Chosen Solution
I’ve had the Apple Thunderbolt Display for a little more than a year, and it has started to intermittently go black for a few seconds at a time. When it does, I usually lose connection to my usb devices connected through the display. If I let it go on, it blanks more and more frequently until the system kernel panics. So far, I’ve tried cleaning the contacts with rubbing alcohol. This made them more visually attractive, but did not solve the problem. Second, I tried using another macbook pro, but it had the same issue. I’ve noticed that the thunderbolt connector heats up significantly when it’s in use. I’m wondering if there’s a heat-related issue that could be causing a broken connection in the electronics inside the connector. Any thoughts?
The heat is expected as the Thunderbolt cable has some electronics in the connector which does heat up. I would focus on the power supply in the display. Heres a similar Question Why is my LED cinema display switching on and off?
Using another Thunderbolt cable attached to the additional port on the display instead of using the built in cable solved the problem for me. At least I now know that it is the display cable and not something with my Macbook. Now I will get a replacement cable for the display. Can anyone tell me if it can be opened without suction cups, or are they necessary? Thanks.
try external thunderbolt display cable. i hope that will solve the problem. the heat you are noticing on connector is coming from PC which lead to connector. black out issue will be solved after the external thunderbolt monitor cable from apple.
See if disconnecting all the USB and firewire you have that might be drawing power. See it the issue persists or takes longer to go out. It probably is a power supply but something may be drawing to much power.
There was a firmware update that fixed the problem
Hello everyone, I’ve been experiencing the same or similar problems with my thunderbolt 27" monitor. Lost the USB ports and the camera, then it started to flicker and soon complete blackout. Well I read about the cable and how it might be bad, but for whatever reason I didn’t go down that road. I chose to replace the power supply. That seemed to work, for about a day or two, before I lost the USB ports and the camera again. Then the display started to blink on and off. Needless to say I was pretty bummed. I was researching and found this discussion board. Well long story short I disconnected the “integral thunderbolt cable from my Mac mini and connected the monitor to the computer using a dedicated cable going to the “aux thunderbolt port”. This was two days ago and everything seems to be working great. The only downside is that you lose the “aux” port. I does seem to be an issue with the thunderbolt connection inside the monitor. But that’s a bit out of my league. Good Luck.
Have a similar issue. If display brightness is set to above 70% after several minutes of use the screen goes black. Works totally fine if the brightness is below 70% (approximately). Replaced the power supply and tried a separate TB cable neither helped resolve the issue.
I still have the display (Packed away in the garage) and plan to take it apart one day to find the weak (possibly) cold solder joint in the power line that powers the Led backlight.
turn off the sleep option, don’t let it go to sleep. Mine would flicker occasionally and never wake up after sleeping. Turned off sleep function and have had ZERO issues in about 6 weeks.
Hi Guys, I have the same trouble what we need to do is change the powers supply, Mine is completely dead now and went with a bang it flickered did all that crap that every one else’s display is doing from the very first day I got 3 years ago. I really don’t think there is any thing apple about this display of mine any more, I have change almost all of the parts in this display and all I need now is the Australian conversion power supply. I need to find out where I can get one and how to replace it, cost of the part, oh yeah I live in Australia so I really need Australian power supply for the LCD thunderbolt display. I did not know they made a LED display there is no led lighting in the thunder bolt I have pulled mine apart many times to fix problem after problem and apple want to make you pay $100’s of dollars to fix it.
After having my TB Display “repaired” at an Apple store about a year ago, I recently put it back in service only to experience the sudden instances of loss of video (SILV) after 10-15 min of utilization. My next step was to use a separate TB cable instead of that supplied with the TB display. Same result! Having previously noticed the heat generated at the computer end of the TB cable, I put a large metal “paper” clip on the plastic connector to dissipate the heat. Much to my amazement, this appears to be a viable solution! Thus far, no occurrences of SILV and while the heat sink/paper clip is rather ugly, it does appear to be effective. If anyone else out there can recommend a more elegant heat sink, I’d love to hear about it …
Ok I know this is an old display but I love it.. except for the fact that it’s now black.. the build in camera works so I guess it’s safe to assume that the cable is fine (right?)… what can I do… is it really time for recycling this baby?
This is way late, but the heat thing resultant from the repeatedly stressed connection seems to be the issue. a.k.a. “Bad Design” See FLIR pic:
https://ibb.co/h24jY7B The connection is the hottest thing around by 20 degrees (case next to the connection is only 98˚)
My display has been in my closet for over a year.. I have taken it in to Apple, and the guy tries to up-sell me on a new computer, claiming that my Mac is too old. Could you elaborate on the cold solder joint issue?? If this is a design flaw in the Apple product, why is Apple not stepping up and authorizing a recall. We should be able to drop it off at the Apple store and get it back in 30 days, ready to go. They seem to be very quiet about this issue, which is causing me to be a little less locked in to the Apple products weakness that I currently have.
same problem here - resolved with a new thunderbolt —> thunderbolt cord (2m for $39 at apple store), surprisingly the power supply connection still works as it should, now with a dangling and dead thunderbolt connector.
I’ve had this problem on and off for months now. However, I’ve not seen the TB Monitor go black during use, rather when I plug it into my laptop, the computer sets up for the two monitors, but the TB Monitor is black. I’ve found two options to getting it working again: disconnect the power to the TB Monitor and peripherals for a few mins, then turn it back on, and reconnect TB cable to your computer.Disconnect other Thunderbolt devices on the chain. One or other (or both!) of these things have always gotten the TB monitor working again for me. I’ve always been reluctant to try the replacement TB cable, as I would then lose the TB connection to all the devices I have chained off that port. Hence, constant noodling. But although it’s been really frustrating and it can often take me an hour of fiddling to get things back, it HAS always come back to life again.
Unfortunately I’m in a “throw it out or fix it” situation with this. My TB Monitor situation started to happen more often, and on a few occasions became a crisis as I can’t do my work without a second monitor (film editor). I bought a new Dell 3219Q monitor to replace it, but since the TB monitor does indeed work 98% of the time, I would love to find a way to fix this issue so I can have a large dual monitor setup. I know that, at least in my case, along the way I’ve disproved all the theories in this thread, including my own. Here are things I know: • If power to the TB Monitor was turned off for a while (overnight, typically), the issue would almost always happen - the computer would ‘see’ the monitor, all functions and things hubbed through the monitor would work just fine, but the display was black. • I changed ports, cables, adaptors and finally even the computer, using a brand new MacBook Pro, but the problem continued no matter what I did. • It’s not a software or firmware issue, either with the monitor (it has that last firmware update) or computer (because it happened with a different, brand new computer, running Apple’s off-the shelf Catalina instead of Mojave on the older computer). • Once, the monitor just went black during the day as I was working. Everything continued to work just fine, but the display was completely off. • Pulling the power to the monitor for at least 20 mins or more was the ONLY thing that could bring it back to life, but doing this for hours did not guarantee it coming back. In every case that the display has gone black, it has eventually ALWAYS come back - at some point. But I’ve had to leave it alone for a day or two to get that. Suddenly, it would just work. • I just went back to using the built-in cable ganglion and that works, and fails, just as much as a direct cable in into the back of the monitor did. • I removed absolutely everything plugged into the back so there is no power draw other than monitor. Given all the above, I didn’t bother installing the new laptop power/TB cable ganglion I bought here, as that’s clearly not the issue. When working, it’s still a great display, and now that it’s just sitting on the shelf unused I’d love to crack it open and fix it if I can. Assuming the problem does not lie in the incoming cable ganglion or TB socket on the back of the monitor, and that it seems somehow connected to power issues, I’m going to try replacing the power supply, available here.
