Strange intermittent screen flash on i7

I've only noticed this a few times, and it happens so quickly it's easy to miss, but a white flash suddenly appears on the screen, at different places along the whole width, about 3" high. It's literally a fraction of a second, almost subliminal, but definitely there. I noticed it a couple of times yesterday, and it's happened once in the 3 hours I've been using it today. I only had Safari running at the time. Just wanted to put this out there in case anyone else with a new iMac has noticed it.

I also get subliminally fast flickers. If you blink, you won't notice it. But it happens very rarely and seems to occur more often in the first few hours of running the system. Playing heat-stressing games, as another commented has noted, doesn't seem to make it any more common. It happens so rarely for me at this point that I'm not worried about it. We'll see if it becomes worse over time.
However I did turn off screen autodimming because at low intensity levels I can see flicker. But perhaps they reduce the sync timings to help conserve a little more power in addition to dimming the light source? Anyway, it was too annoying. I don't get anything like that at medium - high intensity.

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Intermittent screen flash in dual monitor mode?

I've developed an interesting problem - A few months back there existed some fault with kde's treatment of the xf86-video-ati drivers which meant that, if you had compositing enabled, it would randomly segfault and die. This was slightly irritating.
So, recently, In an act of pure, stupid, and uninformed optimism, I decided to see what would happen if I just asked pacman to upgrade me to the latest version of kde (In case the problem from before has been fixed - for comedic effect).
This went predictably badly, although the fault in question does appear to have been fixed. However, as part of it's dependencies the new kde brought in new ATI drivers, and somewhere along the way an entirely new and exciting fault that causes my secondary monitor's image to flash to black for about 1 second in 7 has been picked up.
From my own investigating/googling so far, I've determined this is something to do with KMS and my display drivers. The flashing persists even in text mode, but only affects the secondary screen (The other one works fine). If I add nomodeset to my grub kernel boot line then the flashing ceases in text mode, but Xorg segfaults when I try and start it.
Has anyone else encountered this particular fault? Any advice on how to fix it?
Thanks!

Thanks for working that out, but I'm still horribly confused. I've been tinkering with things today to improve my boot speed (new kernel, messing with module loading and so on), and the problem seems to have gone away by itself. I have at no stage had anything to do with upower (it hasn't been installed).
How perplexing.
Anyway, problem solved, thanks everyone, and well done Sayo for working out the problem! (Even if it appears that MY problem was unrelated )

Screen flashing new xserve

I just unboxed our new XServe and the screen fades to blue and then comes back to whatever screen I managed to get to. When it fades the mouse stops working. I get the same thing on a CRT and LCD and at different resolutions.I've been working around these intermittent screen flashes for a day and I've updated the system to 10.5.1 and still no luck. Has anyone seen this?
Thanks for any help.

This will be my last post on this topic, so here was the final resolution to all the problems.
I worried that Apple Care might not be receptive to my claim of DOA status. So I checked with a fellow Mac consultant and our on-campus Mac re-seller who acted as the sales agent for the Xserve purchase. Our sales rep. said the best I could do is to get a technical support engineer to declare the machine DOA, then assign a case number to that machine's serial number. When I called Apple Care, the technical support guy asked what was happening. I described it very simply as the screen was flashing blue, then fading in and out at the login screen or at the desktop. The mouse and keyboard were unresponsive when the screen was blue or fading into or out of blue. He said he had already heard this from one other person and it was the most bizarre hardware problem he had ever run into. He asked me what I wanted to do, and I said, I want the machine declared DOA and given a case number so I could hand off the machine to my local sales rep. He gave me the case number, and the Sales Rep. is now handling the full RMA with Apple directly on my behalf. So with any luck we'll get a replacement machine before too long, and I can migrate our old Xserve to the new machine.
For anyone wondering what the flashing/fading blue screen of death looks like on the Xserve, check out this link on my website:
http://mail.rochester.edu/~likn/xserve.mov

Blank Screen Flash at Preview & Publish

After capturing "live video" for my captivate 3
project I encountered strange blank screen flashes in between the
slides. I called tech support and they gave the following guidance:
- be sure the file is less than 50 MB (if not split into
multiple projects and link them in branching tab)
- Add a blank slide at the end or middle of the project and
set the duration to the shortest time (~.1 sec)
- re-save and then review to see if the blank screen remains
in the project
If the blank screen remains they suggested creating a new
project and then linking to that new project from the branching
tab.
I'll post a follow-up once I run some of these recommended
methods.
Brad

Hi Brad
Usually the "flash" happens because each slide has been
recorded as a full motion slide. One way around this is to grab a
screen capture of your slide as it ends. Then set that as the
background image.
You might also want try configuring the background color of
the slides as dark or medium gray. Typically the background color
is white. This can make it really noticable when the transitions
occur between slides. To do that, you examine the properties of the
slide and configure the background color there.
Cheers... Rick

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.

Mac Pro won't boot, screen flashes, no mouse cursor

Hello.
I've had a Mac Pro 1,1 for about 3.5 years now and it's worked fantastic until recent weeks. Suddenly, I started getting weird glitches on the screen that was fixed by a simple PRAM reset and a safe boot. Worked fine for about a month after that, then it froze on me and refused to boot, so I removed all hardware, followed all steps to find the problem and I'm still stuck. I've formatted the system drive now and reinstalled 10.6.3 and it will only boot in safe mode, but when it does, the screen flashes intermittently and there is no mouse cursor which makes it tricky to get around. I've moved some ram around and found a configuration that seems to have no issues, so now I'm just wondering what's left. I do have an appointment for the genius bar tomorrow but I'd like to get the problem fixed on my own, if possible. Oh, and sometimes when I boot up the screen turns entirely pink with a blue or purple mouse cursor. I've searched online and no one else has seemed to ever have this sort of problem. Like I said, the computer was working perfectly fine until recently, and I didn't change anything or add any hardware or install any new software either.

hey - thanks to those of you that actually had supportive advice in helping me to fix this problem.
for the record, i did take the computer to the "genius" bar and they did not turn me away. they opened the computer and found that i had a bad stick of ram. got new ram installed, and the computer booted up fine, but still had visual distortion and would freeze up if i did anything taxing on the graphic card, especially the iTunes visualizer. Anyway, thanks to you guys i looked up the baking situation which threw me off at first. the graphic card in my machine was a 8800 GT, so i put it in the oven for 8 minutes, reinstalled, and my computer has been running fine since. i realize that this is probably just a temporary fix, but i thought i'd let you guys know that the problem has been resolved for now, and i really appreciate you guys taking time out to help!
thanks, happy xmas + happy 2014
JOA

IPod doesn't turn on, doesn't respond, its screen flashes every ten seconds

Hello. Yesterday, my iPod's battery was discharged. I charged it for about 10 minutes. After that, I listened to some music until the battery discharged again. I didn't connect the iPod again to my PC. Several hours later, I noticed something strange: the screen was, every ten seconds, giving a fast flash of light that only lasted like half a second. I tried every button (I checked that the iPod wasn't in Hold mode) but it didn't do anything and the flash of light continued. Then, I connected the iPod many times to the PC, each time in a different USB slot. Nothing happened. No message of recognition from the PC or from the iPod. It's like I didn't connect it. I tried in another PC, but the result was the same. I tried to reset it, but it didn't do anything. It simply doesn't work. Can you help me? Why does the screen of the iPod turns on and off for so little time every ten seconds without me doing anything for that to happen? Why doesn't the iPod work? Thanks

I'm having this exact same problem, except that occasionally I'll get "please wait, very low battery."
Otherwise, the Apple logo comes up and the screen brightens up, and at the same time I can HEAR the drive inside whirring up, but then it just quits... Only to try again!

21.5" iMac i3 2010 mid screen flash issue

Mine is i3 entry level iMac. When I activate the screen shortly after it goes to sleep, the screen will flash once before it come to steady. I use expose to demonstrate this problem. This also happens when my iMac is set to restart. Is it the norm???
Here is the video for ref.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VelxBowlVYI

I use both native and non-active resolution, this screen flash issue still happens. For my other Mac screen, they just lit up and come to steady immediately. I wonder if all i3 entry level iMac have this issue. But it is strange that the screen seems unable to lit up right after you activate the screen.

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.

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.
HP 15t-j100 (on loan from HP)
HP 13 Split x2 (on loan from HP)
HP Slate8 Pro (on loan from HP)
HP a1632x - Windows 7, 4GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6450
HP p6130y - Windows 7, 8GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6450
HP p6320y - Windows 7, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GT 240
HP p7-1026 - Windows 7, 6GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6450
HP p6787c - Windows 7, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GT 240

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

Strange intermittent screen flash on i7

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