Apple cinema display did not start.

[essiw]

Hi all,

I have a problem with my (old LCD, non-tunderbold) cinema display, this morning it suddenly didn't start.
It is connected to a mac mini and normally I have to turn it on with a press on the button. It tried that several times and in the beginning I saw the small light (indicater of the display being on/off) turn on and directly turn off again. It also seems to make a faint beeping noise when connected to the computer...

Miracelously it suddenly started again while typing this (after 10 minutes). But now I am afraid this will happen again. Can someone help me, are there any tests I can do with my screen? Any one maybe knowing what the problem might be.

If it helps some background info on my cinema display. My previous one got fried by thunder, so I got a replacement from Apple (reimbursed by insurance). I noticed after a while that the screen has some kidn of burn-in, in the way that you will see a ghost of your previous windows open (black-white contrast) if you have the monitor on to long. It also makes a faint humming noise when turned on, this changes tone when I make the screen lighter/dimmer. It didn't bother me that much though, but it might help explaining why this happened?

Please help me to see if there is something logical going on here and if I need to do things to prevent this from happening again.

 

[essiw]

Had the same problem right now. After about 10 minutes the display started working. I am kind of worried that this is the beginning of the end for the display. I hope someone has more information for me, or things I can try to resolve this.

 

[whodatrr]

I have one of the same vintage as well, which is starting to act up a bit. It charges, with the magsafe adapter that I bought, about 50% of the time. And this is when I wiggle it. The Minidisplayport is also a bit wonky, requiring me to fiddle a bit, before it turns on.

Point is, after having a couple generations of Mac displays, the cabling often proved to be the weakest link. The cinema display i had prior to this one had an input cable go bad, and the one before that had the cable completely deteriorate. Can't speak to the burn-in or humming issues, but do carefully inspect your cabling for the unresponsive display issue. One of the problems with Apple integrating its cabling, vs providing ports like everyone else... I guess?

Good luck!

 

[essiw]

Thank you for your answer.
So about the bad cables, I assume you mean the ones going in the adapter and from the adapter into the monitor (and not the one from the monitor to the computer)? That is something I should be able to test, and I might as well test if the adapter itself is the problem. Thanks again, I didn't think of bad cables being the source

 

[Fishrrman]

How old is the display?
Could be components going bad inside, preventing startup.
With time, everything wears out.

If it -is- something gone bad inside, the cost of repair may not be worth it.
It might be time to start considering a replacement.
You can get a new 3rd-party display for not-a-lot-of-money these days.

A good place to look for such a replacement would be by browsing this comprehensive list of IPS displays:
Comprehensive List of S-IPS/H-IPS/e-IPS and other IPS Based LCD Monitors

 

[whodatrr]

Replacement may be necessary. If it is, rest assured that you'll end up with a display that looks much better than that old one. I run three Dell U2713HM displays in my office, and they are far better than the old Apple 27 Cinema. Colors pop, contrast is great, etc. I bought them about a year and a half ago, open-box, for about $450ea. I suspect they're cheaper now. They're also adjustable, so you can put them at the exact level that you need. My two Dells are flanking my 27 iMac, perfectly.

The 34" ultra wide Dell UltraSharp U3415W is another to consider. Same height and resolution as the 27 Apple, but significantly wider, effectively adding space for a third document or Web page. These are now selling for about $750, in the US, and are certainly a nice upgrade from that old Apple display.

In other words, if you do have to replace that old display, it will be a significant upgrade. Apple displays are woefully out of date and overpriced.

How old is the display?
Could be components going bad inside, preventing startup.
With time, everything wears out.

If it -is- something gone bad inside, the cost of repair may not be worth it.
It might be time to start considering a replacement.
You can get a new 3rd-party display for not-a-lot-of-money these days.

A good place to look for such a replacement would be by browsing this comprehensive list of IPS displays:
Comprehensive List of S-IPS/H-IPS/e-IPS and other IPS Based LCD Monitors

 

[pastrychef]

What you described as "ghosting" sounds like image retention which is a fairly common issue in IPS panels.

The humming that you hear makes me think that something is wrong with the power supply.

 

[essiw]

Thanks all for your responses Mine is a 23 inch LCD display, it is not the glossy version but the dull one (sorry if my english terms are wrong, I am dutch).

@Fishrrmen: I am unsure how old it really is, as it got replaced by a refurbished one form Apple when my old one was fried by lightning, but I estimate it around 7 years old? My memory is a bit vague though about that. I certainly hope it is not the fault of components inside, as that would probably be the end of the display.

@whodatrr: Well I really like the look of my cinema display, but indeed if I would replace my display it would not be an apple one, as I simply don't have that money right now.

@pastrychef: sounds logical, thanks for the explanation

I will do some test this week I know someone with the same adapter and cables so I can switch those and see if it helps. If it does then I know the cables are wrong. For the sake of elimination I will also test it on an other computer, to see if it is my computer.

 

[essiw]

Ok so after a lot of tests, I still have no clue what is wrong. The thing is, this cinema display does not work on my computer, but does work on the computer of someone I know (on his hackingtosh). He does have the exact same cinema display as mine, and that cinema display works on both mine and his computer... We checked all the cables (by switching his with mine and such) and they all worked fine. So now we have switched screens (until my old one breaks down for good if that might happen), but I am still clueless why that screen would not work on my computer but does on his computer... and that his screen does not cause any problems with my mac min...

The only theory that we could came up with is that the cinema display needs to receive some sort of signal from the computer in order to start displaying what is happening with the computer, and that my old monitor suddenly needed a more powerful signal and that his hackingtosh somehow gives a larger signal than my mac mini...

So I am asking you, what are your thoughts about this, as I am still clueless.

 

[h9826790]

Did you test your GPU with another monitor?

 

[essiw]

Did you test your GPU with another monitor?

Thanks for your reply. Sadly I have no clue how to test my GPU, a quick search gives me only third party apps. What does testing the GPU entail?

 

[h9826790]

Since you said that the monitor / cable itself is OK with other computer. So, the remaining variable is the power supply and the computer.

It's easier to test the computer than the power supply. So just plug another monitor to your Mac, if that monitor also works fine, then it may be the power supply issue.

 

[essiw]

Ah, like that. I think I already tried both.

As I said in one of my previous comments I am now using the exact same cinema display from some one else (I traded screens). And this cinema display works normally on my mac mini. So the computer does not seem to be at fault.

As we have the same cinema displays we also have the same adapters for the display (sorry I am not english, but I guess that is what you meant with the power supply?). And it did not make a difference which adapter I used.

At the same time we tried my cinema display at his computer and it worked normally for his computer. That seems to rule out both the display and the computer which makes me confused, as one of those has to be wrong right?

It also is not a one-time only issue, as I tried after changing screens and the problem still occurs if I use my old screen, but not the new screen.

 

[essiw]

Ok so I am back again. This new screen suddenly began displaying the same things as my old display (though not yet that extreme as described in this topic, just a few minutes of black screen). So now I really know for sure that it is not the monitor that is the problem, but the computer (either software or hardware).

As I had thunder struck my mac mini a few years ago (it got repaired, they replaced the motherboard), I thought it might be the mini-DVI port being the problem. So I directly bought a mini-display port cable to DVI adapter to see if that was the problem. Though it didn't help at all (yay for 35 euro's wasted).

So then I went around and looked for all kinds of things I could do with the software on my mac, reset settings and such. And I might have found a solution (though I am unsure yet whether it actually did the trick). I did a SMC reset and immediately noticed that my computer became a bit quicker at startup, so that sounds promising. I also did a ton of other resets and checks and things like deleting caches, safe booting, etc. in the library just to be sure. I will keep you all informed if it did fix my computer

I also found a logical explanation for the behavior of my computer. I read somewhere that the computer sends out signals to the monitor (or visa versa) and when the timing of receiving and sending doesn't match the computer tries to send other signals, until it matches. It sounds logical to me that something there goes wrong, but that is just a guess.

 

[essiw]

So, I checked the next day and it did not work at all... But after some long searching and the need to reset PRAM once more because I didn't hear a chime anymore I came across a page displaying problems that happen when your PRAM battery is not working anymore, including black screens when starting up, superdrives not working properly (mine just spits them out after some weird noise), so I though it might be worth of a try to take apart my mac mini to replace the battery (with a ifixit guide), now to find a battery that fits and then hope I don't break something when opening this mac mini...