FWBurr

Q: thunderbolt display goes black, forcing manual restart

I have a 27" TB display with AMD FirePro D500 3072 MB Graphics connected to my MacPro (2013) on El Capitan (v. 10.11.3).  The TB Firmware is up to date.

 

Occasionally, while in Safari, the TB display will unexpectedly go black and stay there.  I have to power down the MP manually and then reboot.  I used to think this was a Parallels problem (where I was running a virtual Windows 10 machine), so I have shut down Parallels unless I specifically have to use Windows.  Today, with Parallels shut down, while logging into a website (msevensoftware.com), the TB display went black.  Again I had to manually shut down the MP, then restart to clear.

Thunderbolt Display (27-inch), OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on May 5, 2016 9:33 AM

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Q: thunderbolt display goes black, forcing manual restart

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Carolyn Samit,Apple recommended

    Carolyn Samit Carolyn Samit May 6, 2016 6:03 PM in response to FWBurr
    Level 10 (120,569 points)
    Apple Watch
    May 6, 2016 6:03 PM in response to FWBurr

    Update your Mac to v10.11.4.

     

    Click your Apple  top left in your screen.

     

    From the drop down menu click Software Update

     

    Your Mac may restart several times during the update process. That's normal.

     

     

    If the screen still goes back after the update, reset the System Management Controller (SMC)

  • by FWBurr,

    FWBurr FWBurr May 16, 2016 1:05 PM in response to Carolyn Samit
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Desktops
    May 16, 2016 1:05 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

    Thanks, Carolyn.  I did the software update, and that was no problem.  When this happened again a few days later (screen went black and I had to manually shut down and restart), I then did the SMC reset.  Fine, for two weeks.  It happened again today.  It always happens in Safari (today, in eBay, which is unusual, since I hardly ever go to that website).

  • by Smokerz,

    Smokerz Smokerz May 17, 2016 2:23 PM in response to FWBurr
    Level 6 (9,699 points)
    May 17, 2016 2:23 PM in response to FWBurr

    EXternal devices can cause that issue also. If you have externals disconnect all of them and retry one connection at a time assuming you will have no issue to start.

  • by FWBurr,

    FWBurr FWBurr May 18, 2016 4:40 AM in response to Smokerz
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Desktops
    May 18, 2016 4:40 AM in response to Smokerz

    Aside from two external hard drives (for backup), the only external connected to my TB display is an Apple SuperDrive.  I will try this out.  Unfortunately, the display going black only happens once or twice every three weeks or so.  Thanks for staying on with me.

  • by FWBurr,

    FWBurr FWBurr Jun 18, 2016 10:59 AM in response to Carolyn Samit
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Desktops
    Jun 18, 2016 10:59 AM in response to Carolyn Samit

    I did all this (in fact, I'm now on 10.11.5 OS X).  The problem seemed to go away, but it re-occurred yesterday, and again today.  I have absolutely nothing plugged into the TB Display.  It's gone from inconvenient to annoying.  Yesterday, I was not online, but using Adobe Lightroom.  Today, I was online and responding to a Facebook post.  There doesn't seem to be any consistent pattern to this problem.

  • by tbirdvet,Helpful

    tbirdvet tbirdvet Jul 11, 2016 9:37 AM in response to FWBurr
    Level 4 (3,003 points)
    Jul 11, 2016 9:37 AM in response to FWBurr

    Try these two:

    1- Do a PRAM reset

    2- Unplug TBD from wall for 2 minutes then plug back in

     

    It is also possible you have a bad TB cable.  Not sure why you only have the issue when on Safari.  You could validate by using another browser for a few days and see if the issue remains.

  • by FWBurr,

    FWBurr FWBurr Jul 11, 2016 9:37 AM in response to tbirdvet
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 11, 2016 9:37 AM in response to tbirdvet

    Thanks, tbirdvet!  The issue did not present itself again since your email of June 18 until today.  I was not using my Mac Pro for anything (downloading a software update on my MP Pro); in fact, I even turned off WiFi on the Mac Pro so as to give the MB Pro maximum bandwidth on our network.  The TB display went dark, I pulled the plug from the back of my UPS, waited a few minutes, plugged it back in and voila`!  We'll see what the future brings.

     

    Fred