mid 2011 imac 27" not sending video via mini displayport to tv

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Level 1

11 points

mid 2011 imac 27" not sending video via mini displayport to tv

I have a mid 2011 imac and a Mitsubishi 1080p 73" tv set with hdmi, my imac has 2 thunderbolt ports (Thunderbolt 1 i believe) that I thought would put out signal to the tv via hdmi using a mini displayport to hdmi cord.

I have a mini display port to hdmi cord and verified with my 2015 macbook air it does mirror the laptop to tv, and that works perfectly, and the cord is obviously working, but when I plug that into the imac to do the same thing it is just a black blank screen.

In the imac I went thru and updated software, tried different display setting options (all that were available), tried restarting the imac after connecting the cord, I just get no signal to tv.

Is there anything I need to activate or do in the imac to send the signal out that thunderbolt port to the tv? Being a 2011, is there a particular cord i need besides minidisplay port to hdmi to send signal from the imac to tv?

I guess when it worked with the macbook air i assumed I could do the same with the imac but so far all i get is a blank screen and I am not sure what else to check or do...

Appreciate any suggestions...

iMac 27″, macOS 10.12

Posted on Dec 3, 2024 9:35 AM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

144,414 points

Dec 3, 2024 9:52 AM in response to FTLOSM

Please read Use your TV as a display with Mac - Apple Support to learn the correct connection method. Of course this assumes everything on the iMac is working perfectly so if your internal display has failed on the iMac due to a failed GPU (it's a pretty old computer!!!) then using your TV won't work either.

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Answer 2

FTLOSM Author

Level 1

11 points

Dec 3, 2024 11:14 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Seems like what I am trying to do should work, the iMac is older but has never had an issue, never even used the Thunderbolt outputs before, cord is working on the macbook air to tv, so I think the cord is ok, I just wasn't sure if there was something I had to do on the iMac to enable the ports to mirror the iMac to tv via hdmi or if I had to have it on a specific resolution setting (tried all).

I figured it was something simple I am just not doing right to enable the port to mirrir or being older if I needed a specific adapter to work with first gen thunderbolt but from what I had read mini DisplayPort should work to push video signal to tv with an adapter/cable.

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