second screen STILL black after upgrade to High Sierra

Question

second screen STILL black after upgrade to High Sierra

I am VERY disappointed.

Since Yosemity the connection from iMac to Apple Cinema Display became unreliable. After struggling with this for almost 2 years I decided to switch to High Sierra. It was said that this bug was fixed. (Software / cable related, Applke admitted it)

Well.

Nope.

Screen still black. SOMETIMES.

Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

Drives me nuts.

Dear Apple. I must earn my money with your products. Have been doing that for more tham 15 years. I need my second screen for editing, coding, etc. Do you understand? I am not your average consumer you can make happpy with some new fancy features in Siri of Photo App. I Do Not Care About That. At All.

I just want to do my work, I need a reliable second screen.

Gosh, I am sooooooo tired of this.

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013), iOS 11.2.1, second screen

Posted on Jan 5, 2018 12:52 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 27, 2018 9:14 AM in response to J.J. Leutscher

I finally found a solution to my problem trying to connect a 23" ACD to a 2017 iMac. The great support people at https://www.monoprice.com helped me to understand that the particular year of ACD I have is the culprit as Apple's timing built into the attached DVI cable to it is proprietary and ONLY Apple connectors will work. So if you have a cinema display with the cables on the back looking like the image below you will have to buy the following 2 connectors to make it work. I got them yesterday, connected everything and my ACD is working perfectly with my iMac.

Apple HDMI to DVI Adapter - Apple

and

USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter - Apple

It's a pricey solution but it works if your ACD looks like this on the back:

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Answer 2

Jan 22, 2018 12:07 PM in response to J.J. Leutscher

No, not at all now. But I did find another thread that I just posted to where at least 2 others got the iMac to work with the ACDs: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7993647?answerId=31963762022#31963762022. Go to page 2 of the discussion for the post of the people that got it to work and then my reply is on the last page.

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Answer 3

Jan 5, 2018 2:48 AM in response to J.J. Leutscher

YES!! I found a solution.

1) Cut the powercord to the Apple Cinema Display (It has no power on/off switch)

2) Install a switch in the powercord.

Now IF after booting the mac, the second monitor stays black (in 99% of all cases) just switch the monitor on and off untill it finally switches on. Could take some minutes, just be patient.

One more thing, be aware of the fact that there should be NO OPEN windows visible on your second screen when putting your Mac to sleep or shut down. For some reason the second screen will not awake at all with some window open on it.

Thank you, Appe, for letting us find these CREATIVE solutions!

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Answer 4

Jan 17, 2018 8:15 PM in response to J.J. Leutscher

I think I'm having the same problem however I just tried using my 23" Cinema Display as a second monitor this week with a new iMac. Previously I was using it as an external monitor for a MacBook Pro with no problems for years.

So I bought a DVI/USBC connector and when I plug it in sometimes my iMac sees it but even when it does the Cinema Display won't work. The front small light on the lower right of it comes on and then goes right off and nothing comes on the screen.

Does this seem similar to what you were experiencing? Could you go into a little more detail about what you did to install a switch on the power cord? Thank you.

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Answer 5

Jan 18, 2018 12:23 AM in response to Lauren Grabelle

Hi

yes, almost simular here, except I seem to have another model of the Cinema Display, there is no green light ar the front, and the 3 cables are fixed to the monitor. One power cord, one mini DVI connection to iMac or MacBookPro and one connection to charge the battery of a MBP. I actually did not cut the powercord to the monitor, but switch the power to the monitor on an off with an external switch. Principle is the same.

I notice a problem in communication between the computer and the screen. When starting up here comes a signal to the monitor, but the monitor does not accept it. Sometimes there is some flickering, a vague ghost image is sometimes visible, but then the monitor stays black. By unplugging either connection cable or powercord (to the monitor!) this process repeats untill at a certain given moment (it can take 5 till 10 times of trying) the monitor ’awakes’ and acceps the signal. It does not loose the signal once it works. Monitor seems still OK, I can switch resolution or rotation in software, so the driver is OK. I run High Sierra, the Apple Cinema Display is some 10 years old, a real quality product!

I wanted to avoid stress to the small DVI connection so I only interrupt the power to the monitor, and to make this easier I mounted an external powerswitch in the powercord to the monitor.

When I want to leave my work for a while I switch the monitors to a screensaver. If I do not do that, and the screens turn black (=monitor sleep) I MUST repeat the whole above process. The monitor does not directly accept a signal from the computer after sleep, it does not wake up together with the computer screen.

I once read that this is a cord problem which Apple has not been able to fix. Untill then I use this life hack. I do hope my comment is some kind of help for you too.

regards

/atelier

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Answer 6

Jan 21, 2018 6:50 PM in response to J.J. Leutscher

Thank you for all the details but I think I am just going to give up. I've posted in multiple forums (including here) and can't get any help other than what you wrote. I guess it was just not meant to be: using the cinema display as a 2nd monitor with the 2017 iMac. Glad you got it to work despite all you had to go through though.

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Answer 7

Jan 22, 2018 4:09 AM in response to Lauren Grabelle

Hi, sorry to read that. So you did not get the monitor to work at all?

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