B737-700
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 60; Flight Crew Total 8000; Flight Crew Type 1600
Distraction; Workload; Troubleshooting; Human-Machine Interface
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Flight Crew FLC complied w / Automation / Advisory; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
Whilst in Cruise flight; 10 minutes prior to top of descent we observed short duration outages/failures of all PFD; ND and Engine Instrument Displays. (Video Available) First screen to fail was Captain's PFD which would blink for 1-2 seconds or so; within a short time this was observed on all EFIS screens. This situation continued throughout the remainder of the flight. All other systems remained normal and there were no failure warnings or cautions or comparators (such as CDS Fault or Display Source). All Electrical outputs were checked and found to be normal. Standby Instruments functioned throughout. QRH has limited guidance in this situation. Flight conditions permitted Day VMC approach to a familiar destination so opted to continue with Captain as handling pilot unless the situation deteriorated when pilot with most complete set of instruments would become pilot flying. Blinking screens continued throughout the flight and on the ground regardless of power supplied by Engines; APU or batteries. Following Engineering diagnostics it was found that the Number 1 Display Unit (Captain PFD) has an internal fault with causes the blinking via the Optical interconnections. As a pilot I was unaware that a failure within a screen could interfere with other discreet display units.
A B737-700's Number 1 Display Unit Computer failed in flight which caused one to two second blinking of all EFIS screens.