MacBook Pro 2009 A1286 Top half of screen black flickering.

[rip]

I have a problem that I cant seem to find that fault causing it.
It seems the top half of my MacBook Pro A1286 2009 flickers fully black consistently.
I have taken it apart and check the connections and it is all in perfect condition, in fact the system had never been opened prior to me opening.
It is not overheating of the GPU.
I thought it could be the screen itself however when plugged into a external display the bottom half of screen flashes grey for the first few seconds then works fine.
With the charger plugged in, the flashing is more consistent and covers the whole screen at time.

 

[chscag]

Very likely a loose or defective video cable. If you checked all the video cable connections when you had it open, then it probably is a defective cable. Which one? Hard to say, but I would start with the LVDS cable. Go to www.ifixit.com and take a look at their instructions for disassembly and cable locations.

 

[rip]

Luckily I have a spare A1286 2009 system with a dead logicboard around so I will switch over the screens to check that issue. The screen was in perfect working condition when last used.

 

[chscag]

That of course would be a good check to see if the display itself is at fault. However, the flickering does not indicate to me that the display would be causing it. Another thing to check would be the backlight but generally if the backlight is intermittent, it will cause the entire screen to go on and off.

 

[rip]

I changed the screen and it seems that the black box flickering is all gone however small horizontal lines flickering now which possibly was happening before.

 

[chscag]

Did you check all the cables for their condition? Still sounds like you have a bad video cable.