Hans-Uwe Brackel

Q: Thunderbolt Display "dead" after firmware upgrade to Version 1.2

Hi,

I just run the Thunderbolt F/W update to 1.2 as offered by the AppStore Update. I have a 2014 MacPro with 2 Displays connected. In good faith I just confirmed to apply the update without much reading the fine print. The F/W update brought the system to a complete standstill. After 2 hours of waiting in the boot screen, I rebooted the system manually (5 secs power button). One of the Thunderbolt displays first just flickered, then decided to completely die. The System report says: unknown device in the Thunderbolt section. The 2nd display hasn't been updated during this procedure.

 

How can the F/W of the 'dead' display be re-installed? I also tried to connect it to a MacBook pro. Same result. The display is entirely black.

 

Any help or suggestion is much appreciated. Thanks!

Posted on Nov 16, 2014 8:00 AM

Close

Q: Thunderbolt Display "dead" after firmware upgrade to Version 1.2

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 3 of 6 last Next
  • by louie0817,

    louie0817 louie0817 Nov 20, 2014 4:17 AM in response to brambo67
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 20, 2014 4:17 AM in response to brambo67

    Took my TBD to the Short Hills, NJ store. They said, "sorry, the FW upgrade must have exposed an existing HW issue, that will $200 and 5 days to fix"

    I told them what I thought of them asking me for $200 for a problem their download caused. I also pointed at this thread and they scoffed. When I pointed out that this is an apple.com website, they told me "it's the public, anyone can say anything they want here, it means nothing to them".

    So again, I told them of what I thought of them asking me for $200 and I walked out of the store with my brick.

  • by Rich of the North,

    Rich of the North Rich of the North Nov 20, 2014 4:18 AM in response to brambo67
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 20, 2014 4:18 AM in response to brambo67

    I was on with Apple Support last night, they were aware of the USB/Facetime failures, I have to go to an apple store for a hardware test Saturday...

     

    I asked about the black screen that some folks are getting, they said "apple store for hardware test"...

  • by Rich of the North,

    Rich of the North Rich of the North Nov 20, 2014 4:20 AM in response to louie0817
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 20, 2014 4:20 AM in response to louie0817

    Have you called Apple Support on the phone yet?  If not, call them, explain that it worked great right up until the firmware update...have them schedule the store visit...and see if they'll do it for free.

  • by louie0817,

    louie0817 louie0817 Nov 20, 2014 4:33 AM in response to Rich of the North
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 20, 2014 4:33 AM in response to Rich of the North

    Yes, it was an Apple Support Senior rep on the phone who instructed me to go to the Apple Store, he even made the Genius Bar appt for me.. He even told me on the phone he would be surprised if the Store didn't just fix it. Well, surprise.

    I had originally called Tuesday night, spent an hour on the phone. Tried all the resets on my MBP, etc. Then Wed, took my MBP to work and tried on a Cinema Display and a TBD, both worked fine. So called Apple Support back and then is when I spoke to the Senior Rep.

  • by Rich of the North,

    Rich of the North Rich of the North Nov 20, 2014 4:34 AM in response to louie0817
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 20, 2014 4:34 AM in response to louie0817

    Holy crap.  that's not a good sign at all...

  • by louie0817,

    louie0817 louie0817 Nov 20, 2014 4:38 AM in response to Rich of the North
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 20, 2014 4:38 AM in response to Rich of the North

    Tell me about it.

     

    And to be clear, the TBD worked fine right up until I installed the updates (FW and 10.10.1). Now it's just a brick.

  • by Bigham16,

    Bigham16 Bigham16 Nov 20, 2014 6:10 AM in response to Hans-Uwe Brackel
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 20, 2014 6:10 AM in response to Hans-Uwe Brackel

    Same issue here.  Going to Apple store tomorrow. 

  • by Filmmakers,

    Filmmakers Filmmakers Nov 20, 2014 8:46 AM in response to Bigham16
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 20, 2014 8:46 AM in response to Bigham16

    As Rodrigo suggested, I did a "safe restart", (held down the shift key as soon as you hear the powering up alert sound until the Apple logo and progress bar appear).  I followed this by a regular re-start and everything seems to be better now.  I would think someone from Apple could have responded with this information, instead of instructing all these people to tear out their display and cart them in for service.  It seems no one from the company monitors these forums at all.  At least I'm back in business now, but after many hours of lost productivity.

  • by brambo67,

    brambo67 brambo67 Nov 20, 2014 11:02 AM in response to Filmmakers
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 20, 2014 11:02 AM in response to Filmmakers

    As I explained earlier; this doesn't solve it for everyone. In my case my MBA doesn't show a TBD device is connected at all. Even no 'unidentified' peripheral. I think it is important to separate the cases in this thread. Not everyone is as lucky and is (bluntly) told to pay a lot of $'s, or €'s in my case, to have the motherboard exchanged. I was told to wait by the senior support engineer over here. Like I don't need my TBD. It really worries my a F/W upgrade that can cause this apparently slips from Apple's attention and makes it to the production environment. The worst thing however is they seem to not accept the responsibility for this. Please continue posting your experiences with Apple support and in Apple Sores.

  • by Arnt E Eriksen,

    Arnt E Eriksen Arnt E Eriksen Nov 21, 2014 12:39 AM in response to Hans-Uwe Brackel
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 21, 2014 12:39 AM in response to Hans-Uwe Brackel

    I experience the same issue with my Thunderbolt Display. Update froze my mac during install, and now the display is dead. I have tried to install it manually, but update says that there is no Thunderbolt Display connected. Anyone knows what to do here?

  • by rodrigo79,

    rodrigo79 rodrigo79 Nov 21, 2014 4:18 AM in response to Arnt E Eriksen
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 21, 2014 4:18 AM in response to Arnt E Eriksen

    I have an iMac 27" and a Mac Pro w/ TBD. Sometimes I use the iMac as second monitor when editing videos.

    When updating the iMac to OS 10.10.1, no problem.

    But when doing the same on the Mac Pro w/ the TBD, if froze during the update process.

    After waiting for a while I decide to force the shut down using the power button. Waited for a minute and tried to power the Mac Pro back on.

    It turned on and on the TBD showed the Apple logo and a status loading bar. The bar didn't get to complete and the TBD went black only with the mouse on the screen.

    I tried many times a hard-reboot. I unplugged all the cables from the Mac Pro (power, TBD, external HD, etc) and unplugged the ThunderBolt cable connecting the iMac to the TBD. Waited and plugged the TBD and tried to power on.

    Same as before, only the Apple logo.

    Then I tried to reset the RAM, no success. I was almost taking it to the Apple Store, when decided to use the the chat support from Apple.

    They suggested to me to reboot the Mac Pro in Safe Mode. It worked, the updated finished and the TBD w/ the Mac Pro was "working", just when scrolling down on folders, the screen was flickering.

    I restarted the computer normally, using the Apple Menu. After that everything is working just fine.

    Just one detail, when the Mac Pro was off (and before getting in contact with the Apple Chat Support), with the iMac on and connected to the TBD, I was able to use the TBD as a second monitor for the iMac.

  • by RetiredCodeMonkey,

    RetiredCodeMonkey RetiredCodeMonkey Nov 21, 2014 5:32 AM in response to Hans-Uwe Brackel
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 21, 2014 5:32 AM in response to Hans-Uwe Brackel

    I took my TBD (warranty expired nearly 2 years ago) to the Apple store yesterday- they were skeptical that the firmware update bricked the monitor and initially wanted to charge me $200 to replace the logic board.  I am 100% sure it was the firmware update that bricked it so I made my dissatisfaction very apparent.  The guy helping me checked with his manager, who then met with a couple of guys in the back, and then gave me a dissertation on why I shouldn't use the Apple Support Forums as an official diagnoses.  After the dissertation, the manager then agreed to fix the TBD for free.

     

    Wise decision on Apple's part- had they not agreed to fix it I would have paid for the repair with AMEX and then would have fought the charge with the credit card company.  If that didn't work I would have sued them in my local Small Claims Court.  What most people don't realize is that it is very easy to sue a big corporation in your local small claims court- because lawyers aren't allowed in small claims court the corporation has to send a layman to handle it.  The inconvenience as well as the cost for a big corporation to send a company representative to defend them almost always outweighs the cost of just settling the claim out of court.  Fortunately Apple did the right thing and agreed to fix my monitor so I don't have to go down that road- if you are one of the unfortunate ones Google "Suing Big Companies In Small Claims Court".

  • by brambo67,

    brambo67 brambo67 Nov 21, 2014 7:28 AM in response to RetiredCodeMonkey
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 21, 2014 7:28 AM in response to RetiredCodeMonkey

    Today I received a phone call by the senior Apple Support engineer. I am asked to wait untill Apple will come with a request to hand in the TBD for 'further research' into this problem (at their cost) I must say I am pleased with the fact they took the effort of contacting me. Of course this doesn't mean it is solved yet but it seems Apple is taking the problem serious by now. I inform again through this thread if I have received further guiding from Apple.

  • by hiscapness,

    hiscapness hiscapness Nov 21, 2014 10:33 AM in response to Hans-Uwe Brackel
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 21, 2014 10:33 AM in response to Hans-Uwe Brackel

    I took my display in yesterday to the Apple Store. It turns out that the 'All in One' cable (the one with the split Thunderbolt and power cables) was toast. The Genius Bar dude plugged a separate USB->TB cable into the back of the display and into the TB ports on my rMBP and everything worked (camera, sound, ports, display.) My display is under warranty so this is being replaced.

     

    So, a few things:

    1. I find it very odd that the cable 'just happened' to go bad immediately after a firmware update even though it worked perfectly to that point...
    2. you can test if your display works by using a USB -> Thunderbolt cable plugged into the back of the display's USB ports (my ports always worked, just the display was dead.) I know this is a random piece of cable to have around but you can try and it may save you some frustration.
    3. If you have multiple displays you can try swapping cables from a display that works to one that doesn't
    4. I don't know if this fix works if you simply replace the all-in-one cable - there may be internal damage caused by the update to the hardware wired to that cable internally that this 5-minute test did not show. But for a quick-and-dirty test this may help.
  • by Bigham16,

    Bigham16 Bigham16 Nov 21, 2014 12:15 PM in response to brambo67
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 21, 2014 12:15 PM in response to brambo67

    I to just received a call from Apple and they are willing to replace the monitor for a brand new one.  I was floored when I received the call.  Hats off to Apple for standing by their customers and products.  I will continue to support Apple.  Thank you!!

first Previous Page 3 of 6 last Next