30" HD Cinema Display with Mini Port to Dual Link DVI Adapter

Whoever buys the new unibody MBP's announced today at WWDC needs to test with this cable and report back! Hopefully, it's not the case with the new model.

I bought a new MacBook Pro last week and I have the same problem with the cable and my 30" Cinema display. I guess I will get on the phone again...

Update.

I talked with a couple of Apple techs today. Very good service. The upshot is that they acknowledge this problem (I pointed them to this forum), and after me hooking up two Apple Cinema displays to a new MacBook Pro and my Firewire PPC, they agreed to mail me a new "mini displayport to dual-link maccs" cable. I will let you all know how that works out.

would appreciate the update when you get the new adapter....

Has this problem been fixed with 10.5.7?

I was planning to buy a new 30" ACD to use it with my Late 2008 15" Unibody MBP, but after reading this thread I'm very afraid.

hey. apple sent me a new Dual-Link to MiniDisplay port adapter (the $99 adapter) with firmware version 1.02 and everything works just fine now. no flicker anymore. the previous adapter i had was firmware version 1.01. if you buy an adapter, just ask to make sure it has firmware version 1.02, or if you already have one, call apple and ask for a new one with the newer firmware already installed on it. hope this helps. good luck!

by the way, you can check the firmware of your adapter by going to the Apple System Profiler and selecting "Graphics/Displays" on the left hand side. when you have your display connected via the adapter, that screen should say "Adapter Firmware Version: ----" at the very bottom of the list right below "Adapter Type:"

Thank you very much for your quick reply.

Can anybody else confirm that the issues are fixed by the adapters with firmware 1.02? I really don't want to buy a display that doesn't work 100%.

Yep it works!!!
just went to switch my version 1.01 to a new adapter 1.02 and it works. The only thing is that the packaging does not show the updates on firmware, so you have to swap it out, after explaining forever what your problem is, and hope that you get the updated version. If not, swap again.

The Genius guy at Portland Pioneer place apple store was really cool and curious. Gotta love apple employees for that. He was like come back and let me know if that worked i'm curious.

Is there anybody monitoring this topic who has the new 1.0.2 adapter and is still experiencing problems with an Apple 30" monitor? Over in the MacBook Pro forum there's a long discussion (10 pages) on the same topic on conjunction with the MacBook Pro unibody laptops, and one person reported no success with the 1.0.2 adapter.

How about posting a link to the thread instead of making us all look for it. I couldn't find it.

I bought the adapter cable on Saturday along with a new MBP 15. I didn't have exactly the same problems as others here. Instead, my 30 inch Apple Cinema Display (bought in early 2008) would "blink". About once an hour, the monitor would go black for about a third of a second and then go back to normal. I called apple yesterday afternoon and told them about the problem and pointed out the numerous complaints on the Apple Store reviews online as well as the several lengthy forum threads on their Apple Support forum. I mentioned how some people have claimed success with the new 1.02 firmware version of the adapter cable. They said they would send me a new cable in the mail.

Less than 24 hrs later, the cable was already at my front door! I just plugged it in and it is indeed the newer 1.02 version. Interestingly, the letter with the package said not to return the old cable. I guess they realize that it is a bad part and they can't refurbish it, so they would rather that the consumer dispose of it rather than paying for shipping on a part they will probably throw away.

It hasn't been long enough to tell whether the new cable has fixed the problem permanently, but so far, so good.

P.S. for the person who requested it, here's the link to the other discussion thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1837465

yeah, they told me to keep the old cable too. i find it interesting that they do not want a $99 adapter back so they can update the firmware and sell it as refurbished. i was told that the cost for apple to have the customer ship the old cable back to them isn't worth it. the only thing i can deduce from this is that their profit margin on the $99 adapter is huge.

I find it interesting that they do not want a $99 adapter back so they can update the firmware and sell it as refurbished. i was told that the cost for apple to have the customer ship the old cable back to them isn't worth it. the only thing i can deduce from this is that their profit margin on the $99 adapter is huge.

The firmware may be in ROM, instead of flash memory, so updating it would require replacing the chip. The cost to do that might be more than the price of the adapter.

never thought about that 🙂