New Mac Mini with LED 24" LED Display

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New Mac Mini with LED 24" LED Display

Hello all,

I just got myself a new Mac Mini yesterday. I connected it to my existing 24" LED Display. Prior to this, my display was connected my MacBook (2009) and I have never had any problems. Since yesterday (connected to my Mac Mini), my LED goes black from time to time (0.1 s randomly). There are quite a few theories about why it does this. Since I have never had this problem before, it seems to me that it maybe something to do with the new Thunderbolt port (on MAC mini) which is used for the display as well. In fact I have read an interesting article

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/thunderbolt_macbook_pro_suffers_flickerin g_display_issues/

I suspect the same problem is happening with the new MAC mini.

I am keen to see if there will be a firmware fix from Apple, on either the MAC mini or the Display.

Charles

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 22, 2011 1:42 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 23, 2011 8:25 AM in response to charles.m.h.

Charles:

I'm getting the same issue - the screen will blank or flicker for a fraction of a second. It happens about once a minute. I have a 24 inch Cinema Display and a new 2011 i5 Mac Mini.

I'm sure a fix will be along for this one.

Cheers,

Mark

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Answer 2

Jul 23, 2011 9:24 AM in response to charles.m.h.

Hi,

I also have the same problem with my new Mac mini 2,5 GHz and my 24" Cinema LED display. It's ok during a moment (sometime several hours), and after that it begins to blink once every few minutes. At this time I also ear a fan noise during one or 2 seconds. I had this problem also with a MacBook Air, but it happend rather unfrequently (a few times a day). It seem that a lot of people have this problem and that Apple never did anything about it !

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2057156?start=0&tstart=0

Pierre

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Answer 3

Jul 23, 2011 4:51 PM in response to charles.m.h.

Same here. Disappointing.

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Answer 4

charles.m.h. Author

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Jul 24, 2011 4:49 AM in response to charles.m.h.

Guys, thanks a lot for your responses! On the positive, it's good that I am not the only who have this problem. On the negative, this is an issue, which I hope will be fixed by small Frimware update on the MAc Mini.

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Answer 5

charles.m.h. Author

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Jul 26, 2011 7:22 PM in response to kram.rebrab

I have thought of something, if Apple does not fix this issue. It may sounds complicated, but bear with me.

Assumptions:

1. The LED 24" Apple Display has a Mini Displayport cable (Male) attached to it. It cannot be removed. At least not on my display.

2. The new Mac mini has an HDMI (Female) port. I presume that there is no reason for the HDMI port not to work to display Video and carry Audio. It is HDMI after all.

Solutions:

1. Attach a Mini Displayport Coupler (Female) to the Mini Displayport cable (Male).

2. At the other end of the Mini Display Coupler, attached a Mini Displayport (Male) - HDMI (Male)

3. Plus the HDMI (male) into the Mac Mini HDMI female Port.

I found those products:

Mini Displayport Coupler - € 9

http://macupgrade.eu/catalog/mini-displayport-coupler-female-to-female-p-376.htm l?utm_campaign=google-simple&utm_medium=product_search&utm_source=google-simple

Mini Displayport (male) - HDMI (male) cable - £9

http://www.lingosbox.com/product_info.php?language=en&currency=GBP&products_id=3 922

I will wait for a few more days to see if there is any improvements, if not I will try this option.

Let me know what you think of this idea?

Charles

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Answer 6

Jul 27, 2011 11:37 PM in response to charles.m.h.

Same setup here, 2.5 i5 and LED 24". Exactly the same problem, took my mini to the apple store and they gave me a new one, but I still having the same flickering problem. I thought something was wrong with my display, it was driving me crazy!

Thanks y'all for posting your problems, now I know I'm not crazy and I'm not alone in this.

Apple please fix it now!!!!!

Charles, that sounds doable but is not the best solution for hardware that is supposed to work out of the box, that was the reason why I bought a Mac in the first place.

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Answer 7

Jul 28, 2011 4:15 PM in response to charles.m.h.

I have the same issue with my new mac mini. I have used the 24" led cinema with my macbook pro mid 2010 for almost a year without any problems, but hooked up with the mac mini i5 it goes flickering black. Sometimes very often, makes it useless...The strange thing is that it now happens when I hook up my macbook pro which worked fine prior to hooking up the mac mini...

I was thinking about sending the display to service (2 months warranty left). But maby its better to wait for an software update? Please do something about this Apple!

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Answer 8

charles.m.h. Author

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Jul 28, 2011 4:22 PM in response to tom andre

Tom,

My concerns is that the Thunderbolt port on the Mac Mini is a faster throughput, hence the current or voltage (i.e. power) needs adjustment via the a chip sitting on the Thundrbolt port. Maybe, and this is just a maybe, the Thuderbolt port is not correctly calibrated. This is just a theory. But if this is correct, then a Firmware should be able to fix this. The unknown is : does it damage the LED Display long term?

Please Apple provide an explanation, or even better a fix for it?

Do you guys know if we raise a Ticket to make them aware of this? Are they reading post from this forum?

Charles

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Answer 9

Jul 28, 2011 4:33 PM in response to charles.m.h.

My 2 cents:

I was going nuts and decided to do a full restore and start all over again. Booted the mini holding command+R and reinstalled Lion from the Internet.

Now it seems to be working better, almost not flickering at all. I don't know if it is a hardware issue or it is Lion. Anyone else want to give it a try?

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Answer 10

charles.m.h. Author

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Jul 28, 2011 4:51 PM in response to DallasGabe

Very good point - it might be worth a try. Did you do a Lion re-install (keeping your files), or did you do a full clean install (i.e. wiping the drive, and then re-install) ?

I will definitely try this this week end when I am back home! Actually I am 3 miles from Apple HQ, I should have gone and complain :-)

Charles

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Answer 11

Jul 28, 2011 5:02 PM in response to charles.m.h.

Charles,

I did a clean install.

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Answer 12

charles.m.h. Author

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Jul 30, 2011 8:54 AM in response to DallasGabe

Hi!

I have re-installed Lion on my new iMAC. Rebooting, + cmd + R, and downloading the whole thing again.

For the moment, my display works well, no more black flickering. Maybe the Lion version shipped on Mac mini has something missing.

Thanks a lot for the tip!

So far so good!

Charles

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Answer 13

Jul 30, 2011 1:51 PM in response to charles.m.h.

Clean install did not work for me...

I am going nuts...

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Answer 14

charles.m.h. Author

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Jul 31, 2011 6:36 AM in response to tom andre

Yeap, I confirm, it is back now! Even after the re--install!

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Answer 15

bastac

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Jul 31, 2011 7:46 AM in response to charles.m.h.

Hi Charles and Tom,

I have the same problem with a 1 day old mac mini i5 2500 and a 24'' cinema display I have bought about 1 week ago. Black flickering from the first minute after first start. I tested the display on my old mac mini and it was ok. I connected the new mini via HDMI to a TV and it was also ok. But the new mini and the 24'' display doen't work together.

Greetings from Berlin

bastac

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