[Solved] How to fix External Display Flickering at High Refresh Rates caused by DSC compression and VRR handshake failure over USB-C DisplayPort on Mac mini M4 Pro

[Nicholas Torres]

Diagnostic Hardware Specs: Mac mini M4 Pro | OS Version: macOS Sequoia 15.1 | Archive Source: Apple Support Community #256113934

I am running into a persistent issue on my Mac mini M4 Pro running macOS Sequoia 15.1.
Whenever the machine encounters DSC compression and VRR handshake failure over USB-C DisplayPort, the following diagnostic log appears in Console:

WindowServer: [com.apple.WindowServer:server] Display 0x8826 link training failure / DSC buffer renegotiation

I verified that hardware connections are intact and tested across different power sources. What is the verified diagnostic procedure to permanently eliminate this symptom?

MacBook Air 13″ M3 (16GB) | iPhone 16 Pro (512GB) | AirPods Pro 2 | Melbourne, AU

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[Noah Hofmann]

Apple Recommended / Verified Community Solution

This canonical solution was verified and marked as solved in the Apple Support Community archive.

Locking refresh rate to a fixed frequency, disabling Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and regenerating WindowServer display plists.

Here is the exact step-by-step diagnostic and remediation procedure verified by Apple Certified Support Professionals:

1. In System Settings > Displays, set Refresh Rate to fixed 120Hz or 100Hz instead of Variable (VRR).
2. Reset display preferences:

   sudo rm -f /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.displays.plist
   rm -f ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.displays.*.plist
   killall -9 WindowServer

3. In monitor physical OSD menu, set DisplayPort mode to ‘DP 1.4 Standard’ without aggressive DSC overdrive.

Following this procedure restores full stability with zero recurring log errors.

MacBook Pro 14″ M3 Pro (36GB) | OWC Envoy Pro FX | iPad Pro 13″ M4 | Minneapolis, MN

Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) | Commercial Photographer & Digitech

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