Display Shuts Off

Question

Display Shuts Off

Hi everyone,

My one year, five month old Thunderbolt Display began experiencing problems a few months ago, it would flicker and eventually shut off.

After unplugging the power supply it would work for a few minutes, but eventually shut off again.

I brought my display in to the Genius bar where it was diagnosed as the power supply, and being that it was 5 months out of warranty, I paid about $120 for the replacement of the supply.

A week later, I get a call telling me that it's ready, so I bring it home and almost immediately, the display shuts off again.

I called in and they said to bring it back again to run more tests with it, but this time with my 15" MBP to see if the problem existed with my MBP.

The next day they call me in and tell me that unfortunately for me, it's the worst case scenario, the problem isn't the MBP, but it's the LCD Panel in the display which is $800 for the part.

Has anyone had similar issues that resulted with the problem being the LCD panel? I'm a little weary of their conclusion because they were so certain the problem was the power supply.

What are my options to getting this repaired without costing me a fortune? At that price, it would be more economical to purchase a brand new display, and toss this one out. A little disheartening after my 17" MBP's logic board died on me this past August and I was forced to replace it.

Are there third party repair shops that can fix this, or is the part itself $800 across the board?

Thanks for your input, everyone.

Thunderbolt Display (27-inch)

Posted on Mar 4, 2014 2:53 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Mar 4, 2014 7:07 PM in response to NovemberNights

Same issue, same repair (replaced display itself) but fortunately had 3 year AppleCare so was still a warranty repair. I don't recall the cost but do agree at $800 makes more sense to buy a refurbished TB display for $799. You may be able to find the parts on eBay and know iFixit has great guides if you're willing to do it yourself.

Reply

Answer 2

Mar 6, 2014 1:35 PM in response to turbostar

Thanks for the reply, What were the symptoms you were experiencing?

I'm just wondering if it's the same across the board, because my display will still function for about 15 minutes, but then shuts off. If the display is the problem, I'm assuming it wouldn't work at all, you know what I mean?

Reply

Answer 3

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Mar 6, 2014 2:17 PM in response to NovemberNights

I had a multiple display setup so noticed that 1 display was dimmer than the others but would be same brightness after shutdown/restart. It would restart fine but after a series of flickers, it would just step down to a lower brightness level within 5-10 minutes of restarting. By the time I took it to Apple, the issue would repeat within 3 minutes so definitely degrading and would go blackout from time/time.

Reply