Apple 30" Troubleshooting - Help me rhonda

[Sean Dempsey]

I am at a new workplace, they have an Apple 30" for me.

The display starting going on/off after a day or 2 working on it (its been in use before). I kept messing with the cords and cables, and thought it was the power brick (the 110w brick).

So, I had that replaced.

Now a few days later, it's flickering again. Just goes from normal, to totally black.

It is hooked up to a new MBP 17" with the 9400/9600 GT card, and is using the Dual Link DVI - Displayport adapter to connect to the ACD30".

Well, I had thought it was the power supply, but now that is replaced, so what else could it be? I realize that "the monitor itself" is a good answer, but I am thinking it's more likely a problem with the displayport -> Dual link adapter, which itself is plugged into the ACD's pigtail adapter with the USB and FW400 plugs, or my MBP's video card and the display port.

What is up with this? How can I go about diagnosing this and figuring out why this is happening? I really don't want to have to tell them I need a new ACD30", since they might not replace it, but without a power supply problem, could it be a adapter problem? Or a video card problem?

Anything but a monitor problem.

 

[skorpien]

I'd check the cheapest components first. Try a new adapter. If that fails, it may be the display card in your MBP. I'm not sure if a hardware diagnostics test would provide you with information about a fault in the card (not savvy enough to know unfortunately), but if you have a spare MacBook, try using that with the ACD instead. I'm assuming that the problem persists when you attempt to troubleshoot at the time that it is happening, so if you kept a spare MB or MBP with you and connected the spare to the ACD when the problem arises, you'll be able to tell if it's the computer that's the problem.

 

[Aljovido]

Do you have all of the latest software updates installed? A friend of mine had what sounds like the same issue. A quick look under software update revealed he was was missing the latest update, and after updating his problems were instantly fixed.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

There's no apple updates available.

I am hoping people have seen this problem before and might sort of know if it's the adapter or the card. I do have another macbook pro I can try, but I don't recall the video port on the late 2009 MBP 13". This is a late 2009 17" I am on right now, which is Mini Display Port.

 

[skorpien]

The 13" MBPs have had Mini DisplayPorts since their introduction (and even when they were the Aluminum MBs). I'm not sure if that's what's on your 17" MBP. I wish I could be of more help, but unfortunately I do not own or have I ever used an ACD. Good luck!

 

[Frosties]

1. test with both videocards, the 9400/9600 was famous for blinking external screens. (there is a mega long thread here and at apple support on this. Was never solved, we have thankfully left these cards behind in this revision.)

Apple's fix on the problem was to replace almost the entire computer and do that until a working videocard/external screen timing was achieved.

2. update the firmware on the dual-dvi cable or go to apple and demand a replacement. They are known to be buggy.

3. the power brick failure is often shown as the screen not waking up after blanking on powersave.

4. send the screen to apple for failure search.

 

[kolax]

It's the Dual-Link adapter. It is notorious for problems.

A few links on that:

http://gizmodo.com/5119858/apples-m...nk-dvi-adapter-has-periodic-distortion-issues
http://www.9to5mac.com/DisplayPort-Dual-Link-DVI-Adapter
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8665197

There's a lot of discussion on our own forums about this too.

Of course, the screen could also be dodgy, but I'd put money on it being the dual-link adapter. Call up AppleCare and tell them your issue and say you've read bad reports on the dual-link adapter and believe that is the culprit. See if they'll send a replacement.

 

[dyn]

I'd also vote for the adapter since the flickering screen is one of the problems people experience when using the adapter. You could try to get it replaced but you might need to do that a couple of times to end up with an adapter that is reasonable. I was lucky and get a reasonable adapter from the start. However, this one isn't flawless, I still have some artefacts from time to time which is easily resolved by either power-cycling the display or by simply unplugging (and putting it back in). I think the artefacts are due to the mDP implementation in the Mac I tested with because it very rarely does that when using the mDP-DP cable as well.

The real solution would be to use a display that has a DisplayPort like the Dell 3008WFP or the HPZR30w (you'll need to get a separate mDP-DP cable since mDP and DP connectors differ in size, those cables are very cheap, a lot cheaper than your adapter).

 

[snberk103]

Change up the power brick again. I had the exact same issue on my 23" Apple monitor. There was a bad batch of power bricks released, when they sent me a new one (for free) it had different model number. This time when you change the power brick, try to get a different model number. (The only visible difference is the model number - you will probably need a magnifying glass to see it). I did a whack of research on this - there are long threads over at the Apple support forums.

Good Luck.