You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

x.graves Author

Level 1

10 points

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Dual monitors freeze on startup?

I've got 2 monitors, 1 HDMI and 1 MiniDisplayPort/DVI into Thunderbolt, and the computer can't start, it crashes during the boot process. The main screen freezes just as the login comes up, the MDP screen is scrambled, and the mouse cursor is a spinning pizza.

The only solution so far is to remove the MDP cable during startup, but that is a dealbreaker because dual monitors is the sole reason I bought this, and c'mon it's a really expensive computer -- even my old MacBook could handle 2 monitors!

Any insights or solutions appreciated.

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), Late 2013

Posted on Jul 28, 2014 12:18 PM

70 replies

Tinpig

Level 1

0 points

Sep 10, 2014 12:19 PM in response to NoRoadsProd

You know, my fear of taking the unit to the Apple store is them saying "send it back to Apple for a replacement". Other people on different threads have said what you mentioned, even their replacement units have the same issue!!

x.graves Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 10, 2014 12:21 PM in response to Tinpig

Interesting Tinpig, that's even more evidence to back up my theory. When I took my MacPro into the genius bar, they wanted to run extended diagnostics but it would have taken up to a week and I can't give up my machine for that long. I'd sure like to get to the bottom of this so we can petition a fix.

Tinpig

Level 1

0 points

Sep 10, 2014 12:23 PM in response to x.graves

I made a secondary administration account with no extra software and the same thing happens. And again mine did this out of the box so it cant be blamed on anything extra that I installed.

Turning the monitor off just came to me yesterday! At least it works.

Tinpig

Level 1

0 points

Sep 10, 2014 12:26 PM in response to x.graves

Same here, I can't give up my machine as there is much work to do and that's my income. I'm wagering most of the people that own these machines use them professionally so Apple need to get this fixed.

Tinpig

Level 1

0 points

Sep 10, 2014 12:34 PM in response to x.graves

Could be a TB power issue when using 2 displays and 1 of the displays is attached to a TB port, because the unit boots when the display is off thus not using the TB port/bus until needed!!

I don't know, that's nothing more than me thinking aloud. I should probably stop now before someone gets hurt!

EdAnuff

Level 1

15 points

Sep 10, 2014 12:44 PM in response to Tinpig

I don't think its a TB power issue. I've tried lots of different combinations of devices connected to the TB ports and everything is good until two monitors are connected.

Tinpig

Level 1

0 points

Sep 10, 2014 12:51 PM in response to EdAnuff

that's a good point, I'm running audio cards and HD's on the TB ports and they are functioning without issue.

vett93

Level 1

27 points

Sep 10, 2014 12:57 PM in response to Tinpig

Apple Engineering has been working on my issues for over 2 months without any success. What can these self claimed geniuses help you by keeping your computers for a week?

The whole thing just doesn't add up.....

Tinpig

Level 1

0 points

Sep 10, 2014 1:01 PM in response to vett93

Well, they're not having my unit for a week!

I wonder if this issue happens with 2 Apple Thunderbolt displays?

Volt-Mac

Level 1

10 points

Sep 10, 2014 1:14 PM in response to vett93

Well my computer can hardly boot one thunderbolt monitor let alone 2. I'm leaving my Mac Pro with them so this issue can be officially documented, plus I'm done with experimenting with brand new high end computer.

Volt-Mac

Level 1

10 points

Sep 10, 2014 1:19 PM in response to vett93

How do we get this issue on Mac Rumors or another Apple News site so we can get the folks at Apple look into this immediately?

Tinpig

Level 1

0 points

Sep 10, 2014 1:22 PM in response to Volt-Mac

I don't know, but you can count on my support if anyone pushes this issue to a mainstream audience.

vett93

Level 1

27 points

Sep 10, 2014 1:25 PM in response to Volt-Mac

There are threads on Mac Rumors already.

Tinpig

Level 1

0 points

Sep 10, 2014 1:43 PM in response to vett93

Oh well! Maybe I'll be able to run dual monitors without a problem on the iPhone 6!! Ha.

x.graves Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 10, 2014 1:49 PM in response to Volt-Mac

You can report feedback to Apple here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/mac-pro.html

Who knows if that will actually help, but it couldn't hurt if you have a few minutes.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Dual monitors freeze on startup?