Weird Flashing Screen on my nMP

[golf1410]

EL CAPITAN 10.11.5

I am trying to nail down the root cause of the problem.

This is weird. There is white and black flashing on a small part of screen. It always happen on the left side of the screen toward to bottom corner of the screen. I can hop a mouse pointer over the area.
I am not sure it is the video cards problem, OS, cable or what?
I did capture the videos on my iPad. Please have a look.
Have anyone experienced the issue?

***Update 2***
I can scope down and be able to recreate the problem. It only happens when I open 2 applications. One application must be iTunes application. To recreate the problem, all I have to do is to expośe iTunes application with another application back and forward constantly.
I have changed the cable. But the problem is still exist.

 

[keysofanxiety]

This is synonymous with failing graphics, so I'd guess GPU failing. If you have the D500 or D700 this is even more likely.

 

[golf1410]

This is synonymous with failing graphics, so I'd guess GPU failing. If you have the D500 or D700 this is even more likely.

What should I do? I have D700.

 

[keysofanxiety]

What should I do? I have D700.

Take it to an Apple Store. They'll replace the graphics card free of charge, even if you're out of warranty.

 

[golf1410]

Take it to an Apple Store. They'll replace the graphics card free of charge, even if you're out of warranty.

Mine was bought in 2014. It happens sometime. Sometime, it doesn't happen at all.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Mine was bought in 2014. It happens sometime. Sometime, it doesn't happen at all.

It's the same model, doesn't matter when you purchased it.

 

[MacVidCards]

I'd do it sooner than later.

Buying that 7970 on EBay is $1000.00 per used card.

Get Apple to fix it while you can. Don't wait for it to fail completely.

 

[Peace]

The D300 is affected too. I sent mine in and Apple just replaced the card.

 

[AidenShaw]

I wonder if Apple will switch to Nvidia for the next Mac Pro due to these consistent failures of the AMD GPUs.

 

[golf1410]

The question is even, you have changed the video cards. The new ones will cause the problem?

 

[3568358]

Try running a hardware performance test, and see if anything turns up there. Info here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257

 

[tuxon86]

The question is even, you have changed the video cards. The new ones will cause the problem?

In time the new one will probably fail too.

 

[golf1410]

Hi guys,
Thank you for you help.
I can scope down and be able to recreate the problem. It only happens when I open 2 applications. One application must be iTunes application. To recreate the problem, all I have to do is to expośe iTunes application with another application back and forward constantly.
I have changed the cable. But the problem is still exist. I will try to run and test hardware as you guys suggest.
Any opinion?

 

[golf1410]

Try running a hardware performance test, and see if anything turns up there. Info here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257

I did the test. No issues at all. I am not sure the test can pick up the GPU failure.

 

[3568358]

What I think is happening is for some reason the computer is showing part of an application some how. Open activity monitor and check to see if anything says (not responding) under the CPU tab and RAM tab. If something is (not responding) select it, select the stop sign with an 'x' in it in the upper left, and select force quit. If everything is responding, quit all open apps. Then press Command + Option + Esc at the same time. Select Finder, Select Relaunch. Finder will re-calibrate basically. Let me know if it helps.

 

[golf1410]

Guys, I decided to do 2 things.
1. I did clean reinstall OS. The problem was still there.

2. I went to Apple Authorization Service and changed both of my D700 cards.

However, the problem is still there. Now, I don't know what cause the issue. So, I ticked the reduce transparency setting in accessibility. The problem is gone.

Weird

 

[kucharsk]

Why are you so hesitant to take it in?

If you have a failing card and reduce the load on it, that's not going to help things any.

 

[koyoot]

It most likely is software problem, not hardware. Especially if this is been able to be completely eradicated with changing the settings.

 

[golf1410]

Why are you so hesitant to take it in?

If you have a failing card and reduce the load on it, that's not going to help things any.

Thank you for your reply. I did take it in. Both D700 cards were changed. But the problem is still there. I was so sure that the GPUs were the cause. Now, I have no idea what the root cause is. Totally blank atm. Could it be logic board? Software bug?
They ran a bunch of testing. Nothing wrong at all.

 

[koyoot]

Display signal comes from GPUs to display by Thunderbolt. Similar problems can occur not only on Mac Pro 2013, but also Macbook Pro even with integrated GPUs. The hanging of the drivers on MP AND MBP(at least mine previous MBP mid 2012 which started with... OSX 10.10 update) has the same cause. And it looks like it is not exactly the GPUs. It has more to do with MB/Thunderbolt/Software. People who do not have latest two versions of OS X, but are still on Mavericks are not experiencing driver hangs.

So it is more software related issue. The GPU recall that Apple issued on the other hand is affected by hardware faults.