Thunderbolt display won't turn on. Black screen but has power.

It will be working fine one week, then the next week it suddenly won't turn on even after unplugging and replugging it into my Early 2011 MBP, unplugging from power, PRAM resets etc. I know that there is power to it as the MagSafe on the octopus cable charges my laptop fine. I need my display to be reliable as I am a graphic designer and 27" is much better than 15"!

Any ideas? Cheers.

Thunderbolt Display (27-inch), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Feb 25, 2013 2:26 PM

Top-ranking reply

clintonfrombirmingham

Level 7

30,106 points

Posted on Mar 23, 2013 11:23 PM

Have you tried resetting the SMC - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?

I had a problem similar to what you describe last week. The odd thing was that an SMC reset wouldn't 'take' when I was connected to the power from the 'octopus' cable. I had to use my 'real' MagSafe power adapter that I had in my bedroom to actually reset the SMC. Once reset, everything has been just fine.

Clinton

View in context

17 replies

Mar 26, 2015 4:10 AM in response to SmogHead

it's 2015 and we still have the same problem...

This solution works for me 80% of the time

1) Shut down

2) Turnon and hold "D"

3) Perform the hardware check

4) do the NVRAM reset

reivde

Level 1

4 points

Aug 1, 2017 3:48 PM in response to SmogHead

Hello Steve, I would like to have more info. I am having the same issues and don't know what to do. I have this monitor since 2012.

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Thunderbolt display won't turn on. Black screen but has power.