[adeeb]

I have read the volumes of posts on this forum and others about LCD flickers on PowerBook G4's, but this problem is completely different.

Under OS 9, I have a perfectly clear display. No problems whatsoever. Under OS X 10.2.1 (and this problem did exist with earlier installations but I don't know at which incarnation of X it started) it is freaky.

Basically, some applications cause my screen to spasm/flicker/jolt. It seems to happen a great deal with IE and any Java applet. In extreme cases, the screen will start jumping as soon as the applet is loaded. In other cases (such as with almost any web site opened in IE), I can get this problem to show up my scrolling "vigorously" with the mouse (Apple Pro Mouse) or even using the Touchpad. Strangely, this problem does not show up if I use the Page-Up / Page-Down / Home / End keys. It does however show up if I press the up/down arrow keys.

Adding onto the confusion, the problem does not appear in all applications. Photoshop 7, Chimera 0.5, and even Word v X do not exhibit this problem. I have notices that the promlem also appears when switching between windows in IE and some other apps. Even launching Apple's Network Utility causes the spike as does resizing its window. If I take any window that exhibits this problem during scrolling (IE for example) and drag it to the left edge of my screen so that only the scroll bar appears, then the problem does not appear during scrolling.

As such, I think this is a software or firmware related problem but I have no idea how to go about solving it.

I am running Mac OS X 10.2.1 on a PowerBook G4/667. 1GB Ram, 50GB HD.

Anyone who is able to solve this problem will earn my eternal gratitude.

-adeeb

[Eddies in the aether]

Originally posted by adeeb:
I have read the volumes of posts on this forum and others about LCD flickers on PowerBook G4's, but this problem is completely different.

Under OS 9, I have a perfectly clear display. No problems whatsoever. Under OS X 10.2.1 (and this problem did exist with earlier installations but I don't know at which incarnation of X it started) it is freaky.

Basically, some applications cause my screen to spasm/flicker/jolt. It seems to happen a great deal with IE and any Java applet. In extreme cases, the screen will start jumping as soon as the applet is loaded. In other cases (such as with almost any web site opened in IE), I can get this problem to show up my scrolling "vigorously" with the mouse (Apple Pro Mouse) or even using the Touchpad. Strangely, this problem does not show up if I use the Page-Up / Page-Down / Home / End keys. It does however show up if I press the up/down arrow keys.

CRUNCH

Anyone who is able to solve this problem will earn my eternal gratitude.

-adeeb

I too have seen this, it appears OSX specific , not due to any particular update. Its very bad with the segments introducing each level of Myth III, but not during the play itself. Also to a lesser extent when unstuffing files and some particular Java apps.
I assume its due to the OS but as it occurs reproducibly only in certain apps I figure Apple will blame the app maker.


E.A

[TC]

It might not be exactly the same but I had something very similar on a 667DVI Powerbook and it wasn�t X specific.
It would do the same flickering in OS 9 and X.

Maybe you need to give it a bit more time in 9 to see if it does it?

I sent mine back to Apple and they reported they couldn�t reproduce the fault but when I got it back it stopped doing it. They had taken the Powerbook apart completely which make me think there was probably a loose connection causing the problem.

(How do I know they took my Powerbook apart? They forgot to reconnect the modem!!)

[adeeb]

Thanks for the replies. It ONLY appears in X. Extremely frustrating.

-adeeb

[adeeb]

Originally posted by Eddies in the aether:


I too have seen this, it appears OSX specific , not due to any particular update. Its very bad with the segments introducing each level of Myth III, but not during the play itself. Also to a lesser extent when unstuffing files and some particular Java apps.
I assume its due to the OS but as it occurs reproducibly only in certain apps I figure Apple will blame the app maker.


E.A

Thanks for your reply. At least I know I'm not the only one. Would you happen to have 1GB of RAM?

-adeeb

[VValdo]

It happens on my system (Jaguar, 756 ram, 667 rev b tibook) when I load java apps in Mozilla. It happened both witht eh original drivers and also with the ATI drivers.

The flicker seems harmless, but I just wanted to letcha know... I got it too.

W

[Mithras]

Have you tried disabling Quartz Extreme?

I believe that applying this PCI hack on an AGP machine will disable Quartz Extreme.

Since you and others have seen it outside of Jaguar, it seems unlikely, but is worth trying.

[Developer]

Originally posted by Mithras:
Have you tried disabling Quartz Extreme?

I believe that applying this PCI hack on an AGP machine will disable Quartz Extreme.

Since you and others have seen it outside of Jaguar, it seems unlikely, but is worth trying.

Booting with the shift key held down temporarily disables QE.

[rplotkin]

I, too, have experienced this problem. For me, it occurs with Warcraft III. The most recent update to the application (1.0.3) fixed this problem, which only occurred at the PB's highest resolution.

[Titom]

My screen (Ti400) also started to flicker when I upgraded to Jag, but just turning down the brightness seems to fix it :-)