No brightness control for Cinema Display

I resolved this issue and am posting fix in case anyone is using the Gefen DL-DVI to MDP with the same combniation. The EDID Mode on the device which prior to 10.8 could be set as the Gefen manual instructs (pg 9 of http://www.gefen.com/pdf/gtv-dvidl-2-mdp.pdf) to EDID Mode 2 (Apple 27") needs to be set instead to EDID Mode 3 (EDID Pass-Through) the brightness control returns without even a restart of any of the three devices -- when this is first done my Cinema screen defaulted 1920x1140 (intead of the full-screen 2560x1440 coming through on Mode 2) so this must be reset under Display Prefrences after switching.

I had the problem described using an LED Cinema display attached to a Mac Mini.

Was able to resolve by simply plugging in the USB cable connected to the display, as suggested in a previous post.

In my case, no reboot was required, and the birghtness and Ambient light controls appeared when System Preferences was opened.

I just found this great little app to control the brightness on my 27" Apple Cinema Display when attached to my PC or through Bootcamp:

http://jens.holstschumacher.dk/p/brightness-controller.html

http://www.imgbox.de/users/public/images/kHdaQ6CHaN.png

http://www.imgbox.de/users/public/images/VS0ZYFpyqu.png

This app allows your PC to control the 27" Apple Cinema Display ( auto brightness / brightness / turn off display) if you have one. It's just fantastic and works amazingly well!

without the USB connected I didn't get the brightness control. Once I connected the USB it appeared instantly....thx

With Mountain Lion this slider in display preferences went poof.

No possibility of changing brightness anymore, the keyboard keys don't work neither.

I have a 24" HD Cinema display.

same problem with me 😟 can some one please help?

Go to the App Store. There's an application called 'Shades'. It's a brightness control and sits in your menubar. It can control one or both monitors.

I have a second 24" Apple HD display and nothing I did could get the brightness control to show up. This app does the job very nicely. My main 27" display works fine so I have it set just for the 24".

One thing: If you're calibrating your monitors you have to quit the app while you're doing that, then turn it back on.

hi can you please send me the link or something of the app... as i looked at app store and there are couple of apps with "SHADE"

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23370/shades

There you go – it's even free.

Thank You gilletty!I was having the same issue and that solved my problem!

@tomhedge's solution worked for me - Windows 7 Pro, Boot Camp... plug in the USB, it will install the drivers, and then you can change the settings in a new "Brightness" tab in the Boot Camp Control Panel.

Cheers!

Thanks a lot for your help.

Just to let you know what worked for me.

I have a 17 in Macbook Pro (late late 2011) and a 27 in Cinema Display (not the Thunderbolt display). The solution to resolve the issue was to plug first the USB connector and then the Mini display connector. Then, everything works. If I plug the Mini display connector before the USB, then no brightness slider and no USB working on the back of the Cinema Display.

Hope it helps some of you.

Had the same problem with a 2011 17" Macbook Air and a 27" Cinema Display. No brightness control and nothing I could do to fix it. Running the fixes above (plugging in the USB, looking for software patches, etc.) did not work, nor did Shades. Had to lug the heavy display back to the Apple store and they ran some sort of software upgrade on it which fixed the problem. They said it was an upgrade that does not run automatically as part of the normal system updates but is a separate update that needs to be run for the display. Not an Apple geek so don't fully understand, but was definitely very unhappy that a $1,000 display does not work right after installation and needs to be unscrewed from the armature and lugged back down to Apple for something that should've been right from the start. This is the second time I'm having problems with the display within 2 months of purchase, 2nd time I had to unscrew and carry the super-heavy, super-expensive display back to Apple for servicing within 2 months of purchase, not to mention having spent hours online trying to determine a fix. Apple listened intently to my complaints but refused to give me anything other than fixing the display and allowing me to lug it back home. (Oh, they also offered me a 25% discount on a servicing plan going forward.)

Not nice, Apple. We expect better from you, and we're used to better from you.

This may not be relevant to most users now since my display is so old. I have a 20" Cinema Display - the plastic bezel type - purchased around 2003. Still using it as my only display. I lost use of the brightness and usb hub probably 6 or 7 years ago. It just stopped working one day and I tried different usb plugs on my mac pro, rebooting, etc. I thought it may have been related to an OSX update, but eventually wrote it off as a monitor hardware failure. I've been leaving the monitor usb cable unplugged ever since.

Since upgrading to OSX Lion I decided on a whim to try the monitor usb cable again. While the system was running I plugged the usb cable to the back of the computer and immediately heard some hard drive activity, as it was responding to the device. I tried the brightness controls on my keyboard and it worked again! The controls on the monitor bezel work also, and the monitor usb hub.

Maybe it was an OS issue that was fixed in Lion? In any case I'm glad to have it back.

10 year old monitor still good as new. I have picked up a slight backlight hum if not on full brightness, but I guess that is common.