Thunderbolt Display turns off randomly

A lot has happened since my last post. It did indeed work fine for a day. But the next day it was back to it's bad ways. I called Apple and made a Genius Bar appointment. They decided to swap out the logic board in the TBD.

A few days later I picked it up, brought it home and plugged it in. After only 15 minutes it was again blanking out!

Major disappointment!

Today Apple made me proud!! I took my ever so cranky Thunderbolt Display in for the third time seeking resolution of the naggy screen that keeps blacking out. It was really annoying and not finding a fix that worked was even more annoying.

So the fine folks at the Bellevue WA Apple Store offered up to REPLACE mine with a brand spankin new one!! All evening I've been savoring a happy Apple World in the Man Cave!!

**** fine job Apple!! You just proved why I'm a proud Apple FanBoi!! Thank you!!!

Of course time will be the true test but so far all is well!

I'm curious, did your issue ever get resolved? I just bought a TB display and I'm having the same problem. I'm running it with a brand new Macbook Pro 2.3 (non-retina) and it's really all over the place. Sometimes it shuts off constantly (USB and FW peripherals continue to work), but sometimes (like right now) it runs without a hitch. The other day it ran literally all day without blacking out once, but at other times it's been a total disaster, blacking out after only a few minutes of use. It was so bad, I made sure to teach myself "command-F1" (toggle to mirroring)! I tried all the tricks with resets, PRAM zaps, trashing windowserver.plist, etc., but nothing is consistent.

I've been considering just sending it back and getting a new one, but that doesn't seem to be a consistent "fix" at all. It seems like a lot of people get brand new ones, only to find that they're faced with the same issue. Makes it seem like a firmware/driver issue. So, I kinda decided to wait it out for a while, since I've got a year on the original warranty anyway...

Any news appreciated.

I have had my TB display for about six months now. I used to have a MBA (with Lion) and it was a nice ride for most of the time. This week I'm back in my office and have swapped the Air for a new MBP Retina (running Mountain Lion). It worked fine for first three days, but now I get black outs all the time. The computer still thinks that the display is there but nothing makes it wake up.

sir_pancake,

I'm just curious; do you have a 16GB memory upgrade, using 3rd party RAM, by any chance? It seems like there might be some correlation with memory, but it's hard to tell, since the problem is really hit and miss for most users.

Yes, I do have a 16GB upgrade, my specs are: 2,7 GHz, 16GB RAM, 768GB Flash. But I have no 3rd party components.

Right, so 16GB, but using Apple's own modules... Interesting. So perhaps it's related to 16GB upgrades, but not necessarily specific to 3rd party modules? It didn't make much sense for the specific modules to be the problem anyway, given that Apple doesn't use anything special for their factory upgrades. Also, my machine is rock solid and performing perfectly well with the upgrade. It's only the TB display that gives me problems (and devices connected through the TB display, like my FW audio interface).

I'm still hoping this is a firmware/driver issue, but I'm going to keep a close watch on it for the next few weeks. The frustrating thing is that it's so variable. Yesterday, for example, I had one black-out in the morning, then worked for the rest of the day without issue... Well, that's not quite true, as I did have to hook my FW audio interface directly to my machine, to stop stuttering during playback... Which is actually kind of interesting in itself, since it suggests that even when the display is "working" (i.e., no black-outs) there are still problems (which kinda points to TB itself... perhaps it's a throughput problem exacerbated by the 16GB upgrade?)

Getting the TBD replaced has worked well so far. This is day 3 so of course time is the true measure.

My MBP was a BTO (Build To Order) with 8GB of RAM. I don't think the root cause is in my MBP. I'm pretty convinced the root cause is in the TBD.

ramblinlamb, I guess you'd probably do this anyway, but would you mind posting if you start having flickering again?

I have to admit that my first impulse, when it started, was to just send it back right away. The problem is that I've read numerous threads where replacing the display didn't solve the problem, and I really can't stomach random testing of displays (presumably this should be Apple's job!) - running back and forth with these beasts (which are pretty heavy, in the box) is not my idea of fun...

@wheetabix - I know your pain! I made the journey to the local Apple Store 4 times.

This last time they were leaning towards my MBP as the source of the root cause. I convinced them that replacing the TBD would be the easiest way to prove that. As opposed to digging into the HW/video card on the MBP or flattening and rebuilding OSX - which with the MBP being maybe 45 days old was NOT a pleasant option.

With no flickering so far on the new TBD I'm of a mind that the TBD was the source of the root cause. But, more time is needed to really prove that this TBD is free of the issue.

Should it start to flicker trust me I'll post such bad news here.

Since Apple already replaced the logic board on the TBD and that fixed nothing replacing the LCD panel in the TBD was the next step. I'm sure 90% or more of the cost of a TBD is in the LCD panel.

Giving me a new TBD for Apple was a bit of a wash and helped to repair my relationship with Apple. I'm a long time Apple customer. We have a ton of their equipment in our business. This last time when I visited the Apple store I was both polite and emphatic that this issue needs to resolved. I was calm, I was polite but I was also very firm that I was unhappy.

The staff did a great job of listening, empathizing and ultimately replacing my TBD.

You want to know why this was so frustrating? Because typically Apple's products for me have been rock solid. Over the years we've had a few hard drives go away. But that happens across all platforms. Other than that it's the solid reliability of Apple that keeps me coming back to them.

So when this happened it really cranked up my frustration level!

I'm happy today. And hopeful that I'm on the backside of this experience. And I'm still a dedicated Apple FanBoi!

My TBD is also having the same symptoms, plugged into a retina MBP. It'll work just fine (sometimes for several days) then randomly go black. Unplugging the TB cable fixes it, but it's deeply annoying. Has anyone had any success with settings-based fixes, or is a replacement looking like the only way forward?

I just bought a TBD at my local Apple store and after hooking it to my retina MBP it has this same issue it appears. Cant find a pattern it just freaks out and goes black. pulling cords and replugging works only sporatically. I unplug monitor and restart the comp and the display nothing. soo far its happened 3 times and the last time I have not been able to get the monitor to come back.

My 2 cents...

I've the most common combination of this thread. Mac mini 2011 server with 16 gb of ram and the TBD.

My issue is a little bit different. In 1 year it happened to me only two times a freeze. The first completely black screen but USB working. The second the screen worked but USB was dead (with ARD and a MacBook air I moved the mouse in the mini/TBD). In both case the solution was to unplug and plug again the cable...

But I ha ve another issue (I read only the first three pages of this long thread....) and it happens to me few times in a day.

My screen cames black for less than a second while I'm working... It flashes... It's annoying but it let's me work.

I was in doubt between a problem with the TBD or the video card of the mini. But this thread give the most probable answer...

It happens randomly but with more frequency when I made a lot of use of graphic performance... Especially with action with photoshop, but also when I work manually.... Sometimes in the finder, rarely with FileMaker, sometimes with VLC...

I've never called Apple but I have Applea Care so, soon or later, I'll do.

I'd like to second the previous observation about the Mac mini 2011 and 16GB of RAM. That is the combination I had and I saw the problems described in this thread. Unfortunately I can't recall whether or not I had the same problem when I had 8GB of RAM.

I can also add that I have the same problem now that I replaced the Mac mini with a 2011 Macbook Pro. I took the 16GB of RAM out of the mini and put it into the laptop and I have the same problem when I hook the Thunderbolt Display up to the laptop.

Unfortunately I bought the display at Best Buy and I just don't want to go in there and deal with the geek squad or whoever. Hoping for some resolution here.

i believe its the physical connection of the thunderbolt port on the mac mini server, if i push on the thunderbolt cord, the display sometimes stays on, if i let go it will shut off, i replaced the logic board of my machine because i thought the port was faulty, but the replacement does the same thing... ive tried different thunderbolt cables too and they all have this problem as well.

My TBD started turning itself off about 18 hours ago, after 9 months of problem-free use with my iMac Quad 3.4 i7 16GB 6970M 2GB 1TB. So yesterday afternoon was the first time, and after a reboot it worked for the remaining hour of the day.

This morning it was off, rebooted, nothing. Replugged TB cable, still nothing. Unplugged power for a second, nothing. Unplugged power for 10 seconds, then it worked. 5 minutes later, turned off again. Reset PRAM and SMC on iMac, no help.

All the while, the 2nd display would still appear to be connected in Displays. I clicked gather windows, changed the resolution of the 2nd display in an attempt to trigger it back to life, no luck. Changed it back to native res, then strangely the iMac display never returned from the temporary blue background that it goes through during resolution change. Unplugged the TBD power, iMac restored the primary display. Plugged it back in, nothing. Restarted, nothing (not even showing up in Displays). Replugged the TBD power, nothing.

So now it's totally toasted, it doesn't work at all, not even for a few minutes.

Have tried using it on another iMac and a MacBook Pro, all the same results. Temporarily using a 27" Cinema Display until I get to the local Retail Store as AppleCare Support have said to take it in and get a replacement.

Will update here with the results of the Store tests and how I get on with the replacement TBD.