't go through. It was fine one minute and then the screen flashed and now it will not work. any answers?

I own a 16GB iPhone 3G. My father passed it down to me a year ago after he got the iPhone 4. I pressed the sleep/wake button on the top of the iPhone to check the time, and as I did so, the screen flashed on and off and now the screen won't work. Whenever I put my simcard in there calls will go through but I am unable to hear them, but if I take it out calls don't go through. I've tried charging it for a while, connecting to my laptop, holding the sleep/wake button and the home button for 10seconds to restore it, but nothing works. I've looked around and no-one'ed seemed to have this problem. I'd like to know what is wrong with my iPhone ASAP. thanks.

First, update iTunes, then connect the phone to the computer and do a restore. This will also get your iOS up to date. Your phone should operate correctly after doing this, if not, you will most likely need to have the phone serviced or replaced.

Boots to windows startup screen, flashes blue screen, restarts and repeats

HP ENVY H8-1414 Product #H3Z00AAR
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Alright, so here is my issue. I turn on my pc and it gets as far as the windows startup screen, flashes a blue screen error for about half of a second and then restarts it self. My HDD is recognized in the bios. Tried a memory test in diagnostics and it passes. Tried a hard disc check and it passes the SMART check but fails the Long DST with a failure ID of 0GF21L-0006LR-WPVX0K-61C703 (no idea if those a zeros or O's)
I've also tried the startup repair but it did nothing. So I removed the hard drive and tried to use it in a different PC but had the same issue so I figured the hard drive went bad. Then I tried formatting a spare hard drive and installed a fresh copy of windows 7 on it, tried it on a different PC and it works just fine. However, when I try to use that hard drive on the HP ENVY I get the exact same problem even though it worked just fine on a differenct pc.
I purchased this PC refurbished about 3 months ago, the warrenty just ended a week ago. There have been no hardware or software changes on it at all. This thing worked flawlessly last night... I locked the computer before bad and I woke up to this. No power outages over night or anything. It just doesn't make any sense.

Here are the specs for your HP ENVY h8-1414 Desktop Computer. According to the specs, this model came from the factory with Windows 8 installed. The "blue screen" and restart are normal for Windows 7, when it encounters an error, unless you have altered the default settings.
The LONG DST failure is indicative that the hard drive has failed or is about to fail. Unless the hard drive is moved to an identical or very similar computer, Windows will encounter a "blue screen. This is true with the original hard drive moving from the h8 computer to the other computer and the test hard drive from the other other computer moving to the h8 computer.
Try placing the "test" hard drive in the h8 computer and installing Windows 7 from a DVD or USB stick. If you have any problems, please post back with full error messages and screen shots. Also indicate what stage of the install Windows 7 was doing tat the time.
Please send KUDOs
Frank
{------------ Please click the "White Kudos" Thumbs Up to say THANKS for helping.
Please click the "Accept As Solution" on my post, if my assistance has solved your issue. ------------V
This is a user supported forum. I am a volunteer and I don't work for HP.
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Screen flashing in Windows 8.1

I've just gotten a refurbished Pavilion 17.3' laptop with Windows 8.1 preinstalled. When I'm in the main window, the screen flashes briefly several times a minute. Except for the momentary blanking, the display is correct. I've also installed kubuntu Linux as a dual boot, and Kubuntu shows no sign of this problem. Since the problem showed up before I installed Kubuntu, I know Kubuntu isn't the cause of it.
I tried downloading and installing a replacement video driver via the HP website, but that didn't make any difference. But it did reveal another puzzle. The webside lists 3 different video drivers, but they all have the same version number, the same date, and the same description (but not the same size). They are found at:
http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-Pavilion-17-f000-Notebook-PC-series/6936220/model/7242189/dri...
Why are they different? And which is the correct one for my computer?

@pwabrahams ,
Hello and thank you for posting on the HP support forums. If each driver is the same file name and same date but have different file sizes. What you will want to do is to download each one and save it to an external memory device.
Once you have the drivers downloaded boot your system into safe mode.
Windows 8 Safe Mode
Now in safe mode uninstall the driver for your video.
When the driver is removed boot back into windows normally and install the driver.
Try all three drivers. If all have the same issue you will need to do a repair. For that you will need to contact HP phone support.
Please call our technical support at 800-474-6836. If you live outside the US/Canada Region, please click the link below to get the support number for your region.
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/ww-phone-assist.html
Please let me know how this goes for you.
Thank you again for posting and have a great day.
Please click the "Thumbs Up" on the bottom right of this post to say thank you if you appreciate the support I provide!
Also be sure to mark my post as “Accept as Solution" if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others who face the same challenge find the same solution.
D5GR
I work on behalf of HP

My ipod nano 5th gen wont play movies or videos on my ipod but plays them on itunes when i click on it the screen flashes black i have tried taking the movie off my ipod and putting it back on but it still won't work what should i do?

My ipod nano 5th gen. won't play movies or tv shows but it plays them on itunes. When I click on it the screen flashes black. I have tried taking the videos off my ipod and then putting them back on but it still won't work. what should i do?

Try:
- iOS: Not responding or does not turn on
- Also try DFU mode after try recovery mode
How to put iPod touch / iPhone into DFU mode « Karthik's scribblings
- If not successful and you can't fully turn the iOS device fully off, let the battery fully drain. After charging for an least an hour try the above again.
- Try on another computer
- If still not successful that usually indicates a hardware problem and an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store is in order.
Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar

PSE7 Organizer does not start properly, screen flashes, PC stops

Hello. I can't find this problem mentioned on the forum.
I've used PSE4 and 5 in the past without problems. Have just completed a clean install of PSE7 (no PS or PSE previously installed on this system, a ThinkPad T60 with 2MB). The Editor runs fine.
I ran the Organizer once, set some preferences, pointed it at a small number of images to import, then the whole screen started flashing and soon my system stopped in its tracks - no blue screen.
Now, when I try and start the Organizer, it spends maybe half a minute "Generating thumbnails" without success (all the thumbnails have egg timers on them). It uses 50% CPU. It still says "Generating thumbnails" after half a minute or so when the screen starts flashing and the system crashes again.
Any ideas?

Fixed. Thank you John.
I renamed the preferences file but that made no difference.
So I repaired the catalog (errors were found) and optimized it. When I started the Organizer, thumbnails were displayed (that's progress) but then the screen-flashing started again (whole screen, as usual, not just the Organizer window). Before I could close the Organizer, my system stopped with a blank, black screen, and no response to any input. I had to hold the power button to power down. On reboot, it blue-screened. On next reboot it started normally.
So I created a new catalog and the Organizer started fine. Then I set it off getting photos from a folder of folders of jpegs (with the odd txt and other file type). After a few seconds, the screen-flashing started again, and I quickly closed the Organizer.
When I restarted it, the catalog was empty, so I had it get just one folder of photos at a time. On the very last one, the problem started again. I found an AVI file that I'd overlooked, removed it, and the problem went away. The AVI was one I recorded on a digital compact.
The Help for Organizer says:
"The Organizer catalogs video AVI files properly, but audio AVI files are shown as broken video thumbnail icons. However, they will play correctly."
Hmmm...doesn't seem to be the case for me. Even if AVIs were unsupported or known to cause problems, I would never expect to see the symptoms I did.
Hopefully my experience will help others. Incidentally, I run XP Pro SP3, fully updated.

Mac mini dual display - blue screen flashes frequently

I recently purchased a mac mini i7 model, with fusion drive.
I have upgraded the RAM to 16GB.
I have also purchased 2 monitors, both are LG 22EA63V LED.
I connected one monitor direct HDMI to HDMI.
The other monitor is connected from Thunderbolt to HDMI.
Everything worked amazingly well for the first few weeks. Now, not so much....
I frequently have the screen freeze and flash blue, and then resume as normal dual display mode.
Other times the screen will flash blue and then come back as a single display. In this case the Thunderbolt to HDMI display appears as primary display, while the HDMI display loses connection.
If I unplug the HDMI display completely, the blue screen flashing does not happen at all.
So, what could be causing this problem, and how do i fix it?

Hi Matt,
See if there's some setting on the HDMI monitor for Input Source, or things like Auto-tune.

MB screen flashes on and off...HELP!

Just got a new macbook for my wife. Came from Apple with 2 sticks of 256mb RAM. I added 2 1gb Patriot sticks from Newegg. all seemed well. but now under load, not full load just opening apps, the screen flashes black and then after a few seconds it comes back on. It happens often enough to be annoying.
Here's what I did:
1. Replaced with apple shipped ram.- Doesn't seem to occur, so I figured bad ram...
2. Ran memtest on both stick individually. 3 passes on each stick
3. Reset PMU as advised by AppleCare
Still could be bad ram but...
1. I pulled the two 1gb APPLE RAM sticks from my 17" MBP, still occured.
2. Tried the Patriot 1gb sticks in my MPB, all is fine.
So I don't think it is bad ram?
Any helpers out there? Apple wants to blame 3rd party RAM, but their ram that shipped with my MBP exhibit's the problem too...

My screen was flashing just like yours and failed tonight, 20 days into the purchase. Take it back and get a refund. Don't take another macbook until they get all of these quality control issues worked out. This was my third macbook and I had not been having any problems, but was experiencing the flash. It is starting up in the background and can be used in target disk mode, so the issue is the screen. Return while you can, it will eventually go out completely.

My ipod wont charge. The screen flashed white yesterday and now it doesnt work

My ipod wont charge. It died yesterday and when i did the lock home button thing the screen flashed white. After that the dead signal wont even pop up now an suggestion. Its a ipod touch 4 generation, 36gb I tried charging it to my computer, wii,tv, wall plug NOTHING WORKS.!
1. The lock button and home thing WONT WORK.

Try:
- Try another cable. Some 5G iPods were shipped with Lightning cable that were either initially defective or failed after short use.
- iOS: Not responding or does not turn on
- Also try DFU mode after try recovery mode
How to put iPod touch / iPhone into DFU mode « Karthik's scribblings
- If not successful and you can't fully turn the iOS device fully off, let the battery fully drain. After charging for an least an hour try the above again.
- Try on another computer
- If still not successful that usually indicates a hardware problem and an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store is in order.
Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar

Gray screen, flashing folder with question mark

My macbook pro was working normal in the afternoon... I closed the computer lid and returned a couple hours later to a gray screen & flashing folder with a question mark. When I hold the option key down at startup I only get an internet recovery mode. I plugged in my airport time capsule and was able to boot from it. I used disc utility check and everything checked out ok. I used my ESET NOD32 Antivirus and it checked out ok. Finally, I went to start up disc and restarted my computer from the Mac HD. This also worked without problem. Afterwards I disconnected my airport capsule and restarted the computer as a final test. Unfortunately I am back to the flashing folder with a question mark. What do I do?

See:
A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac - Apple Support
Seems like your disk is failling.

Screen flashes unexplicably.

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