Late 2008 Macbook Aluminum: Flashing External Monitor

The external display loses signal for about 1/2 second randomly every 10-20 seconds. My external display is a Dell 2005FPW driven at 1680x1050, and I have 4GB Crucial PC8500 (1066 DDR3) memory. Doesn't matter if the resolution is lowered. Resetting the SMU and zapping PRAM also has no effect. Interestingly, there's a discussion thread on Apple where people with a Late 2008 MBP noted the same problem when using the 9400M GPU but not the dedicated
9600M: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1756755&tstart=0

Update: I thought I had this diagnosed when the problem went away upon swapping memory chips back to the Apple 1GBx2. However, the problem started again today: problems using the Macbook in clamshell mode, and now external monitor flashing. Ugh!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Apple
• Macbook
• Aluminum
• External
• Monitor
• Flashing
• Flickering
• 9400M
• NVidia

[cjjuergens]

I've got the same problem. It's completely random though it seems. And I've had this problem for months, yet I still haven't been able to find a solution. The Apple store didn't know how to fix it either.

[dutzib]

bit dot ly/bkQll4 second message from last fixed the issue for me

[MakingItLookGreat]

Exactly the same problem on my new MacPro and 24inch LED display.

[rockywuff]

I had a similar problem with my 13" macbook alu (2.0ghz model), if I connected an external screen it would flicker and display all kinds of weird video artifacts (incorrect colors, banding, etc..), but ONLY if the macbook was running on batteries. If I connected the AC the picture turned perfect.

[scooooott]

Tried installing the MiniDP TO VGA fw update? Sorted my issues out.

[lordvaldemort]

still no fix? I have two identical external monitors. One at home flickrs one at the office works just fine. What a pain!

[tommyk77]

If you put the graphics card to "high performance" it doesn't do this, but it then becomes annoying having to switch it back to energy saver mode every time you are running off the battery.

[jamesc2929]

Count me in with the same problem. Brand new 15 inch mac bookpro- always hooked up to the brand new 24 inch monitor, book always open, wireless mouse, with a wired keyboard to the display. Goes black for a few seconds, sometimes the screen shakes back and forth. Happens at least once a day. Maybe the magsafe connection? They have problems with the the magsafe power adapter- maybe the same manufacturer.

[RockGuitarizt]

That happens to me whenever I don't have the macbook charging. Try plugging it in

[lfuribeb]

somebody knows how to fix the problem?