Noman84

Q: Two Thunderbolt Displays not working under Windows 7

I just got the two Thunderbolt Displays I had preordered delivered and I was shocked to find out that both of them can not work together under Win 7 on my MBP.

 

My Set up :

 

Macbook Pro - 15" i7 - 2011 - with Thunderbolt Port

Two brand new Thunderbolt Displays - One (Display 1) connected directly to the MBP and the other (Display 2) daisy-chained to Display 1.

 

Mac OS X fully updated, Windows 7 running on BootCamp, also fully updated.

 

With this set up ... all three screens work with Os X ... Under Windows 7, MBP Display works and Display 1 works, but Display 2 shows a blank black screen.

 

Surprisingly All three FaceTime HD cameras are deteceted and working. All ports on both displays work and Speakers on Display 1 and Display 2 work ... but no image on Display 2.

 

Any help appriciated ... I'll be returning these beauties if they can't work on Win 7 because I work on Windows most of the time

 

I've tried a bunch of stuff already ... Including trying to get windows device manager to detect the displays etc. and to scan for hardware changes.

 

Apple states on the product page that dual thunderbolt displays are supported on all 15" and 17" MBPs - they don't say anything about dual dusplays not working on Windows 7 and working on OsX ?

 

http://www.apple.com/displays/

http://images.apple.com/displays/images/overview_hero2.jpg

 

I would like to add that I when I updated OsX it installed the following as well:

- Thunderbolt firmware update

- Thunderbolt Display Software

- Thunderbolt Display Firmware Update

 

... and now when I try and update OsX says that software is up to date, which means all latest firmware updates made available by apple have been installed.

Apple Thunderbolt Display

Posted on Sep 21, 2011 2:41 AM

Close

Q: Two Thunderbolt Displays not working under Windows 7

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 3 of 4 last Next
  • by Joseph Lee2,

    Joseph Lee2 Joseph Lee2 Dec 16, 2013 3:37 PM in response to TomDC1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 16, 2013 3:37 PM in response to TomDC1

    Tom, can you describe your setup, hardware configurations, and connection details?  I have 2 Thunderbolt Displays and in the updated NVidia driver control panel, the 2nd Thunderbolt doesn't show up or is greyed out.  The laptop and 1st Thunderbolt display shows up.

     

    I bought a LaCie Thunderbolt drive that has 2 Thunderbolts that I'm going to try putting in between the two displays in the chain like Rick, but the only difference is that I have 2 Thunderbolts compared to his 1 LED display at the end.

  • by Rick N,

    Rick N Rick N Dec 17, 2013 4:17 AM in response to Joseph Lee2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 17, 2013 4:17 AM in response to Joseph Lee2

    Combining Tom's observation on the pure Tbolt solution, It also works perfectly w/o any tweaks if you plug a tbolt monitor into the 1st MBP Retina tbolt port,with all the non-monitor tbolt peripherals in that chain and then plug the mini display port into the 2nd MBP Retina tbolt port.  I'm on the road so I can't test it, but if Tom's right, you theoretically could have many many tbolt monitors daisy chained so long as you had a tbolt peripheral between each tbolt monitor.

     

    Wierd that it works out of the box with a non-monitor tbolt peripheral between the tbolt monitors....this is really overkill but how many tbolt monitors would theoretically work?  I've got a 4 monitor stand.....with two apple 27 monitors (one mdp and one tbolt) and two open 27in slots to add more tbolt monitors....sigh. Three tbolt monitors and one mdp monitor.  sheesh.  Does the MBP retina have the video muscle to drive more than two 27s?

     

    P.S. Nothing is quite so awe inspiring as multiple apple 27's all firing together........ truly one of life's great visuals...just a couple of thin white cords.  The first time windows pops up with the twins makes you realize you purchased the right laptop.

  • by TRID GmbH,

    TRID GmbH TRID GmbH Dec 17, 2013 9:22 AM in response to Noman84
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 17, 2013 9:22 AM in response to Noman84

    Hi Noman84,  i have the same problem. Can you help me???

    How can I work with Windows 7 and 2 Thunderbolt display. I have a new MacMini server and wanted to work under windows with 2 displays. Do you have an idea what kind of cable or what hardware do I need?

  • by TRID GmbH,

    TRID GmbH TRID GmbH Dec 19, 2013 11:37 PM in response to TRID GmbH
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 19, 2013 11:37 PM in response to TRID GmbH

    Hi, can any boddy help me ?

  • by Frenkieboy,

    Frenkieboy Frenkieboy Jan 4, 2014 4:38 AM in response to TomDC1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 4, 2014 4:38 AM in response to TomDC1

    Hi Tom,

     

    I just read your comment on daisychaining thunderbolt displays. If I understood you correctly, does thes mean that you found out that it id possible to use more than one thunderbolt display in a Bootcamp windows 7 installation ? According to the bootcamp specs provided by apple, this is not possible :

     

    19. How many Apple Thunderbolt Displays can I use with a Mac in Windows 7 or 8 with Boot Camp?

    You can use only one Apple Thunderbolt Display with Windows 7 or 8 with Boot Camp.

  • by regeter,

    regeter regeter Jan 14, 2014 1:53 PM in response to Frenkieboy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 14, 2014 1:53 PM in response to Frenkieboy

    I will be in the same camp too. Looking to replace my current notebook with a TB enabled machine. I dont care for OSX but they are the only ones to offer dual TB right now.
    The setup I will be doing is.


    TB1 to dual monitors.

    TB2 to external GFX.

    It looks like this setup is a non-starter right now?

  • by Rick N,

    Rick N Rick N Jan 14, 2014 2:48 PM in response to regeter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 14, 2014 2:48 PM in response to regeter

    Run a 15 MBPr w two TB displays (see the discussion chain where you have to go to the nvidia app on the bottom of Windows Desktop (or in Control Panel) and they work fine in Windows according to discussion.

     

    As previously noted:  I run 1 Apple 27 TBolt LED and 1 27 Apple non-TBolt LED, they each work perfectly plugged into the 2 TB ports on the MBPr.  The TBolt drives I use are then daisy chained off the TBolt Port on the back of the TBolt Monitor.

     

    FYI, Under WIndows and OSX, this means all three (2x27 and 1x15) monitors firing simultaneously at their full native res.  Truly a glorious sight to behold.

     

    Details:

    MBPr 15, Mavericks, Bootcamped Win 8.1 (w/ Classic Shell), 1 Apple Cinema 27 TBolt, 1 Apple CInema 27 LED, Pegasus 4 Drive 16tb Raid, 2 WD Mybook Thunderbolt Duo's (8tb+8tb), Belkin Thunderbolt dock, 1 Buffalo Thunderbolt Portable Drive at end of chain.  Works fine on both Windows and Mavericks.

     

    Rick

     

    Fastest laptop on earth driving the best **** displays made.  No heat, no noise, just raw horsepower.

  • by ChetBrmr,

    ChetBrmr ChetBrmr Jan 22, 2014 9:12 AM in response to Noman84
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 22, 2014 9:12 AM in response to Noman84

    It sounds like Rick's suggestion works because he is using 1 Thunderbolt monitor, and one cinema display. This advice does not help those of us with 2 Thunderbolt monitors. Tom's suggestion does not work for me, as I am unable to see the extra monitor grayed out in the Nvidia control panel. Has anyone been able to get Tom's suggestion to work with 2 REAL Thunderbolt monitors? If not, does anyone have any other ideas on how to get 2 Thunderbolt monitors to work with Windows via Boot Camp? I have tried everything I can think of, and read a lot of suggestions on the internet, but to no avail...

  • by aggieben,

    aggieben aggieben Jan 22, 2014 9:42 AM in response to Rick N
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 22, 2014 9:42 AM in response to Rick N

    Yep - this is totally barking up the wrong tree.  Rick's got one TB and one Cinema LED, and the CLD uses a different bus. 

     

    Guys, the bottom line here is that multiple Thunderbolt Displays simply will not work on any version of Windows, and there's nothing you can do about it unless you can write device drivers and have the time and inclination to do so.  See here for a pretty good layman's explanation: http://www.zdnet.com/boot-camp-windows-presents-some-limitations-with-thunderbol t-7000020699/

     

    So: until Apple updates the drivers delivered with Bootcamp, or until Microsoft (or Intel or some other interested third party) becomes motivated to write a driver that can handle chained TB, you are hosed.  TB + Cinema display is the only way to get mutiple Apple displays running under Windows.  Period.

     

    One final note: I wouldn't recommend this for Windows 7 anyway, because the Retina display on a MBP has a very different DPI than the big diplays do, and so the resolution will be crappy in Windows 7 because it will scale everything to the lowest DPI.  If you do decide to get two monitors going using TB+Cinema like Rick (and I) did, then you are going to want Windows 8.1+, because Windows 8.1 introduced multi-display DPI scaling.  Without that, the multi-monitor experience running Windows directly on the Apple hardware is going to suck big time.

     

    TL;DR - run Parallels or swap one of your TB for a Cinema.  That is all you can do.

  • by kevinl777,

    kevinl777 kevinl777 Feb 17, 2014 9:35 AM in response to Noman84
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 17, 2014 9:35 AM in response to Noman84

    This support post on Apple support seems to indicate that you can support dual TB displays on the new Mac Pro.  Makes sense because the MP has dual graphics cards.

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6068

     

    Does anyone know if this actually works?  I have oredered my Mac Pro and entend to use it with my dual TB's as I can do now with my MBP running OSX and Windows in a Parallel VM.  I just need better peformance.  If the MP can't support dual TB displays running Windows in Boot Camp, I will probably return it. 

     

    I have my finders crossed!

  • by turbostar,

    turbostar turbostar Feb 17, 2014 1:45 PM in response to kevinl777
    Level 4 (2,925 points)
    Feb 17, 2014 1:45 PM in response to kevinl777

    Can support 3 TB displays in windows http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6068

  • by kevinl777,

    kevinl777 kevinl777 Feb 17, 2014 9:45 PM in response to turbostar
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 17, 2014 9:45 PM in response to turbostar

    Have you actually tried it?  I'd love to hear from someone who has!

  • by turbostar,

    turbostar turbostar Feb 18, 2014 5:05 AM in response to kevinl777
    Level 4 (2,925 points)
    Feb 18, 2014 5:05 AM in response to kevinl777

    Yes 3 TBs working just fine for me in Windows remember to put them on separate buses http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5918

  • by Damo_S15,

    Damo_S15 Damo_S15 Mar 1, 2014 12:43 AM in response to turbostar
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 1, 2014 12:43 AM in response to turbostar

    I'm going to assume your using a Mac Pro (Late 2013) while we're all using older generations of Macs and Macbooks.

    Can you confirm how many thunderbolt busses the rMBP has? 1 or 2.

    I'm assuming 2 as only one Thunderbolt Display works under bootcamp.

  • by turbostar,

    turbostar turbostar Mar 1, 2014 3:12 AM in response to Damo_S15
    Level 4 (2,925 points)
    Mar 1, 2014 3:12 AM in response to Damo_S15

    Yes late 2013 Mac Pro will allow 3 TB displays in Windows.

     

    Every other machine, including the late 2013 rMBP, only allows 1 TBD. If you want multiple displays in Windows and want the monitors to look the same, the 2nd display needs to be an Apple LED Cinema Display.

first Previous Page 3 of 4 last Next