Mattzda3

Q: Multiple Displays have problems with El Capitan

I upgraded to El Capitan last week. Immediately after restarting from the install, my 2nd and 3rd monitors no longer displayed anything. It's like they were turned off. I tried restarting, but nothing changed. I then tried switching cables to different ports and seeing what would happen with just a single monitor plugged in, here's what I found.

 

Machine Info:

MacPro

32GB RAM

AMD FirePro D500 3072 MB Graphics

 

27" Apple Cinema Display (x2) using Thunderbolt

13HD Wacom Cintiq using HDMI

 

-------------------------

When 1 monitor was plugged in, it would work fine.

When 2 were plugged in, only the first monitor would work

It seems that changing ports made no difference, only 1 monitor would work at any given time. I also had issues with some external drives failing to mount.

 

I called AppleCare and they had me reset the SMC on the MacPro. This seemed to fix it until I setup my second cinema display with Apple Calendar and Apple Mail in the new split view and quit the applications without exiting SplitView first. Doing this blacked out the second Cinema display and I had to repeat the SMC reset procedure (listed below). It happened again about an hour later after a restart, I called AppleCare again and the tech led me through the SMC reset steps again and all monitors began working properly again. Within the next few hours the same problem happened again...I am now back on Yosemite until I see something indicating this problem is fixed.

 

I noticed that Beta users had this problem documented quite a bit on the .3 release, but I saw that the .4 release seemed to fix the issue. Well, it did not. I caught lightening in a bottle and it's happening to me.

 

 

 

SMC Reset Procedure

1. Shut Down computer if it's not already shut down

2. Unplug all peripherals and computer for 30 seconds

3. Plug in computer to power and one monitor

4. Start-up and check to see if monitor is working

5. If monitor is working then plug-in second display and restart

 

This worked for me and I was able to plug up the other peripherals.

 

I'm not sure why the problem persists, but everything is completely stable and operates fine on Yosemite.

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), iMac 27" 8GB i7

Posted on Oct 5, 2015 9:36 AM

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Q: Multiple Displays have problems with El Capitan

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  • by Echosend,

    Echosend Echosend Jan 25, 2016 7:42 AM in response to Mattzda3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 25, 2016 7:42 AM in response to Mattzda3

    I reset the NVRAM and now it's not as easy to simply start in 10.11.2. WIll the new update fix that?

  • by bmsteinke,

    bmsteinke bmsteinke Jan 26, 2016 1:46 AM in response to millport
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 26, 2016 1:46 AM in response to millport

    Thanks a lot. Your workaround finally helped :-)

  • by BereaVideo,

    BereaVideo BereaVideo Jan 26, 2016 11:18 AM in response to Mattzda3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 26, 2016 11:18 AM in response to Mattzda3

    I was having the problem with only one monitor showing up, and boot up was taking an unusually long time. The solution for me proved to be unplugging all peripherals except the monitors and adding them back one-by-one. When I connected a card reader the problem resurfaced. I even verified this as I replicated the problem on a different machine. All is well now.

  • by zen7,

    zen7 zen7 Feb 3, 2016 8:20 AM in response to JimmyCMPIT
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 3, 2016 8:20 AM in response to JimmyCMPIT

    This was what killed it for me and El Capitan. I made the jump and lost my extra Acer monitor. Then I would login and within about 30 seconds, often less, it would boot me back out to the login screen. Over and over and over again. I wasted days on trying to solve the problem.

     

    So I had to revert to Yosemite. Back "in the day" you could get old versions of the OS for just such a problem, but that isn't the case now as far as I can tell. Fortunately I had a copy somehow laying around. I reverted and solved all problems.    The moral: No upgrade goes unpunished. It seems like especially since Steve Jobs anal attention to detail has left the building. Oh and when you download an OS install, back it up someplace in case you need it.

  • by John Gaul,

    John Gaul John Gaul Feb 3, 2016 10:04 AM in response to Mattzda3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 3, 2016 10:04 AM in response to Mattzda3

    I had the same problem, this might work:

    Have had issues with external monitor not being recognized, MacBook Pro 2015/ El Capitan. Thought it was due to upgrade. Tried hitting option key under display preferences, Tried multiple resets. Tried SMC reset. Fixed problem by recognizing mini adaptor (thunderbolt) was upside down, and it works if you insert it with small logo on top. Yes, It can go in both ways. If you have this problem, unplug the thunderbolt plug from the mac, look at it and reverse it, try again. JG

  • by Dan Shewmaker,

    Dan Shewmaker Dan Shewmaker Feb 8, 2016 10:26 AM in response to Mattzda3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 8, 2016 10:26 AM in response to Mattzda3

    I was having a similar problem.  2013 Mac Pro with two Cinema 30" Displays.  I had been using El Capitan without issue for a few weeks and then one day after a routine reboot, only one display would come up - the other would be completely non-powered.  Swapping the display connectors proved that the displays were ok - but somehow both were not being recognized at the same time..

     

    Solution:  Shutdown computer and disconnect all external drives and other peripherals except for keyboard and 1 monitor.  Restart.  System should come up normally.  Connect second monitor to the open display port - it should fire up normally.  Add each external drive and peripheral one by one until all are connected.

     

    So far this solution is working fine and doesn't need to be done between subsequent restarts.

  • by Theodore Stacy,

    Theodore Stacy Theodore Stacy Feb 11, 2016 5:32 PM in response to zen7
    Level 1 (23 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 11, 2016 5:32 PM in response to zen7

    i am running a 2008 8 core 3.1 MP with two Nvidia GT120 graphics.  Early EC crashed, crashed, crashed.  I waited and waited.  Now NVIDIA has new drivers for version 10.11.3.  They work.  System now is acting stable with 4 monitors  You must upgrade El Capitan first, then install the drivers from NVIDIA.  I downloaded them first and unplugged all but one monitor from the graphics cards.  Installed 10.11.3, then the drivers, then reboot, then added monitors.  First to existing plug in card, then to other card.  So far so good. I did not do any system resets.

  • by Echosend,

    Echosend Echosend Feb 11, 2016 6:51 PM in response to Mattzda3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 11, 2016 6:51 PM in response to Mattzda3

    Dan's solution did not work for me. Does my NVIDIA GeForce 9400 need new drivers???

    Since resetting the NVRAM I can no longer automatically start under 10.11. That partition no longer shows up under Startup Disc in System Preferences. I can only get there by the Option button route. If I remember upon startup the second monitor is not recognized (I have to do the unplug-replug routine). If I do this on restart both monitors work immediately. After getting to 10.11 (which I must do seeing as the newer OS means a newer Itunes which means it processed the library files such that 10.6.8 no longer works with them) any further startup just revert back to the older OS. Why doesn't the Mac "see" the newer OS unless forced there?

    The primary monitor goes through a KVM. It's the secondary that goes directly to the Mac but the new os doesn't see it, so I doubt I can blame the KVM.

  • by Brucester70,

    Brucester70 Brucester70 Feb 23, 2016 2:30 AM in response to sorenmadsen
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 23, 2016 2:30 AM in response to sorenmadsen

    Hi Soren, have you managed to find a resolution to your issue as I suffer exactly the same issue since upgrading.

     

    Cheers

  • by Echosend,

    Echosend Echosend Feb 23, 2016 5:46 PM in response to Mattzda3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 23, 2016 5:46 PM in response to Mattzda3

    Had to abandon El Capitan and only go to that partition when I need to. Had to entirely regenerate my Itunes library, but gained back my extra monitor.

  • by Brucester70,

    Brucester70 Brucester70 Feb 24, 2016 2:01 AM in response to Echosend
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 24, 2016 2:01 AM in response to Echosend

    They need to get a resolution to this asap - as its a bit of a job going back to Yosemite.

     

    Did doing that 100% fix all your display issues?

  • by khulna,

    khulna khulna Feb 25, 2016 12:53 PM in response to millport
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 25, 2016 12:53 PM in response to millport

    Thanks millport. After many straggle, your solution works great!! Thanks again. 

  • by Waveform2,

    Waveform2 Waveform2 Mar 16, 2016 2:35 PM in response to khulna
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 16, 2016 2:35 PM in response to khulna

    I have this issue but not with thunderbolt its a display port to hdmi mid 2010 27" iMac as soon as i upgraded it stopped working I've tried everything and the cable had NEVER been disconnected so that rules that out.

     

    Come on Apple?????

  • by Waveform2,

    Waveform2 Waveform2 Mar 18, 2016 7:37 PM in response to Waveform2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 18, 2016 7:37 PM in response to Waveform2

    I paid a fortune for an IMac that cant output via HDMI, pathetic.

  • by Waveform2,

    Waveform2 Waveform2 Mar 18, 2016 7:40 PM in response to Echosend
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 18, 2016 7:40 PM in response to Echosend

    its not your KVM its apple turning into Microsoft!

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