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Mac Pro 2013 Multiple Display Issues

Is anyone else having issue with their 2013 Mac Pro and third party displays when it comes to sleeping? When I sleep my Mac Pro both of my Asus PB278Q's go to sleep. When I wake up the Mac Pro they both light up and then display 'No Signal' before shutting off again. The only way I am able to get video back is to shut down the Mac and boot it up again. Even then I only ever get one Display working and have to turn off one display and turn it on again before they will both work.


Very frustrating for such an expensive Mac and two professional level displays.


Would appreciate any help or even just finding others who are having same issues? Apple care have only been able to escalate the issue.

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.3), 2x Asus PB278Q 27" Displays

Posted on Jun 12, 2014 11:34 PM

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69 replies

Jun 13, 2014 11:41 AM in response to Thomas Isaacs

Hi,


Similar issue here - Six Core 2013 Mac Pro, 2 x D500 graphics. Primary display is an Apple 23" Cinema Display connected to a DVI to DP adaptor, secondary display is a Dell 1914S directly on Displayport. Worked flawlessly up until 10.9.3, now almost every time I wake the Mac from sleep the Dell responds with 'No signal' and goes to sleep.

When it's in this state, mouse movement becomes quite erratic too.


I raised it as a bug shortly after 10.9.3 came out. No indication of a fix as yet.


I've got a workaround that may mean you don't have to reboot (assuming you can get a picture on one display) - I've temporarily installed 'Display Menu' from the App Store. After the Dell has gone into standby, I change the refresh frequency for the Dell to a different value. That seems to reinitialise the driver and the monitor wakes up with a picture. It's then fine until sleep time.


There are quite a few other threads about issues with 10.9.3 with multiple monitors, so I have to assume that once the Apple engineers get back from WWDC they'll be working on a fix for 10.9.4...


Like you, I'm quite frustrated that something like this has happened.

Jun 15, 2014 8:33 PM in response to Thomas Isaacs

Hi,


Yes, this has been the bane of my existence. I am running on a 2013 4 core MacPro at my office, and a 2013 6 core MacPro at home. Both of them have multiple third party monitors. This has also happened with my other coworker who is also working with 2013 4 core with 27" Asus monitors.


I hope someone comes up with a solution for this soon! Get on it Apple! These computers were too expensive for such an irritating bug.


However, I do have a work around that doesn't require restarting. Simply unplug your monitors from the MacPro, and plug them back in. After a couple rounds of doing this, the display does show up again. However, I do have to reconfigure the display and arrangement almost every time. IT IS A HUGE WASTE OF TIME!

Jun 16, 2014 8:42 AM in response to Thomas Isaacs

Granted this is a half baked work around. The bad think about it as a work around is if it does work great but if you walk away and the displays go to sleep you come back to the same issue. This expensive of a machine you should not have to jump through hoops to get running the way it should out of the box. I wonder if 10.10 still has the same issues. Apple is asking for a law suit if not fixed since 10.9.2 shows it can work.

Jun 24, 2014 12:44 PM in response to Thomas Isaacs

I've had my new Mac Pro for about two week with an NEC as primary and a Samsung as the secondary monitor. Each are connected via individual Thunderbolt/DVI-d adapters. It's always my NEC that this happens to. I'm going to switch my adapters but keep the monitors on their same TB port and see if the problem follows the adapter or stays with the monitor. If nothing changes, I'll move the monitors to another pair of TB ports and then see if there's any difference. I'll update this thread in a few days after I've had a chance to see how it goes.

Jun 26, 2014 2:54 PM in response to Thomas Isaacs

I ended up not switching the adapters. However, I did move them to different TB ports. It's usually the NEC that doesn't come on about 25% of the time after my Mac has been asleep. I had been rebooting it to get it to work. I found a couple of workarounds to the reboot. One works sometimes and the other works every time. I moved my Dock to the Samsung monitor side so at least I can get to stuff if the NEC is dark.


The thing I found that works sometimes is an app from the App Store called Display Menu. I can get in there and change the screen resolution a couple of times on both monitors and it will cause the NEC to come on and then go back off but if I try it a couple of times, sometimes it stays on.


The thing I found that works every time is convenient because my Mac Pro sits behind my monitor within easy reach. I simply disconnect both Thunderbolt adapters for the two monitors for a few seconds and then reconnect. This works almost every single time with just one disconnect/reconnect. Occasionally, I have to do it a second time.


I know this is not a solution but is only a workaround to a reboot until it's fixed.

Jun 30, 2014 1:53 PM in response to Thomas Isaacs

Hi,


Just installed the final version of 10.9.4 (hot off the press tonight). No fix for my multiple monitor problem - the second display doesn't wake from sleep and I have to use the Display Menu 'hack' to get it to be detected.


Not acceptable at all for their flagship machine. Considering what to do now: try to invoke AppleCare to get them to sort it out? I bet their response will be to either revert back to 10.9.2 or wait for Yosemite...

Jun 30, 2014 2:29 PM in response to Greg818

Greg818 wrote:


Hi,


Just installed the final version of 10.9.4 (hot off the press tonight). No fix for my multiple monitor problem - the second display doesn't wake from sleep and I have to use the Display Menu 'hack' to get it to be detected.


Not acceptable at all for their flagship machine. Considering what to do now: try to invoke AppleCare to get them to sort it out? I bet their response will be to either revert back to 10.9.2 or wait for Yosemite...

someone with a 10.9.2 installer should upload it to mega or something, but then maybe the Apple legal machine will come down on him, who knows

Mac Pro 2013 Multiple Display Issues

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