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24 inch LED cinema Display momentarily goes black

I have a 24inch LED Cinema Display attached to the mini-display port of a ATI Radeon HD 4870, with a 23inch Cinema Display attached to the other port. The 23 inch is fine but the 24 inch display every so often goes BLACK for a second or two. I thought it was the display and had it replaced but it's happening with the replacement. Perhaps the video card, or even the mini-display port on the card? Anyone having this issue or have any ideas? I appreciate your help.

2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, Mac OS X (10.5.7), 8GB ram

Posted on Jun 25, 2009 3:23 AM

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84 replies

Aug 9, 2009 6:17 AM in response to Motionworks

I have the same problem here on a Mac Pro 2,66 GHz Quad and a NVIDIA GeForce GT 120.

The problem is: the signal cable is way too short (only about 1m). After having lots of discussions with Apple support about this issue, Apple just told me to buy an extension cable. The only cable available in Germany comes from Dr. Bott, so I bought their 1m extension cable,

My screen sometimes went black before installing this cable, but with this cable installed, things got worse. Now, the Cinema Display goes black one time per minute approx.

It's just a shame that Apple completely ignores that the signal cable is too short for many people that put the display on top and their Mac below the desk...

Dec 15, 2009 1:56 AM in response to Motionworks

Hi, i'm having the same annoying problem. I have a macbook pro (jan 2009) attached and Snow Leopard updated 10.6.2.

Sometimes randomly audio stops to work on 24" Led Cinema Display, even if in System Preferences the sound is on the correct option. Sometimes a momentary black screen that turns on automatically after 2 seconds. It's difficult to find a solution, because it happens randomly.

Reading posts here, I tried to unplug the usb, tried to remove the usb hub attached rear the display, tried to change the plug from UPS to the wall socket.

Now everything works, but... how long?

Dec 15, 2009 8:21 AM in response to Francob

We purchased two new 24" Apple Cinema Displays a few weeks ago along with a new MacBook Pro 15" 2.66GHz. We are using the Cinema Display's built-in mini display port to connect it to the MacBook Pro. Within a few days of setting up the computer, we've encountered the following intermittent faults:
1. Cinema Display flashes black (completely) for a couple of milliseconds;
2. horizontal white lines (1 pixel to 100ish pixels high) flash across Cinema Display.

The MacBook Pro can go for hours with no problem at all and then start a fit of flickering. The MacBook Pro's internal monitor is not affected by any of this. The problem occurs with the MacBook Pro attached to either of the two new Cinema Displays.

We reported the fault and Apple who provided a replacement MacBook Pro. The new computer is doing the exact same thing. We raised it again with Applecare yesterday and installed a Cinema Display firmware update (OS X 10.6.2). The flickering stopped for the rest of the day, but today it's started flickering again!

We also have a one year old MacBook Pro 15" 2.4GHz running OSX 10.5.8 which works perfectly (no flickering or cutouts) with both Cinema Displays.

Apple have now assigned an Engineer to our case and asked us to install some monitoring software (Capture Data / TimingSnoop). I'll update this post if/when Apple resolve the problem.

Feb 3, 2010 8:41 AM in response to Motionworks

Hi,
I have this issue on my 24" LED, new in Dec, connected to a new 13"MBP. I've been back and forth with Apple, testing various scenarios. Anyway, they are hoping to release a patch within the month that may address this now that several users have reported the issue.
Of note -
The laptop screen does not go black along with the 24".
The problem was non-stop the morning after I was unkind in my removal the night before and subsequent reattaching of cables to the display on return. It made 'testing' really easy, since it was happening 12x a minute. Redoing made it go back to 'normal', several 'blackouts' a day.
Less often than the screen going black, I do occasionally have a streak of pixel static horizontally.
Fingers crossed on the forthcoming patch working for us all!
(none of the above bothers me as much as seeing the reflection of my life in the mirror-like glass on this display!!)

24 inch LED cinema Display momentarily goes black

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