Level 1

12 points

24" LED Display with 2011 15" MPB

Hey all,

I've had this 24" LED Cinema Display since it came out and have been using it with a 2010 MBP until now - I upgraded to a 2011 15" MPD (2.3 Core i7 with high-rest matte display) and now with this new MPD, I intermittently get the 24" LED display turning all black before going back to showing my display. It's happening pretty often. Is anyone else experiencing anything similar?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Feb 26, 2011 1:01 PM

758 replies

Apr 8, 2011 7:25 AM in response to DanRyb

The past few days the Cinema Display is having it bad.

The issue has been described now, over and over. The blackouts, the flickering. Mine are identical to every video out there, combination Early 2011 MBP and 24 inch Cinema Display.

I for one would still like to see these "most people" who got this solved by 10.6.7. Apple saying most did get it solved, to me, seems like just a strategy to stop the buzz that something indeed is wrong. Until proven otherwise.

Again, 24 inch Display is working like a charm with pre Early 2011 MBP's.

Here's to hoping this has become a real priority, and a solution in the very near future.

Good luck to those engineers working on it.

Apr 8, 2011 4:13 PM in response to th.effing

Just wanted to say that I am having the same early 2011 MacBook Pro 15" /24" cinema display flickering. The display worked fine with my mid-2010 model. 10.6.7 did not help.

Apr 10, 2011 4:39 PM in response to DanRyb

For those who are asking who 10.6.7 fixed the issue for - well not me.

In fact, I ordered my MBP 15" 2.2 (750GB, 8GB, high-res glossy) the moment the Online Apple Store opened for business when the new MBPs were announced. I have the 24" Cinema Display that my brother had been using successfully on a Mac Mini for about a year - never a flicker or a blackout with the Mini. I never once had the flickering or the black screen with my new MBP and used it successfully with the Cinema Display UNTIL I upgraded to 10.6.7 (2 days after it was released). I'm a print graphic designer (and have a huge freelance project that I work on at nights on this setup) so I absolutely KNOW I had no problem until 10.6.7. I had used the setup for hours (sometimes 10+) - never a flicker or a black screen. Since 10.6.7 I get the black screen and the flickering. I will say it isn't as often or bad as some of the reports that I've read here, but it is annoying. The only work around I've found is to not start my MBP with the Cinema Display connected to it. Once I'm logged in, then I plug in the display and I may get a 4 - 5 hours with no flicker or black screen. The other thing I found helps is to unplug the mini display port and then plug it back in. When I've done that, I get the flicker immediately upon plugging it back in - but no blackouts or further flickering until I shutdown.

I suppose my next step is to take everything into the Apple Store but in the meantime I figured I'd raise my hand and get added to this list of people with this problem.

suliko

Level 1

0 points

Apr 11, 2011 1:53 AM in response to DanRyb

I have also been having exactly the same problem with the new Thunderbolt port and the 24" led display. As with everyone else, I had never had any problems with my old 2009 15" MBP and the screen. The flickering, screen fragmentation and blackouts got so bad with the 2011 MBP that it has rendered, in my mind, the external screen useless. As I no longer have my 2009 MBP I have had to abandoned all attempts at using the 24" display until Apple produce a proper fix.

I happily concede that early adopters will always experience problems but this has gone on for too long already, and just because Apple have discontinued the 24" screen doesn't mean it is obsolete and shouldn't be supported. I irritates me hugely that a perfectly functional display, which costs significantly more than ones other brands (something that I would not ordinarily mind about since the cost is offset by the Apple displays being great to work with) is sitting doing nothing because Apple didn't properly test their new technologies.

Apr 14, 2011 6:01 AM in response to DanRyb

Is it simply a case of the GPU drivers needing some serious tweaking?

Apr 14, 2011 10:07 AM in response to El Presidente

Mostly GPU I'd suspect, and possibly the Thunderbolt I/O system (driver/firmware/etc).

It's been a week since I last spoke with Apple and still not a peep about this issue. It's very frustrating. We should be compensated for this somehow.

iFrodo

Level 1

45 points

Apr 17, 2011 2:04 AM in response to msinanian

I brought my screen to Genius Bar, and even though they couldn't reproduce it with the 2008 MBP the genius had, they decided to replace the motherboard of the screen anyway, mainly because I said I had the issue also on a Mac Mini 2009 and a MacBook 2008 (even though less frequent).

Sadly I couldn't verify if the repair fixed the issue with the Mac Mini 2009 or the MacBook 2008, as I don't have them anymore, but for sure it didn't fix it at all for the MacBook Pro 2011. As I can't try it with a Mac Mini 2009 or other NVidia 9400M based laptops, I can't tell if the repair did fix anything, and it may still be a screen (but rather firmware related that hardware related) issue.

For sure it's not an easy issue, as it appears only with some Macs, and particularly the MacBooks Pro 2011. I really hope Apple will provide a fix soon.

tinbie

Level 1

11 points

Apr 18, 2011 4:22 AM in response to DanRyb

there is a more detailed topic about the problem: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1902288?tstart=0

The issue isn't just with the MBP (early 2011) it's been a problem since 2009 and apple isn't coming out with a fix. 😮

Apr 20, 2011 12:19 PM in response to DanRyb

I'm another 2011 MacBook Pro 15" / 24" Cinema Display owner who is not happy right now.

Constant jittery screen. No problems with the display attached to my 2011 MacBook Air . . .

Please fix this Apple!

lucsad

Level 1

0 points

Apr 21, 2011 6:40 AM in response to DanRyb

I've also been suffering the intermittent blackout and jittering screen throughout the day, every day since they replaced my malfunctioning 2010 MBP with a new 2011 model in March. Yesterday, something new occurred -- the display (approx. 1 year old) split into 3 or 4 quadrants and wouldn't go back to normal unless I rebooted the MBP. I thought perhaps it was a one-off, but it just did the same thing again this morning. It may be time to just unplug the monitor and use the laptop standalone until they resolve the problems between the two devices.

Apr 22, 2011 5:16 PM in response to lucsad

You don't have to reboot just disconnect and reconnect your mDP cable.

It is mighty annoying that they haven't fixed i haven't heard of a 10.6.8 seed or anything of the sort. Aren't there people using the 2011 MBPs with LED ACDs in the whole Apple campus cos they should've noticed and thus have a sense of urgency in fixing this problem.

Apr 22, 2011 9:10 PM in response to El Presidente

As El Pres said, simply unplugging and replugging the mDP cable will temporarily fix the display, but it's ludicrous to have to constantly fiddle with that cable to have the screen stabilize for 5 minutes at a time.

I've voiced this to Apple customer relations recently: this is unacceptable for an Apple product to not get along with another Apple product like this, especially when most of their products are known to be reliable and "just work."

Customer relations said they are not replacing 24"s for 27"s because they know for a fact engineering is working on the issue. This just seems to be one of those really tough software engineering problems that they haven't been able to crack as easily. They threw a few highly restrictive e-coupons for the Apple Store at me and sent me on my way.

If the soon-to-be-released (soon being a hopeful word here) doesn't fix the issue, THEN they'll be replacing 24 for 27s.

Hang in everybody. Help is on the way, apparently.

Apr 24, 2011 5:09 PM in response to DanRyb

Got the same problem here as well.
2009 MBP worked flawlessly, it startet with 2011 MBP Thunderbolt.

Keep Posting everybody! Create as much buzz as possible to create urge.

It should have been tested throughout their whole product range.

Obviously they didn't.

This has got to be TOP OF THE LIST, I'm really disappointed, slowly converting to angryness.

Resetting the PRAM did linder the problem a bit.

Update 10.6.7 didn't do anything.

I thought I might have been an issue with the switching GPU's, but turning of didn't do a thing neither.

Quote: "This is unacceptable for an Apple product to not get along with another Apple product like this, especially when most of their products are known to be reliable and "just work."

Hope it is fixed in 10.6.8, hope to see the seed a.s.a.p.

Apr 24, 2011 11:17 PM in response to DanRyb

Same problem for me, in France. Random black screen and flickering with new mbp 15" core i7 connected 24" ACD. All was OK with old MBP 13" 2009. I tried to use external Power supply for the MBP with ACD connected. Seems to be better, no flickering yet....Did anyone try this?

Apr 24, 2011 11:28 PM in response to yvesfrombuc

I've tried using an external (non-ACD) power supply while connecting only the mDP cable to the ACD. This might prevent blackouts/flickering/jitters for a bit longer, but I assure you, they return, and return with a vengeance!

Overall, it's hard to tell which test conditions change the "symptoms" because they appear to be sporadic. Sometimes blackouts don't happen for an hour, then they start hitting every 5 seconds. What determines this, we don't know.

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24" LED Display with 2011 15" MPB