periodic Dual-link display problem with new adapter

Apple never responds. Ever. So don't wait for one. And they regularly delete threads. Anything that puts the Apple brand in a bad light (and has traction - like 5+ pages) usually gets chopped.

it's a policy I don't agree with, but they the only game in town for me right now.

I just had this "screen issue" happen yesterday. I am also having some mild screen flicker now and then. Though I think the flicker is dealt with in another thread. Seems a problem with the higher end chip.

In case anyone is curious, I upgraded to 10.5.7 earlier today and had my first glitch since then, so the problem is still not resolved.

6 months, no contact from anyone to indicate that they even notice...pretty dismal failure. I guess there just aren't enough people with 30" monitors to matter.

Fixed typo.

Rob, that's really discouraging.

I also just upgraded 10 10.5.7 and the issue is still present 😟

This is really frustrating. I spent a lot of money on my 30" monitor, and it worked great with my 2.5 year old MacBook Pro with a standard dual link DVI cable. Now I get a new 17" macbook pro with a supposedly better display port that requires a $99 box of junk to hang off my pretty computer, and I have nothing but troubles. I hate having to unplug and plug back in my video cable 3-10 times a day. There just doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to the failures. I won't buy another 30" monitor from Apple until this problem gets resolved. It certainly makes apple hardware look bad to have the screen flick every few minutes and every hour or so have it not recover from the screen flicker.

Agreed. And I don't expect a fix anytime soon. I think it's in the adapter. And the port itself. It's a power issue.

Ouch. So if this is the case then presumably there will be no reliable 30" monitor support without a hardware rev.

What is the source of this information?

unfortunately, 10.5.7 did not cure this problem.

I am still getting this exact problem on a Macbook 13" unibody with the dual-link adapter, randomly of course. nowadays, it is about twice a day (clamshell mode). A sleep-and-awake cures it.

I believe this is a driver issue for the following reason: in 6 months, I observed the same symptoms twice under an OSX Mac Pro machine. obviously, it does not have the dual-link issue. that is, the same half-channel corruption. that is, much much rarer, but still possible.

I would be thrilled if apple would issue at least a small app that just reset the geforce device. it should be much faster than a sleep-awake cycle. or does anyone know of a program that accomplishes this?

/iaw

I finally got an answer from Apple, and I'm crossing my fingers that it works. The firmware in the Mini Displayport to Dual-Link DVI adapter needs to be updated. The one I had was 1.01. 1.02 is now available. The bad news is the firmware cannot be upgraded. You have to take your adapter in and swap it for a new one with the new firmware.

To determine what version you have, go to the Apple menu, then choose "About This Mac." Click the "More Info..." button, which will open the System Profiler app. Under "Hardware" on the left side of the window, select "Graphics/Displays." Scroll down to the section for your external display and look for some entries like

Adapter Type: Mini DisplayPort To Dual-Link DVI Adapter
Adapter Firmware Version: 1.02

If you have 1.01, you need to exchange it for 1.02. At the Apple store, make sure you run this check again to ensure the new one they give you has the latest firmware. The version is not printed on the adapter itself or on the box it comes in. You have to do this check to be sure.

I've had my new 1.02 adapter for half a day so far and have not encountered the snow issue.

Well, so much for that theory. Late on the first day of using my new 1.02 adapter I have a worse problem than I had with 1.01. It looks like the two image channels are now 100+ pixels off instead of one or two.

Even an iPhone's relatively low resolution fixed focus camera can capture the effect now: http://twitpic.com/6mwe5/full

I guess it's wait for 1.03 now?

-D

Yeah it figures. ****.

Whoever buys the new unibody MBP's announced today at WWDC needs to test this cable and report back! Hopefully, the Dual-link adapter will not screw up with this new model.

Hi I have a week old Macbook Pro 13 (first time mac user and I like it alot!).

Today I purchased a mini displayport to dual dvi adapter to use it with my HP LP3065 30'' screen.

When I got back from lunch there was static snow all over my screen.

Removing the displayport cable from my mac and reinsert it did solve the static and my screen is now normal again.

I can see no other graphicall glitches, the quality seams good, but I guess some further testing is needed to see get the distorsion bug. I will report back when I know more.

Hi everyone, I did not go through the whole thread yet so this may already have been reported.

I got the problem too (firmware 1.01), but I also installed a dual boot with linux, and guess what ? No problem at all, not a flicker, not a loss of sync for a few days. This isn't to brag around or be all like "here it works fine !", but I guess if everything is ok under linux, the dual link adapter and its firmware may not be the source of our problem in OSX.

Just hoping this may help push things in the right direction.

Message was edited by: bleader

If I recall other reports, the adaptor also works just fine in Bootcamp. So there might be some link between the OS X and the problem. For a while we all hoped 10.5.7 would fix things, but it did not. Still waiting...