Thunderbolt Display turns off randomly

We now manufacture a range of certified Thunderbolt cables from .5M to 30 Meters - and quality control within the program is extremely stringent to extremes.

We also are looking at tethered (one end internally attached/perm vs. removable) Thunderbolt solution options for some external devices. I don't think that Apple has a quality issue with their integrated (tethered) Thunderbolt cable and would rather suspect that difference in how the tethered end is implemented (it is quite different vs. a stand a lone thunderbolt cable end) is likely subject to an independent design flaw.

More power is consumed with a standard, stand a lone, thunderbolt cable than a tethered/integrated thunderbolt cable with only one cable end for connecting.

All the issues and symptoms + the various solutions point to a potential issue with noise/signal ratio. AND - from our OWN internal testing - with two units we aquired from customers with issue - the specific environment the setup is being used in also has influence. FWIW - we have not been able to reproduce the main non-tolerable / workflow killing issues even on systems so documented and that falls in line with a lot of comments above where product has been on 'best behaviour' at the Apple store/service center and then same issues when put back into original service location.

Such an issue with noise/signal ratio should benefit from the difference that a non-tethered, external standard thunderbolt cable provides - and all evidence is that it is a solid solution which does indeed overcome some kind of hardware design shortcoming with respect to the tethered cable used. I don't think the Apple tethered cable itself has any issue - I think it's a pickup within the display that just is at fault.

I would concur that changing the primary connection from the built in Thunderbolt cable to pretty much any copper .5M to 3M (optical is unpowered and questionable for this application in terms of solution) certified Thunderbolt cable is likely to solve the problem and likely with great consistency.

I purchased the 0.5M Apple Thuderbolt cable, connected it from my MBP to the display, and am now 2 days running with no issues.

So in my case (which has been extensively tested), bypassing the built in cable fixed the issue.

I'm still going to take the display to Apple though, as the integrated TB display cable should work. Especially for a $1,000 display.

Today whilst trying to figure out why my TBD is not turning on yet again, I discovered something that intrigued me. If I plug my iPhone into the USB port on the rear of the TBD, even when the screen will not turn on (when I finally do plug my MBP in) my iPhone will charge fine. However the second I plug my MBP into the TBD, my iPhone will stop charging. If I leave the TBD cable plugged into the TB cable on my MBP port, my phone will bleep at me every 2 minutes to signify it's charging, then in the next minute it won't be again. Does this mean that if I purchase a seperate thunderbolt cable and plug it into my display that it's likely to work?

I had similar issues when using the USB ports on the display and for a while thought that it was a USB issue. The problems seemed to reduce a little when I had no USB devices connected, but this did not solve the problem. I was still plagued by randome screen black outs.

The simple fix as you suggest is to buy a spare cable and use the spare thunderbolt port on the back of your display and don't use the multi cable supplied with the screen. I have been using this set up with no issues at all for four weeks now.

Judging by how much quiter this discussion thread is nowadays I suspect that everyone has followed OWC larry's advice and are able to use their screen again.

Awesome, I'll buy one and try that, cheers for the input.

My TBD will shut off randomly and then I will have to unplug the power from the back of it and the TB cable from the MBP 15" Unibody, plug power back in, then TB cable to MBP and after doing thia bout 15-20 times, the TBD will come back on.

I have tried a separate Apple TB cable instead of the combo cable, but get the same results.

All firmware and software is up to date as of this post.

Apple is suggesting to replace the combo cable, but I am not certain this will fix the issue ... and now that the display is out of warranty, will cost me just under $200 to do.

The combo cable was already repalced once before under warranty for the same issue. I tried to explain that this same issue keeps popping up in hopes that Apple would extend the warranty for this second replacement, but no such luck.

Looking for any other suggestions to try before paying to get the combo cable replaced ... again! 🙂

Hi,

Sounds like you have exactly the same problem as me. I've tried numerous things. Read about a power issue in these displays so replaced that to no avail. Also the thunderbolt cable idea but that doenst work either. (albeit for about a day!)

I took the display to the Apple store and they diagnosed a new all in one cable and Panel replacement, which would cost around £700. Obviously dodnt go ahead with it. Warrantyly only last for 90days. (Will probably fail again.

The panels are very difficult to get hold of aswell in case you are thinking of doing it yourself. They have to be exactly the right model - mine is: LM270wq1-sdb3 and is unavailable anywhere! I did purchase an imac one to try but its not compatible so had to send it back.

Good luck with yours hopefully the new all in one cable will solve it. This seems to be a well documented issue which I believe is a hardware/manufacturing defect! Many user still in warranty are having a replacemnet no questions asked.

I've wasted hours of time trying to sort it but have given up. It's now on ebay currently sitting at £50. Gutted!

Count me in the brief black screen camp. have two spanking spanking brand new TB Displays hooked up to an equally new MacPro.

One display goes to black and back about 1x/an hour. I tried using combo cables in different ports, and tried the single dedicated cable from one monitor to MPro.

I have not tried 2 independent TB cables as I did not think that was part of my $2K investment.

Are the TB's bi-cables hardwired to back of case or do they pull out? I assume they're fixed.

Hi Busterbear, yes, the cable that comes out of the back of the display is hardwired. To replace it, the front glass needs to be removed, LED panel removed, and then multiple screws.

Try running 2 independent thunderbolt cables from the new Mac Pro to each of your displays. That SHOULD fix things, and indicate that the built-in cable is bad.

If you just recently purchased this setup, you may be eligible for a straight up return and exchange. That might also fix things. But in my situation, I replaced my TB display (1 year old) with a new display, and had the same issue.

From my perspective, it looks like Apple is not making any manufacturing changes to the cable and/or paying attention to this clear defect in product design. I realize that probably 0.001% of their customers buy the TB display, but it is a shame nonetheless.

Thanks, Tim for the info! I'll try your suggestions! Right now I seem to be having 1 of 2 TB Displays blipping, perhaps 1 every 1 or 2. No pattern; quite erratic.

I am also having issue with Thunderbolt display.

I have it attached to 15" MPB Retina and sometimes it wont turn on, when reconnecting it to the laptop.

Two days ago it just went black, in the middle of work. I have reset PRAM (cmd+option+p+r) as it didn't want to turn on, no matter by what steps I connect it back.

After I did PRAM reset, it looks like Thunderbolt display isn't as bright as it was before. I had compare it to older non retina 15" MBP (2010) and the MBP is brighter, which I don't think it was before. Not to mention brightness compare with Retina display.

I have OS X 10.9.3 with all updates.

Any idea, what this would be?

I can take both to Apple Store to check and compare with other Display.

I went to Apple service provider yesterday with MBP and Thunderbolt display. I attached my Thunderbolt display and One TD from store to my Macbook Pro and both display seem to have same brightness - I forgot to test displays with different macs and same background.. 😟

However, when I came back home the picture of my TD was clearly brighter then a day before. So my guess was, that it needed to be off the electricity for some time.

On the evening the display shuts off again like it used to do before sometimes and when I managed to turn the picture back ON (few attempts of plugging it into electricity), it turned back ON, but the picture was darker again.

I left it OFF the electricity whole night and when I plugged it in, in the morning, the TD wouldn't want to show the picture at all. Every time I plugged it in, only some lines showed up for few seconds.

Then I tried it with other power cable (from my printer), and it started to working in full brightness in first attempt.

Can this be a problem of Thunderbolt displays - defected power cable?

It works fine today, for the whole day with power cord from printer. No disconnected disks too, ever.

I also just updated OS X to 10.9.4 - which showed up couple of minutes ago and the update included also this:

Improves the reliability of waking from sleep

🙂 Maybe this is the solution? Will keep you updated.

That would be interesting... noise definitely seems to be a potential factory with some of the issues experienced and an issue with shielding on the power cable could be the case for some. I still can not believe this product has not been updated in 3 years.

My 3cents, update.

New macoPro, 2 brand new TBD, no peripherals plugged into them. Swapping out hardwired tb with external tb did not help with my ongoing, erratic blackouts.

Screens "black out" for a second or two, then back on. No rhyme or reason. Sometimes one, sometimes the other. No pattern. Perhaps 2-10 xs in an typical day.

I feel sorry for those of you getting total black outs for lengths at a time. My situation is an annoyance, yours is more aggravating.

Happy 4th, all.

Miloze,

I have the same problem and was thinking of replacing the panel with a 27" iMac panel. Why did this not work when you tried it?