No sound from Thunderbolt display

No Audio coming out of my 27" Thunderbolt Display so called AppleCare. They tried to diagnose the issue but couldn't help and was told to bring the display to the brick mortar store. The Genius Bar rep tested the monitor with my 2011 Macbook Air and his Macbook Pro.

Problem: Audio, Camera and USB bus not working

Diagnosis: Replace Logic Board

Item Numer:

661-6060 $146.59

S1490LL/A Labor $39.00

Luckily under AppleCare

All:

I was having the same problem with my MacBook Air and my 27" Thunderbolt display. I can't say for sure when it started, but I noticed it this morning. The difference between the display sound and the Air is quite remarkable, so it's very annoying.

I tried everything listed here without much luck. Finally, out of desperation, I unplugged the display from the power at the outlet. When I plugged it back in everything worked fine.

We had several storms here that spiked the power recently. Since the display is always plugged in, it might have triggered some internal switch or something. Anyway, completely powering down the display worked for me.

/Jim

Edit: I should also note that after powering off the display, the options returned to the preference pane, as well. Nothing else I tried accomplished that.

Good luck!

Hi, Just bought my thunderbolt display, and 15 " MBP... same problem... this is what worked for me... I realized I had also bought Jambox, that connects via bluetooth...so I went into my preferences > sound > output > clicked on display audio / USB , and thuys disconnected the Jambox bluetooth and voila... hope this helps !

It helped me a lot. Thank you.

HI guys

As a follow up to my post last year, I have been in talk and email with Apple support. I have sent them various files but nothing has seemed to work to bring back the sound and iSight on my TB display. I can only get the picture back by pulling the plug out and re-connecing again.

Apple keep sending my things to try to fix it but none have worked so far.

I just thought I would keep you guys up to date with the communication that I am having with Apple.

Enjoy 2013

Thank you! That worked for me. I'd just hooked up the macbook to the jambox yesterday.

Hey everyone

To keep everyone up to date, as per my original post to this topic.

My problem is fixed. I had rung them and discussed on the phone with a great technician my problem that is the main topic here. I finally ended up taking bot hmy Mac Book Air and Thunderbolt display in to the Apple store to get looked at.

My Mac Book Air was fine but with my Thunderbolt display they had to replace the Logic Board. And the rest as they say is history - problem finally solved.

Yes it did take some time and yes I had to take it in to get fixed - but it works fine now.

So maybe Apple are realising that the Logic Board could be the source of their problems.

Tim

I have found that plugging in the power to my Mac Air, then plugging in the monitor seems to solve the problem. I run into the issues with sound, phone not charging when the order is reversed.

Hi all,

This is my first post and it’s a bold statement in that I think I've cracked this.

I just purchased two 27" Thunderbolt Displays and one worked perfectly straight out the box but the other wouldn’t play any sound through it when I connected either my 15" MBP or 17" MBP. Given this I started to have a little play around to see if I could fix it. After 10mins digging around I got it to work on both machines by simply doing the following: Open System Preferences >> Sound >> Output and then UNTICKING the 'Show volume in menu bar' and then RETICKING it. TAADARRR it's now working when I plug either of my machines in. Personally I think it’s a bug.

Have a bash at this and post if it worked for you.

Thanks

Daz

thank you NJ333- that workes!

Just did some testing and found out that Parralells will hijack the display audio. The display Audio shows up as a USB Audio device, and when you start parralles it will hijack this if you have that checked to connect through parallels. The Parralels in windowed mode (not full screen) click on the USB icon on the bottom left of the window pane. There you will see all sorts of things checked. Uncheck Apple Display Audio and it will instantly start working. If this is your issue, to start, simply quit Parralels and see if display audio comes back. Start parralels and see if display audio disappears from Prefference, Sound, Output. The fix is easy once you know, as it's a setting in Parralels.

Though obviously not relevant if you don't use Parallels.

Same here! Annoying! So I bought a pair of Bose speakers and plugged into MBP headphone socket....

Just bought a Thunderbolt display and have the audio cutout issue as well. Display is less than a week old.

The unplug power to monitor restores the display audio option. The unplug thunderbolt cable fix is hit and miss, sometimes it works, sometimes a few tries before success.

The most painful part of either option is that you need to go back and resize the windows you were working with, with counteracts the extra productivity I was aiming to achieve by having all my work in front of me rather than having to cycle through windows on my Macbook.

I bought the display for the size and resolution but chose the Thunderbolt over other options solely because of the inbuilt speakers and the extra ports. Its a lot of money to spend on something and its hard not to feel disappointed with the reliability of the product.

Finally! Something worked! Thanks!