More glitches for owners of Apple’s latest MacBook Pros that sport Sandy Bridge processor and the new Thunderbolt connection. Latest reports have surfaced indicating problems with the machine causing flickering on external displays. Additionally, it seems the notebook is crashing under heavy load for some.
The latter comes via MacRumors’ discussion forum where the affected owners flocked to report unresponsiveness, spinning fan and freezes when the computer is under load. It’s especially evident when users throw heavy computational tasks that strain both the CPU and GPU. Not everything locks up, though, as one user reported being able to SSH into the machine.
A handy wiki explains this into greater detail, suggesting a software fix related to power management or graphics driver could easily fix the glitch. Display flickering issue seems to stem from buggy drivers as well.
A rather lengthy thread on Apple’s discussion forum as well as a MacRumors discussion thread describe brief blackouts and flickering when hooking up a 2011 MacBook Pro to a 24-inch Cinema Display via the new Thunderbolt port, which is backwards compatible with DisplayPort.
The fact the built-in display isn’t affected might suggest a problem with the Thunderbolt port, although it’s most likely software-related. Intel developed in partnership with Apple as a new connection technology to replace a plethora of incompatible ports like USB, FireWire, DisplayPort, eSATA, etc.
Apple hasn’t yet acknowledged these persistent glitches. They are reportedly aware of these problems, some users wrote, and are investigating them. Here’s a video showing display flickering. Have you experienced either of these problems? Tell us in comments.
Here’s another video of the flickering display issue. Thanks, Barry!
