Apple @lemmy.world Leaflet @lemmy.world 3w ago

Getting some weird screen glitches with new M4 Mac mini

Occasionally, I will get these vertical lines going down my screen and some flicker. I’ve had this problem with a thunderbolt to DisplayPort cable and an HDMI to HDMI cable. I also highly doubt it’s a monitor problem because it’s been working flawlessly in Linux and before that Windows.

Has anyone else experienced this? I also saw that Sequoia 15.1 released, not sure if this is a problem that Apple knows about that’s fixed in the new version. Really hoping it’s not a hardware issue with my unit.

Edit: it seems to be a monitor issue? I switched my second, identical display to be my first and didn't see the issue after a couple hours of usage. But now I've started using that first monitor again as my second monitor and it hasn't had any corruption issues yet.

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Don’t want to send up a flare unnecessarily, but I used to see that patterning on machines with dead logic boards.

My last 17” MBP did that shortly before the board died completely & left me s.o.l. If you’re still under warranty or AC, maybe worth getting it checked?

I am not certain if this would be an issue with M-Series machines. If anyone knows for sure, I’d appreciate any info.
- Brand new Mac Mini, just came out today. It has a full year of warranty left.
  
  It could be a factory defect
I have an M3 Max that does this, but only when I plug in two monitors at once over Thunderbolt. It doesn’t always happen either, haven’t figured out exactly what is causing it. I know my M1 is only capable of a single external monitor, so part of my suspects their multi monitor support is just poorly implemented over the latest TB spec.

Using M1 with a thunderbolt dock doesn’t do it, so I know it’s not the monitor. Plus switching out one monitor for another doesn’t fix it.

In the past to debug this problem I’ve used BetterDisplay
What is your resolution and refresh rate set to? MacOS can be quite picky.
- 1440p at 170Hz with the DisplayPort. But I also tried going down to 60hz, but in that brief time I did that, that made the flickering issue even more apparent.
  
  Try 144 or 165 if you have it. It's some sort of matching game rather than hardware compatibility.
Mine so far has had no issues like this. I have one monitor connected straight into the HDMI port and another monitor via a Dell dock (from work).
I had a similar problem with my last monitor (with a Windows PC.) It would randomly flicker vertical lines, and those lines would show a “ghost image” of something that was on screen when it started. I think it had to do with its variable refresh rate, as it often seemed to happen after gaming or tabbing from full screen to the desktop. But I could never find a reliable way to replicate the bug.

I could always temporarily fix it by running a “stuck pixel” video in full screen for 10-15 mins, like this: (seizure warning) https://youtu.be/-2eQhhMvi-U

It wasn’t really “stuck pixels” but it seemed to blast the problem away for some reason. Could’ve been coincidence though.

If it’s a variable refresh rate issue between the Mac and monitor, you could also try turning Adaptive Sync off if you don’t need it: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102144 And also disable it in your monitor’s onboard settings if you do turn it off or already have it off.

I went through a few different GPUs over the years with that same buggy monitor, including the GPU I have now. I since upgraded to a new monitor, and this one has not had any problems in the 6+ months of using.

So I’d hazard a guess that it’s the monitor. Try the pixel video if it happens again or messing with Adaptive Sync. If it doesn’t work, try other similar videos. Maybe it will help.

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