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acreason Author

Level 1

8 points

M1 13" Macbook Pro loses external monitor connection

I was using an old Thunderbolt Display with my M1 MBP 13" and it started having issues and would pink screen periodically. Then I switched to another display, because I read here that those old Thunderbolt Displays were problematic for the M1 Macs (I had proper adapters).

Now I am using an LG display with an Anker dock and the problems are weirder. I have to restart my MBP multiple times per day to get through the issues. It does not matter if I plug the monitor directly into the Mac. It does not matter if I use the HDMI cable to the Anker Dock to the Mac.

If I am using the direct to monitor connection, the monitor speaker will randomly start a long beep when I come back to my desk or be pink and fuzzy background snow.

I get the pink fuzzy background snow or a dark screen when I go through the dock.

In both instances, the MBP still thinks the monitor is active, so everything has to be unplugged, rebooted, logged in, then plugged back in to work again. I suspect in some cases it is the energy settings on the power adapter, and I have modified those to not put the hard disk to sleep, and extended it to three hours.

The problem is that it also happens when I am actively using the computer. I'm grateful for suggestions. I have only had this for a few months and it is the worst Mac experience I have had.

Posted on Sep 24, 2021 10:44 AM

Top-ranking reply

acreason Author

Level 1

8 points

Posted on Sep 28, 2021 7:14 AM

Hi Soozie_J215,

I read your KB article, and it was irrelevant to my situation. The LG is the second monitor I have tried, and the LG monitor works fine with an Intel Mac and Windows machine. I narrowed the problem to the Anker Dock I was using. For some reason, the Mac was not able to negotiate both the monitor and the dock. I mainly need the dock for the RJ45 connection, power, and display. The old Apple Thunderbolt display had different issues, so I now think the problem was unrelated.

It looks like the problem is the Anker dock.

Thank you for your response, the KB article, and feedback.

Regards,

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M1 13" Macbook Pro loses external monitor connection

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