Why does my second display shut off?

Question

Level 1

8 points

Why does my second display shut off?

Until recently, I was using two separate USB-C ports, one for power and the other to my HDMI second display. I was using the two because the display is DVI so I had an adapter that made using any other device on the Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter was not possible as it was too wide and blocked the ports.

So I bought a correct cable, HDMI to DVI, which works fine. What I have noticed, on one or more occasions, that when I plug the USB-C cable on the adapter into the power, the second screen shuts down and I have to completely restart the Macbook Pro to have it recognized.

This sounds suspiciously like either a faulty adapter or driver but I would like to hear from others.

Thanks!

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016, 4 TBT3), Sierra 10.12.5

Posted on Jul 9, 2017 6:08 PM

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Answer 1

zoebisch Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 29, 2017 1:44 PM in response to zoebisch

The solution to this, I have found through trial-and-error is if you plug in the power cable and the second display drops, is to simply leave all the power and HDMI plugged in (and USB if you have that plugged in as well), and then unplug the Thunderbolt 3 cable from the Mac and then plug it back in. This seems to work all the time and is not in the official troubleshooting page referenced above.

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Answer 2

zoebisch Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 10, 2017 3:17 PM in response to Leanne_68

Hi thanks for the response.

However, if you re-read my question, that is not what is happening. The display is fine, and has been fine and works fine when plugged into the adapter by itself. The issue only happens when I plug in the USB-C charging cable into the adapter when the display is plugged in as shown in the photo. This happens randomly and sometimes it works, other times it disconnects.

Again, my guess is something is wrong and if it is the adapter, I want to contact support before the warranty runs out.

Thanks!

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Answer 3

Leanne_68

Community Specialist

Jul 10, 2017 1:16 PM in response to zoebisch

Greetings zoebisch,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. It seems like you have an external display and it is shutting off and you have to reboot your MacBook Pro to get it to work. I would recommend you read this article and use it to help troubleshoot the issue.

Get help with video issues on external displays connected to your Mac
Take care.

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