farwest1
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Dead Thunderbolt Port on Macbook Pro

I have a 2013 Macbook Pro with two Thunderbolt ports on the left side.  Both appear to be dead. This happened suddenly.  Two days ago they were both working, though they were having some issues--screen lag and other things.  It felt like they were dying.

 

The reason I suspect the ports on the Macbook rather than on the connected device is this: I have two LED Cinema Displays.  When I plug either display in, the USB connection works, but the Thunderbolt connections won't.  It's unlikely that two different display Thunderbolt connections stopped working simultaneously.

 

So...how can I fix a dead Thunderbolt port on a Macbook Pro?  I've tried rebooting both PRAM and SMC.  Any other suggestions?

Macbook Pro 3.06 GHz, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 31, 2016 6:15 AM

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farwest1

Q: Dead Thunderbolt Port on Macbook Pro

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  • by kpkes,

    kpkes kpkes Sep 6, 2016 3:35 PM in response to farwest1
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Sep 6, 2016 3:35 PM in response to farwest1

    Hi farwest,

    I had the same issue on iMac27-R. I have a G-RAID-12TB and a LaCie-6TB drive connected to my Mac, both on their own port. After ejecting the G-RAID and switching it off, also the LaCie was ejected. I tried the PRAM and SMC reset procedures, swithing off and take power cord away for 30 seconds. Called Apple support and they suggested to create a new user, reboot and see or to reload a Time Capsule backup. Did that too. Nothing worked. My last resort was to hand my Mac to Apple Support as I still am under 'care'. Just out of curiosity I started playing with cables and while both disks were switched on (and not seen my iOS) I plugged and daisy chained the two devices. After a few trials, suddenly the G-RAID started spinning up and voila, it was mounted. Did the same with the LaCie. I am completely in the dark about the cause and even more about what caused them to spin up while playing with the cables and daisy chaining my two disks. All of my cables are fine, the disks are in good shape, so something in iOS did not want to recognize the attached devices until I played with cables. Would like to hear and find out what could possibly be the cause of this and how I could reliably get to reset iOS or the MAC