Thunderbolt Display turns off randomly

I used the "unplug->replug the TB cable" technique too, but the interval between blanking out episodes decreased over time until there was only a couple of minutes between events -- making the display essentially unusable. I suspect that that is the natural history for all these TB displays, and regrettably your day will come as well. Apple needs to fix this.

Thanks, Stanley. Guess my decision to buy the 11" Air because of its portability (because I had the TB for the desk!) may not have been as smart as I thought!

Surely, someone at Apple is working on this?

After a very depressing few weeks of watching my screen die, in exactly the same manner as you all describe, I found a new lease of life by abandoning the hardwired cable, and using a Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt accessory cable from my Mac Mini to the displays Thunderbolt input. The displays been as good as new for several months since. No blackouts at all.

IMHO what is at fault here, is Apple's lack of responsibility & responsiveness for a high-end, high cost product. They owe the community an official, and public statement on this, irrespective of the fact that most faults show up (suspiciously) "just outside" the extended warranty timeframe of 3 years. As someone posted some months back, EC consumer regulations state that a product of this cost and spec., should have a minimum useful life of 6 years, and my 'gut feeling', agrees with this. Why don't Apple?

I'm one of the few lucky ones in that my display is still usable, thank God. I recommend trying it, if you too have TB output that isn't in use on your Mac platform, whatever it is. Good luck!

I bought an accessory, non-integtrated TB cable (TB port out from MBP->TB port in to back of TB display) from Apple. Worked for a few days, but the same problem returned, even worse. I don't believe that this is a cable issue, and I suspect you will encounter a similar fate eventually. Good luck until it does.

I too am having these issues with my 27" TBD, 3 year old. MBP Retina late 2013. Yosemite 10.10.5

Display goes black - increasing regularity - now maybe once every hour. Only resetting power to TBD brings it back. While it is black, other functions are working (USB ports) and MBP 'thinks' its still alive. (Windows aren't gathered on the monitor screen when TBD fails). When I do power display off and on and it comes back - it flickers for a while.

Here is what I have tried:

1. Took the monitor to a Apple repair centre and left it there with them - they were unable to reproduce the fault after a week

2. Brought it home problem still there

3. After reading this thread, tried buying a Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt 0.5m cable and used that instead of the cord on the TBD - problem still there

4. I ALSO have a MacMini with a Thunderbolt port. Tried the display plugged into that - same problem - screen goes black when plugged into MacMini also.

So it seems the problem is with the Display - not the MBP.

Maybe my problem is different to all of yours and really is hardware, but am reluctant to start replacing hardware given what I have read in this thread...

I have a MacMini and was using a 27" apple monitor which was 14 months old, it started flickering, now it either looses brightness or just switches off. Took it to the Apple "Technicians" who charged me so they could keep it at there facility and do nothing with it then tell me there was nothing wrong. I know they did nothing with it because when I opened it myself it was still full of dust in the back with no evidence they had even released a screw. As much as I love my apple gear I will not be replacing it. Once it fails I will replace with windows. I don't think windows is any better I just think its easier to get it looked at when something goes wrong without being lied to. I have tried using a separate thunderbolt cable, made no difference. Sorry but Apple are slowly becoming a cell phone supplier and are starting to fail to support there computer market.

try turning the auto brightness off AND turn the brightness down on the monitor 4 notches. This absolutely worked for me and it seems others too. See thread below. Not a perfect fix I know, but it does seem to stop the monitor failing.

Re: Thunderbolt Display Flickering Epidemic - Extensive Testing

My previous Thunderbolt Display did this too after I replaced my 3-year-old MBP with a new one last year. Thinking the shutoffs were a display problem, I took it in to the Flatirons store in Denver and they allegedly fixed the problem with a new logic board. Unfortunately it continued to happen even worse. I am not sure this is relevant, but while the display was connected to my MBP its WiFi would not work. Period. It would sort of work with the lid open, but barely. Not even with a router 4 feet away. The problem seemed to originate in The MBPs proximity to the TB display. I theorized that the MBPs WiFi and the TB display’s electromagnetic fields were jamming each other, and that was causing the problem. My solution to get WiFi was to use an external AirPort Express in client mode, as the MBPs built-in WiFi is useless while the display is attached. Unfortunately this caused my MBP to kernel panic whenever I plugged the display’s ethernet into the Airport Express. Also, Location Services does not work with WiFi off.

Finally I thought I would solve this problem for good and bought a new Thunderbolt Display a few weeks ago. No such luck. It hasn’t randomly gone black but WiFi still refuses to work while the display is plugged in. And it is very hard to wake up, cycling between sleep and wake for a while and messing up my windows.The same kernel panic happens with this new TB display, about twice a week.

One assumption I’ve made from all this is that Apple is making crappy products, and they barely have control of the programming. At this point I really hesitate to even go to the Apple Store about these problems because it is just a lot of denial and obfuscation. So far I’ve just been tolerating the bad performance.

After a few more weeks of functioning due to, I thought, the "turn down the brightness" intervention, my TBD has now failed again. All of the nostrums that people think have helped them have eventually failed to keep my TBD running -- including using a separate TB cable, changing the brightness adjustment, zapping PRAM, resetting SMC, installing firmware updates, etc etc etc. The only step today that "helps" is unplugging the power to the TBD for a few minutes, after which the display works again for a couple of minutes before starting to flicker and then finally going off completely.

There is simply something structurally wrong with these displays. If yours starts to work again after doing one or another step suggested in this an other threads, well, enjoy it while you can, because eventually your display will fail again -- and permanently. Apparently the TBD is only intended to work for the duration of AppleCare.

In contrast, the 24" LED Cinema display I bought in 2008 continues to function perfectly. Too bad they are now unavailable.

Cured?

After installing the last update to iOS on my 11" Air, before El Capitan, I called Apple. The tech person set up the remote viewing of my screen, and ran a few diagnostics. We could not get the problem to rescur, so he suggested taking it to the store. There, I ended up leaving it overnight to try to duplicate the problem. It ran perfectly.

NO reocurrancece here at home. Now I have installed El Cap, and it is still good. I hope all of you can find this relief!

I still believe it was a firmware issue.

Probably a little premature to post this - but anyway

I took the monitor to the apple store today and described the symptoms. They said:

1. Given that the brightness causes it to fail and then power cycling (after 5-10 mins) brings it back up, then it could be the [built in] power supply overheating when driven too hard (ie: it cools down when you turn it off for 10 mins), OR

2. Failing that, the logic board

So they are going to try (1) then (2) over the next few days and let me know.

Power Supply was less than $200, the Logic board more, but they said no charge for either if it doesn't fix the problem.

Of interest I had read somewhere in this (ENORMOUS) thread that the backlight unit could be the culprit. I asked them about this and the response was "There are separate backlight units in iMac's and the older cinema screen, but on these Thunderbolt displays it is built in to the main display panel"

I'll let you know what happens/

Its fixed

New display panel

This helped me:

Leave the display's integral Thunderbolt cable unconnected, and connect to your display using a Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt cable (accessory).

I am also on the most recent update to El Capitan, version 10.11.1

Added note: In System Settings, I Set Computer sleep to NEVER.

PS. I used to have the problem a long time ago, then it went away, and then it reappeared with the new El Capitan OS. I wish it was easier to diagnose.

Yup..Steve..I just got the disease on my TB display; bought it in the fall of 2011 and for the most part

the monitor has behaved beautifully and given me full value; after this latest update of El Capitan OS X

it has started to randomly go black and will not arouse from sleep like it once did; I've ordered a TB cable to

try the remedy talked about in this thread but hold not alot of hope that it will be a long term solution; I'll keep

everyone posted here on my results as my monitor is yet another data point to look at; BTW, I have a Dell

vintage 2008 wfp that is still going strong..almost twice the age of my Apple TB display but admittantly less

used than the TB display these last 4 years..

SAME ISSUE - not fixed since every years ago .. it come son and off .... now i becoming more frequent

for no reason whatsoever thunderbolt cinema display turns off or it does not go on waking from sleep ..

have 3 displays - 2 old DVI cinema displays and 1 new cinema on mac pro -- the old displays work perfectly...

sometimes it even blocks the mac from starting ... after disconnecting the display from mac and restarting it goes back to working ok for a while

aaaaaannnnnnnnooooooooyyyyiiiiiiiinngggggggggggggbg as **** !!!