Q: MacPro cylinder: Dual 30" TB displays + HDMI=success
I was trying to get my MacPro to run three displays by using two of the Thunderbolt ports and the HDMI port. Nothing was working, I could only get one TB screen and the HDMI to work at the same time.
After reading everything here on the forum, the results of other users seemed to be almost random and that cannot be. So I decided to try a set of binary experiments. I started by plugging in the HDMI/TV set and then one TB at a time into each of the TB ports, carefully noting the combinations of ports. I hit upon only one combination of all three that works. I have no idea why. I have no idea if your machine will work the same way. I have no idea if this works with adapters of any kind or any other displays except Apple's 30"TB.
Looking at the back of the cylinder, the TB ports are not numbered, but let's assign them: starting in the upper left (when looking at the back of the machine) and traveling down to the lower right as 1,2,3,4,5,6. One is under the mic input, two is under the headphone jack, five is above the HDMI port, and six is over the ethernets.
The only combination that works on my cylinder to power three displays, including the HDMI, is to have Thunderbolt displays plugged into TB ports #4 and #5. That's it. No other combinations with the HDMI will work on my machine.
Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1), fcp forum elitist all spelling errors are done on the iPad
Posted on Jan 22, 2015 4:00 PM
