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Level 1

0 points

Target display mode blinking black

I am having a very annoying issue using target display mode with my iMac connected to my mbp. I have the 2meter thunderbolt cable connecting the two machines. They enter TDM correctly but continually the iMac screen will go black for a second and then reappear. This is very annoying and unacceptable to be honest. I have searched and read many blogs and threads about similar issues, none of which have any answers.

iMac

27-inch, Mid 2011
3.4 GHz Intel Core i7
32 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1024 MB

MacBook Pro

Retina, 15-Inch, Early 2013
2.4 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB

Sometimes it seems I will see a message in the system.log around the time this happens:

Aug 8 18:28:35 iMac.local WindowServer[109]: MPAccessSurfaceForDisplayDevice: Set up page flip mode on display 0x042801c0 device: 0x10e074a10 isBackBuffered: 1 numComp: 3 numDisp: 3

If anyone has some ideas on what may fix this issue I would love to hear them.

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Aug 9, 2013 12:40 AM

91 replies

Kosmoe

Level 1

14 points

Oct 15, 2013 5:50 PM in response to jarrod78

Who has the ticket open with Apple support on this? Is there a case number you can post so that others can call and reference to turn up the heat a little?

jarrod78 Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 15, 2013 6:14 PM in response to Kosmoe

I have an open case, I believe Jerry Brace does as well.

It has basically been left at "don't call us, we'll call you" I am pretty unhappy with how this issue has been treated and have written a letter to Tim Cook explaining the issue. I hope that turns up the heat a little for us as well. Apple Care has been quite good actually which I did mention in my letter, its just that if there is nothing from the engineers there is not much they can do.

Best of luck to us all!

jarrod78 Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 15, 2013 7:17 PM in response to jarrod78

Sorry looks like you can not post case numbers here. I am not clear as to why that would be.

Oct 15, 2013 7:18 PM in response to jarrod78

https://gist.github.com/clebertsuconic/7001648

Oct 15, 2013 7:20 PM in response to clebertsuconic

I believe you can edit the link above, or create a gist yourself.. pastebin.com, or whatever you like.

that information was removed probably by a robot.

Now if there's a human removing it.. it's really a shame on apple rather hiding the issue and avoiding communication to solve the issue.

Oct 16, 2013 6:29 PM in response to clebertsuconic

One thing I was wondering...

Do you guys also have an apple TV at home?

I don't think it's related.. but I just wondered if that could be some bug hidden on scanning things?

Kosmoe

Level 1

14 points

Oct 16, 2013 6:31 PM in response to clebertsuconic

I have an Apple TV

Oct 16, 2013 6:33 PM in response to Kosmoe

@ jarrod78

What about you?

Kosmoe

Level 1

14 points

Oct 16, 2013 6:34 PM in response to clebertsuconic

What do you mean by scanning things

Oct 16, 2013 6:38 PM in response to Kosmoe

By the kernel getting lost with video while it scans the apple TV and while in target mode.

I remember at least one bug related to apple TV being scanned.

if we all turned off the apple TV and our stuff worked, then we found the bug.

Just a conjecture of course.

Oct 17, 2013 6:19 AM in response to jarrod78

I do not have an apple T.V. but still see the same screen issues.

Kluyg

Level 1

8 points

Oct 21, 2013 12:43 PM in response to jarrod78

I have the same problem, I'm using latest MacBook (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013) + iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011) connected via Apple Thunderbolt Cable (0.5m, new format) to extend my MacBook screen onto iMac display. This blinking with black screen is just killing me. This makes the feature almost unusable.

Do you have any news on that issue?

FTV

Level 1

14 points

Oct 22, 2013 2:37 PM in response to jarrod78

Just want to let everyone know that after upgrading my Retina Macbook Pro to Mavericks I have now only seen the black screen blink once after a few hours of heavy use. Seems to all but fix the problem completely.

JarrodC

Level 1

0 points

Oct 22, 2013 4:13 PM in response to FTV

I spoke with a representative from Apple Executive Relations yesterday who informed me that the engineers had told him they were able to fix the issue. I was told that the fix would be availible in the upcoming Mavericks release.

I just updated my two machines today, I really hope this fixed the issue for me. Though seeing FTV's post did not give me much confidence so far. I will try to test for a few hours today sometime.

I had hoped they snuck this fix in with that last minute bump of the GA from 13A598 to 13A603.

Best of luck to you all, I will report back on my findings and continue this thread if the issue is not yet resolved.

FTV

Level 1

14 points

Oct 22, 2013 4:31 PM in response to FTV

Looks like it's still blinking away. Sorry guys. 😟

Target display mode blinking black