27" led cinema display goes black

Exactly the same thing is happening to me with a 27" cinema display and an early 2011 MacBook Pro computer. After I did my own troubleshooting, reset the PRAM, made sure sure I had the latest pdate, etc., etc., I phoned Apple support and was prepared to pay the service call fee. When I explained the problem to the tech and told him what I had already done, he said there was nothing else he could suggest, except to recommend I go to a service centre, and he did not charge me for the call, which was decent enough. So I went to an Apple authorized service centre with my display and they found nothing wrong. In fact, it even worked beautifully there. They then asked me to bring my computer in as well, and still found nothing wrong. This is really frustrating and very disappointing. My display is only 15 months old. I don't know what to do.

I've been to a local service today and their immediate guess was the cable bundle connecting the Mac and the display. It seems to be a week link and they have already seen a number of other problems related to this cable. By moving the cable in different directions they even got the display working again for a moment. In a few days I will know if their guess was right. If it was it will hopefully not be too expensive, the cable is about 80 Euros.

So I had a problem with my LED Cinema Display that was only 16 months old and as i hadn't purchaser apple care, I wasn't under guarantee...

Fortunately, there is a law in Europe that says that any object has a guarantee of two years when it comes to production defects. So I got it fixed for free !

I hope this helps some of you and I wish you best of luck !

Based on my trials and errors, I would agree with that diagnosis. In fact, I was able to get an image again on my Cinema display when I disconnected the display's power cable portion (without disconnecting the USB and Serial portions) and instead connected my computer power cable to the MagSafe. However, this lasted a day and today, I am unable to get an image from my Cinema Display. Pls keep us posted on your new cable.

Like everyone else ditto. Problem first happened a couple of weeks ago, and again just now.

1st time it just went black - no explaination. Had to power reset it and it came back after 20 minutes.

Just now - I was out and was using the computer on the battery for about 2 hours. Should have turned off all other application that were running other than MAMP Pro and Safari (MediaWiki). But I didn't. Battery was down to 29% when I put it to sleep.

Upon awakening it with the MagSafe connection connected as well as the LED monitor, it did not come back, didn't even attempt to bring it up.

Actually my MacBook Pro died trying to get it out of sleep mode. Even after coming back the LED monitor still didn't come up. Had do another power reset, then after about 10 minutes it came back.

Very unhappy.

Is the conclusion that this is a internal power problem or a patch issue?

Thoughts?

Cheers

John Shannon.

Finally died today, while on the phone with Apple Support. It was OK, and I shutdown and powered off the monitor, and when I powered up (it did not). Connected my MacBookPro to a spare DELL 24" widescreen monitor that had been switched off for 2 months and it came up immediately, pointing to the LED Cinema Display as the faulty equipment. Its scheduled to be swapped out under onsite support.

Never ever buy Apple equipment without an Apple Care agreement. Apple support is fantastic as you would expect it to be.

I finally found the time to replace the internal power supply with the replacement I bought online. The display has been functioning fine with the new internal power supply for the last 2 hours. I believe it is now fixed. I used the "new" version of the power supply, part number 661-5543, and purchased it from the DV Warehouse website.

Obviously there are no directions with the part, but you can follow the dissassembly process on the iFixit website and simply replace the power supply board with the new one rather than putting the old one back. The process was fairly easy if you have just a little mechanical/electrical skill. You need a suction cup to pull the screen silica off and a star bit screw driver. I don't remember the exact size star bit but it was a common size.

Everything is working fine now. I can post again in a couple days to confirm that it was the issue, but I am confidant that it was. Hope this helps some others.

Note on troubleshooting before replacing power supply -

I saw some posts online that this issue can be cause by a fauty cable set that plugs into your Mac and for some, if you move the cableset just right, the screen would work again. That was NOT the issue for me. I ruled that out in my troubleshooting by keeping everything perfectly stationary until the screen went blank. Once it did, I used the power switch on the power strip the cinema display was powered by to cycle the power to the display without touching the cables on the cinema display. My display would come back on for a little while which led me to believe there was a power supply issue.

Note on power supply -

There is a NEW part number from apple that I used above (661-5543) which replaces the original part... Though this is common, it does make wonder whether the original design is faulty or otherwise less superior than it should be...

Yup, me too I guess. My display has died after perhaps 18 months as well. Using it with a Mac Pro, it just went black and would not power up. No sign of life in the magsafe connection (no light), no speakers or USB pass-thru. Looks like the main option is to buy a new internal power supply.

The hard to take part is this expensive 27" monitor was barely used, most of the time it was powered down as I typically use my Macbook Air and iPad. I grabbed my rather old 20" Apple monitor and it works just fine. This old monitor bought with my G5 was used constantly and has never had any issues. I've been using Apple products since Mac's were created and have never really had anything more than the odd drive die from old age...It is a beautiful monitor and hate to see a poor quality part, apparently wide spread, give me pause in buying another Apple product.

I'm really disappointed with Apple with this LED displays.

We have bunch of them, 24" and 27". 40% of the just dies after one year, and some even during first year. Mostly power supply problem.

Now I'm looking what to choose as repacement. 1 year of life for not-so-cheap monitor is nonsense. I like that Apple's displays have power supply for macbooks, but I think we better start to buy something else and bunch of additional power supplies.

NEC monitors (we have bunch of them also) live...hm...practically forever (till we throuw them away), no single monitor died over last 10 years.

I have the same problem. The display was about one year old, and I didn't have "apple care" of course.

Just ordered a new psu from dvwarehouse. @bdemuth: Have you had any problems with the display since you replaced the psu ?

Thanks

Finally got around to fixing my monitor with this part: 1 x Apple Power Supply 250W for LED Cinema Display 27" 614-0487 661-5543 - NEW (661-5543) = $128.00 from DV Warehouse. The most time consuming part of this process was taking out the 12 screws that hold the LCD in...really no big deal at all...maybe 15 minutes start to finish. I looked online to see how to take it apart (http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Apple+Thunderbolt+Display+Teardown/6525/1) and read you needed 2 suction cups to take the screen off the front to access the screws. I found you can just get a finger nail under a corner and pull it up without the suction cups. Everything is good...hope this new power supply is built better than the original.

Haven't had any issues with the display since... The new PSU seems to be better quality.

Mine is cutting out. It started by briefly flickering, so brief I was not sure I was seeing it. Now it just cuts out completely and I have to unplug and replug it in which "fixes it" for varying amounts of time. Of course I am about to start of a project for the next three weeks.

I do have a question though.

Is it the power supply if my 2011 17" MacBook Pro still charges after the screen cuts out?

A little bummed out about this. I always thought the back got a little too hot to the touch and the ventilation was lacking. I guess it is.

I have the exact same problem. And I can tell you, changing the PSU does NOT help. My display was up and running for about 24 hours or less (after changing the PSU to the newer model), then it started flickering again, and now it has gone black again. Really ****** hardware from apple, should have gone with the Dell UltraSharp instead.

Changing the PSU fixed the issue with mine. Have you checked the fan(s) in the monitor?

If they are not working propoerly the components can overheat and shutdown. I had one at work that had the faulty fan issue.