Monitor on Display Port now Flickers?

OK to stat off I have the latest firmware and os updates.

My Mac Mini is late 2012 model and I have two 23" Samsung LED displays attached, one via Display Port, other via HDMI. Both cables convert over to DVI connectors to attach to the monitors.

I had been using the Display Port to DVI cable to hook up to my monitors for almost a year now with no issues, and for a period of time I had my Mac Mini hooked to my TV via HDMI cable to watch a few movies. Well last week I wanted to move it back to my desk and used the current Samsung displays. It worked perfectly, no issues with flickering on any of the displays. Now.. Just two days ago I upgraded my little mac's hdd to a Samsung 830 series SSD. Then reinstalled the OS via net install. Which installed without any hitches (Sunday). Then monday morning the next day I noticed I get a quick flicker or the display cuts out for a brief second with static noise on the display port's connected display. Which first I thought was just a loose connection. But having revisited that and triple checking. It still does it about every other hour or so.

I tried to find a solution or anyone else having these issues. but seems every time I google all I get is the old HDMI firmware update articles and nothing so far on the display port doing this..

Any thoughts or suggestions.. I have double checked the display resolution and refresh rates and they are all good.. Or at least they appear to be correct on the outside..

Thanks, Joe

The only suggestion I have is to try new cables if possible. If you're sure the connectors on your Mini and the monitors are OK, that leaves the cables as suspect.

Exodist said:

Any thoughts or suggestions.. I have double checked the display resolution and refresh rates and they are all good.. Or at least they appear to be correct on the outside..

Click to expand...

Since the problem is only happening with one monitor..I would check the cable as chscag suggested.

Two other ideas:

- It could be the monitor as well. Leave the cables as they are...and switch the monitors to see if the problem persists. If it does...then it's the cable. If it doesn't...could be the monitor.
- Reinstall the old HD...and see if the problem continues.

* Nick

I am leaning towards cable as well. Its a thin cheap plastic-y one I got from newegg back in the states. But check this out, I think I found what was directly causing the flicker. Anyone ever noticed when you have your cell phone next to speakers and every so often it transmits your location to the CIA (j/k?) and you hear that "ddd da ddd da" noise over the speakers or tv. Well just so happens I had my headphones on and wasn't listening to a song when my cell phone did this and at the same exact time my monitor when to flickering the same duration of the ddd noise. I had my cell phone at the time sitting under the base of the monitor recharging.. Soo this is either extreme coincidence, or the cheap cables lack of real shielding was letting my cell phone screw with my video signal, digital or not. I have since moved my cell away and will test this theory over the next few days before calling this one closed..

Thanks for the input everyone

- Joe

I think its safe to call this one CASE CLOSED incase anyone else reads this thread and wonders if moving the cell phone fixed it.. Yes it did.. No more issues.. No screen flickering..

So if anyone else runs into this, simply check to see if you got anything like a cell phone setting close to your display. The cheaper the monitor cable the greater the chance of this happening..

Cheers,

Joe.

Appreciate the report back Joe.

Thinks we forget about interference related to hardwired audio and video most of the time.

Exodist said:

I think its safe to call this one CASE CLOSED incase anyone else reads this thread and wonders if moving the cell phone fixed it.. Yes it did.. No more issues.. No screen flickering..

So if anyone else runs into this, simply check to see if you got anything like a cell phone setting close to your display. The cheaper the monitor cable the greater the chance of this happening..

Click to expand...

Thanks Joe for the update. Certainly an unusual discovery...considering the prevalence of both computers & cell phones.

For what it's worth...a sort of unusual similar situation used to happen back in the "old days" of computing. When CRT monitors were the only choice for a computer display...if someone tried using sound speakers that were placed too close to the CRT monitor...the magnets/magnetism in the speakers would distort the image on the CRT monitor. If the speakers were moved just 6" or more away from the monitor...the distortion disappeared.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Thanks Joe for the update. Certainly an unusual discovery...considering the prevalence of both computers & cell phones.

For what it's worth...a sort of unusual similar situation used to happen back in the "old days" of computing. When CRT monitors were the only choice for a computer display...if someone tried using sound speakers that were placed too close to the CRT monitor...the magnets/magnetism in the speakers would distort the image on the CRT monitor. If the speakers were moved just 6" or more away from the monitor...the distortion disappeared.

- Nick

Click to expand...

LOL yea I remember that, even more so when we went from CGA and EGA to VGA/SVGA.
Used to have to make sure speakers were shielded.

Speaking of old days.. I love how my Mac makes me feel like my Tandy used to. Higher quality OS and System as a whole compaired to the cheaper made and crapy OS's of general PCs..

So I think what you're saying is that cheap cabling that's not well-shielded might have issues with cell phone interference?

chas_m said:

So I think what you're saying is that cheap cabling that's not well-shielded might have issues with cell phone interference?

Click to expand...

Yes


Its been a few weeks now and still no more flickering since I moved the cell phone..