White Noise - Intel HD 4600 - Dell S2440L

[doctorhackintosh]

Every time I boot into Yosemite with the Intel HD 4600 connected to my Dell S2440L monitor via HDMI, right after the screen showing the progress bar with the Apple logo and right before the login screen, I get white noise (like the sort we used to see on our old TVs).

My resolution is 1920x1080 @ 60 Hz NTSC.

Usually, unplugging and re-plugging the HDMI cable from the motherboard seems to resolve the issue and I get the login screen back. This used to happen only before the login screen at first but lately, I see white noise appear at any random point in time of OS X usage.

Also, unplugging and re-plugging the HDMI cable from the monitor does not seem to help, in any way.

At first, I thought the cable was at fault but it seems to work fine with Windows.

I'm assuming it has something to do with the Refresh Rate (Frequency) of my monitor. There is some mismatch happening with respect to that, between the monitor and OS X, I suspect.

I only get two options for the Refresh Rate in System Preferences > Display, NTSC (60 Hz) and PAL (50 Hz), selecting either seems to make no difference at all.

I tried stepping down with the resolution and the white noise stopped but the screen kept flickering every 3-4 seconds.

At the moment, I have selected the option that automatically selects the best possible setting for the monitor (which happens to be 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz NTSC according to OS X) in System Preferences > Display.

Any suggestions / insights / thoughts about resolving this?

 

[rockinwaggy]

Have any DVI or DP ports you could try?

 

[HeinzTheo]

I have a similar issue as well using a Gigabyte Z97N-WIFI board with Intel HD 4600 and a Dell UltraSharp Monitor connected via HDMI. The System boots until the Apple logo appears, then I get this white noise and after about 10s I find myself at the login screen.

What I tried/checked so far:
- IGPlatformID set by MultiBeast seems right for HD 4600
- Changing SysDef from iMac 14,1 to iMac 15,1 Mac Mini 6,1 does not affect the issue

Any help regarding this topic is appreciated!

 

[wildwillow]

Take a look here HD4600+/HD4000/HD3000 Framebuffer Edits

 

[Stork]

You didn't say which HDMI connector you're using on the motherboard, top or bottom. IIRC, toleda recommended the top HDMI connector. So, try switching the connectors.

 

[HeinzTheo]

You didn't say which HDMI connector you're using on the motherboard, top or bottom. IIRC, toleda recommended the top HDMI connector. So, try switching the connectors.

Thanks for your reply. Sadly, switching connectors from bottom to top didn't fix the problem.

 

[rockinwaggy]

I'd give another cable a try. I've had HDMI cables do weird things before.

 

[derFunkenstein]

I'd give another cable a try. I've had HDMI cables do weird things before.

I've had similar experiences, between white snow like the OP describes as well as going black.

To the OP: I have the 21.5" version of that monitor (2240L) and it freaks out if I have an HDMI switch connected, and the same switch and same cables work fine on my TV. Red spots show up all over the place. Do you have a switch, or is it just the motherboard directly to the monitor?

 

[doctorhackintosh]

I'm using the top HDMI connector on the motherboard.

I tried 2 different newly purchased HDMI cables in addition to my existing HDMI cable with the said on-board port.

I still get White Noise as described in the OP with OS X. I don't face any such issue in Windows 8.1 which I dual boot with.