Q: Macbook - problems to connect w external screen

I have a Macbook (Retina, 12-inch, early 2016, 1.3Ghz) with everything fully updated.  I have exactly the same problem as you.  I've had probably 10 different mac laptops over the last decade, and never had as much trouble with external displays than with this new Macbook.   The external display just cuts out for a few seconds every few minutes, which makes giving presentations really painful.  I've tried many, many different choices of resolution and display configurations, and I'm using the official Apple adapter  (with three ports: dvi, usb-c, and usb).    NOTE: I originally used a non-apple version of this adapter, and all of the symptoms were way worse, so I bought the more expensive apple adapter, which "helped", but didn't fix the problem.  Also, the external display I use is a large high-quality crestron, which works perfectly with my other mac computers.

I too will be carrying a second old macbook air around specifically for presentations because of this....

- William

I'm having a similar problem. 2016 macbook. Screen goes black for half a second to couple seconds. I'm usually hooked up to an external where it happens once or twice every time I come out of sleep. When using laptop screen it happens sporadically. Same external I was using with my older 13 inch Air with no problems.

I had the same problem. It turn out the display port was dirty / dusty and the contacts where not making a good connection with the HDMI adapter.

Solution was to blow out the Macbook display port with a can of compressed air.

Worked fine after that.

Encountered the same thing - tried the less expensive USB-C multiport adapters (e.g., Anker), and the problem seemed to affect all of them.  Coughed up the $$ for the official Apple multiport adapter and the problem wasn't there...for the first day or two.  But now it's become persistent and, frankly, annoying.  Will try the canned air suggestion given to see if that does the job.

I did reset the PRAM and it worked for about a week. 

But the fade to black every 10 minutes for 1 or 2 seconds is back.

So, just for laughs, I tried the compressed air suggestion made by alex7375, and so far, it's worked.  Where the monitor was blacking out for 2-3 seconds every 3-5 minutes, it's been rock solid for the past four hours.  I keep the laptop in a felt sleeve; I wonder if little bits of the felt flake off when I insert the laptop and get into the port...

At any rate, it now seems to be working fine with the Apple Multiport Adapter on my desk at work - will try it when I get home with the no-name (vtin?) multiport adapter I'm using there and see if the problems with that have been solved, too.  The cheapie worked fine when I first got it, and its performance slowly deteriorated over time...as did the Apple version.

My MacBook 2016 has the same issues. I have tried three different displays, two different USB-C -HDMI Adapters with and without DVI-Adapter. Every few seconds the external displays went to black. I followed the hint to dust off the USB-C Port but that didn't help.

Hello Apple - is this a hardware- ore a software / driver / firmware Problem?

Are you using the Apple Multiport Adapter, or a 3rd party adapter?  My experience has been that the Apple adapter is the only one that actually works reliably.

Hello marinerblue,

i have tested the original Apple adapter and one from minix. The black screens occurs on several displays with both adapters.

Hopefully Apple is reading here and is aware of this problem, because this apparently affects not only a few users.

Thx for reply

I've had the same problems on the 2016 m7 model, using both the apple adapter and third party ones. I exchanged the first macbook, and now I'm on my second one and dealing with support about it. They've been very helpful, I would recommend you contact them. There is definitely a problem with some of these.

Same Problem here.

MacBook 12 Early 2016

I bought a external display from Acer.

The Display is linked direct with an usb-c cable to the MacBook.

Same Problem.

Linked with HDMI with a third party adapter

Same Problem.

Linked with HDMI with the original adapter

Same Problem.

Hello smthgelse,

does the problem occur on your second Macbook too?

Yes it does.