MacBook Pro M4 with thunderbolt 5 and portable monitor

So after some further testing, for my external monitors, the UPerfect z14, it did not matter what ports on my Mac I used however, I switched the ones on the monitors I use and it seems if I use the same ones that are in line, one monitor does not get the required power. When I rolled the ports on the monitors that the cable is plugged into the other monitor powered on no issue. Again, I was having the same issues as shown in the first picture but it has now resolved without using a power source and HDMI mini.

Bumping this. Still facing the issue on the Arzopa Z1RC - quite frustrating. Please keep reporting this to Apple guys. Product Feedback - Apple

For sake of argument, have you taken your Mac to a Best Buy to see if any other monitors work better?

It could be there is a needed firmware update, or something has worn.

For sake of argument, have you made a copy of an older operating system to see if indeed it is the OS update which is incompatible as you claim?

You can use internet recovery to install an older OS on a separate partition of your Mac, the OS that shipped with the Mac.

I’ve got a similar problem, but with a M2 pro Mac mini vs a M4 pro Mac mini

Same monitors, same cables. (Thunderbolt 4 cables) Works fine with the M2 pro, Mac mini powers both monitors, but M4 pro Mac mini won’t even power one of them. 

Thanks for the info Grant, but I can’t seem to find any reports of how much power my monitor is requiring. 

The first picture shows my M2 pro, which although is powering my monitor, the only reports are of a Keyboard requiring 100 mA, and a mouse requiring 100 mA. 

The second picture shows my M4 pro, which shows a keyboard requiring 98 mA. My M4 is connected to the same monitor but is being powered separately. If I was to disconnect the external power I couldn’t see anything even if there was something to see. 

If I click on Thunderbolt/USB4 I get the same result as dragos, No device connected

[Edited by Moderator]

Same problem. I had a Macbook Pro M2 Pro, used with my portable display, worked flawlessly. Got this Macbook Pro M4 Pro now, and with same display cable and same portably display, it doesn't work. Portable display states "No Signal".

Rather that fruitlessly post what cable and portable display I am using, likely shouldn't matter: it worked with my M2 Pro MBP, so I feel via backwards combatibility should work with this new M4 Pro MBP.

DougB851 wrote:

Grant I recently purchased a MB Pro 16 M4 with a Max chip. I was under the belief that Thunderbolt 5 was a standard for this configuration. However, the hardware listed on the machine delivered shows all three ports as Thunderbolt 4. Went to Apple Store to look and all of their M4 Max and Pro units also showed Thunderbolt 4.

Have you seen this elsewhere? Has anyone purchased a machine that shows a Thunderbolt 5 in the hardware overview?

Please advise. Thank you.

M4 Pro and M4 Max

• Three Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) ports with support for:
• Charging
• DisplayPort
• Thunderbolt 5 (up to 120Gb/s)
• Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
• USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)

MagSafe 3

Thunderbolt 5

3.5 mm headphone jack

SDXC

Thunderbolt 5

HDMI

source:

MacBook Pro - Tech Specs - Apple

NB> ThunderBolt 5, as I mentioned above, is NO DIFFERENT from earlier versions of Thunderbolt. ThunderBolt-5 can ONLY provide faster speeds when talking to other genuine ThunderBolt-5 devices, of which there are essentially NONE at this writing.

lindowmac wrote:

I will say though USB4 =/= Thunderbolt 4.

Yes. This. My understanding is that

• USB4 host ports can optionally support USB4 40 Gbps transfers.
• USB4 host ports can optionally support Thunderbolt Alt Mode. While the USB4 specification is based upon Thunderbolt 3, it is also possible to implement Thunderbolt 4 or Thunderbolt 5.
• Thunderbolt 3 support does not automatically imply USB4 support. There are many Intel Macs that support Thunderbolt 3, but that predate USB4.
• Thunderbolt 4 came after Thunderbolt 3 and USB4, and Intel has attempted to use the Thunderbolt 4 specs and certification requirements to force cleanups, in the way of making once-optional features mandatory on equipment that is Thunderbolt-4-certified.

USB-C Power Delivery provides a mechanism to negotiate the delivery of power in either direction.

It doesn’t mandate that devices be willing to provide power, though. It only provides a negotiation mechanism and a standard for power delivery for those that do want to provide it.

You seem to be confusing your desire to power a display off the MBP’s battery for a standards based mandate that the MBP must provide that power. And you keep refusing to help people with any specifics that might help someone to figure out what is the case.

Same problem with an MNN portable monitor.

I have an older MacBook Pro from 2019. I used the specific Apple branded Thunderbolt 5 cable I bought with my new MR Pro to connect to my portable monitor. Works fine. So the cable is fine and backward compatible.

Apparently, my monitor doesn't support Thunderbolt 5.

But here's the goofy part that makes no sense. I connected my M4 Pro to the same monitor using an HDMI cable. Nothing.

So, now I think it's the chip or some OS setting.

Maddening!

How is it possible that this isn't a a massive issue at Apple right now requiring an emergency upgrade?

Were you using BOTH displays as Hardware-accelerated displays? or was one or the other a DisplayLink or other type of "fake" display?

Did you install the same Driver software you had on the other machine or previous version of macOS?

VikingOSX wrote:

All of the M4 MBP 16-in configurations on Apple's Online Store show three TB5 ports in the configuration. All of the M4 MBP 14-in configurations show three TB4 ports.

All MacBook Pros with plain M4 chips have three Thunderbolt 4 ports. These are entry-level MacBook Pros and Apple only offers them in the 14" screen size.

All MacBook Pros with M4 Pro and M4 Max chips have three Thunderbolt 5 ports, whether the chassis has a 14" screen or a 16" one. These ports support both Thunderbolt 5 and Thunderbolt 4.

Fine but the original q was if others are having the same problem and is Is it display , Mac, hardware or sf issue. To quote you new ports should be reversed compatible. A small vendor managed to solve the problem because one user of there display contacted them they identified the problem and solved it wit a firmware update on their side. As you suggest Apple spends huge amounts of money and a big big engendering team to solve problems. Why is it still not solved as many of you guys have contacted Apple support a lot of times ? Apple changed something new port as it took a simple firmware update to make the portable display to work again why can’t apple update their port firmware so their users can go back to their work without having to use a lot of work arounds.

maybe with your knowledge and time spent here can formulate a nice bug report to help your engendering friends who are to busy reading bug reports. And don’t agree with you that Apple does not read or scan these forums. I think they do. Maybe as a representative or as a user community member.