24" LED Display with 2011 15" MPB

Count my in on this one as well with my 15' MacBook Pro (2011). I have a 24" cinema display. The external display works fine when my 13' MacBook Pro (mid 2009) is connected to the display.

Would anyone have the slightest idea if Apple support/engineering is checking this thread?

Yes, I know: this is a user-to-user forum, Apple doesn't officially check these threads.

But for an issue like this, c'mon man!! We're dying out here!

An Apple support rep told me a few phone calls back that:

"iPhone 3G and 3GS users had a similar agony to deal with when iOS 4 came out and it slowed down their devices and really messed things up for them. they had to wait for months till it was resolved, and Apple refused to repair or replace those devices."

Yea, let's see... how much could you buy an iPhone 3G or 3GS when iOS 4 debuted in Summer 2010? Carriers had em for $50-100 subsidized, and probably anywhere between $200-400 for aftermarket unlocked devices (new).

Now let's look at our issue: Early-2011 MacBook Pro's with dedicated graphics cards cost at least $1,700+, and our high-end displays cost at least $900+ !! (Counting EDU/BIZ/GOV discounts here too)

We've invested over $2,600 for products that simply don't work, and Apple's only response is: just wait! No. Do something better for us! What can we do at this point?

Basically, support guy's comparison wasn't apples-to-apples (no pun intended) at all! We're getting shafted over here, big time!

I just got my 2011 15" MBP in with my 24" cinema display back from repair. They tried replacing the all in one cable on the display and that didn't make a difference. I then sent it in again and after a week, they gave it back to me saying that they can't fix it although Apple is aware of the problem and plan to solve it in an upcoming software update. Hope it works or else I'm selling this stupid monitor.

Nice, I pay $3000 for a computer that:

#1 runs way to hot

and even worse:

#2 screen flickers every five minutes once it starts.

Pure BS from Apple not coming with an official statement on this. Basically I'm now sitting with an awesome machine and can't do my work without rebooting and/or plugging the display port in and out every hour. All this is working just fine with my other late 2008 MPB so the monitor is not to blame.

I'll never buy a Apple product this early again.

Same to me. I remember my time as a IBM/Lenovo user: If there was a failed part, i called the support and i became an answer (and a new part with ups the next day!). But the apple support: Yes, we knew the problem and apple will bring a update soon (soon? it takes now 6 weeks!!!!!). Sorry for my bad english :-)

let´s hope, that something happens......the new thinkpads are very nice!!!!!

Yep, same problem here. Interestingly, my older 30" cinema display does not exhibit this problem.

Now I had the same problem too...
It stopped for now after I did some video compression (coding to mp4) and the whole machine run on full speed.
That means 800% CPU on the clock for about 2 hours.(the indicator shows 8 cores, though the machine is quad, but every core is able to do 2 tasks.)

Funny enough the i7 is still workable...
My MacBook 17" run pretty warm, but not really hot. This MacBook is a lot noisier in fan noise than my previous late 2009, due to the used technology this might be a good thing though... (cooler),

Anyway, after this action, things are fine now.
My theory: Some electronic components are picked on the wrong edge of their tolerance.
(most electronic components behave this way.) By heating up these components once the components get more "set" and change a bit. This might be just enough to approache the design value.
But still, although working for now, BUT the problem might come back again, and must be concidered as a design error. A bad thing, because this is very hard to solve with a software update.

John

Interesting! How long has it been problem-free since you stressed your CPU— a couple hours or a couple days before posting? I'm willing to try anything at this point. Thanks.

John, thank you for your input, however, a few counter-points:

• The problem seems strictly confined to using Apple's 24" ACD as an external display. All other external displays, say those made by Dell, Acer, HP, LG, Samsung, etc... do not exhibit this problem with the new MacBook Pros.
• Even when those machines are pushed to their max when outputting to those other displays, they don't have the black-outs.
• This therefore seems to be an ACD-specific problem and not related to the output capabilities of the machine having to reach the design value.
• I get what you're saying about a potential "warm-up" period but I have run my computer at max CPU on and off for two months now, and still hasn't solved the problem.

I'm no electrical engineering or computer science major, but given the facts we have at our disposal, I can say with a fair bit of certainty that:

this is a driver or firmware related issue concerning either the AMD GPU's, the Intel Thunderboard I/O Controller, or a combination of both.

(Note: the 13" 2011 MBP do not suffer from this, so it's safe to isolate it to the AMD GPUs).

The 2011 13-inch MacBook Pro is most certainly affected. I'm on my third one. And it, of course, only has an Intel HD 3000 graphics processor.

I need to appologize... the problem is back.

So, I'm with all others... the problem is random, and I seem to be just lucky for while.

Kyle, you're right. I was pulling my 13"-related info from a similar MacRumors forum thread. However, in that instance, someone swapped their similarly inflicted 15" MBP for a 13" but also swapped the 24" for a 27".

Therefore, we cannot conclude that the 13"s work with the 24" ACD. And as you said yourself, you're on your third one in an attempt to find that magical MBP that will somehow get along with the 24" ACD.

Given this fact, we can more reasonably conclude that the problem has to do with OS X's graphics driver stack, the new Thunderbolt I/O Controller, which was one of the only new pieces of silicon that differentiate our 2011 MBPs from the prior models, or a combination of all these things not playing well when the 24" is plugged in.

-Yes, it's the 24" ACD in use here as well.

-Stressing out GPU/CPU doesn't make any difference I know now. (A good thing > software solution possible)
-My conclusion for now: The ACD 24" needs an FW update, since no other displays seems to be involved.

BUT oh boy, what a blunder by Apple. Incompatible products out of the own kitchen.

Of topic: I got another one... The MacBook doesn't get any IP assigned from the TimeCapsule I have in use.... Sometimes I need to connect the UTP cable more than 5 times... But didn't do any testing with other cables yet.
It's a perfectly fine CAT6... again no problem with my late 2009 MBP.

This is not restricted to the 24"ACD. My intermittent power-offs are with a brand new 27" ACD running from a 17"MBP.

oakframe_tim wrote:

This is not restricted to the 24"ACD. My intermittent power-offs are with a brand new 27" ACD running from a 17"MBP.

Then get your 27" fixed or replaced, because from the various testimonies I read about it, 27" is working fine with 2011 MBP.