Dual Display Issues - NO SIGNAL

[Framedvision]

!!!!!!!fixed!!!!!!!

So I've hooked up my two u2711's to my 12-core 2.93Ghz system with a 5870 graphics card.

I used the displayport -> mini-displayport cables from Circuit Assembly.

These cables seemed to be of a better quality than the monoprice ones.

I haven't had any issues yet. I'll keep you posted if I do.

To ANYONE who has had this issue other than myself and GhostKiller, THERE IS A SOLUTION!!!! GhostKiller, your solution to use apple's DL-converter to MDP is a good but expensive solution. I want to thank wally21 for silently solving our problem. IT IS IN FACT THE MONOPRICE CABLES!!!!!! I purchased the circuit assembly 3 meter cables and I have restarted my computer 4 times now, put it to sleep, woke it back up, unplugged it, let it sit, turned it back on, etc... AND FLAWLESS! Just like it is supposed to! I am confirming that the the MONOPRICE CABLES LOSE THE LINK BETWEEN THE 5870 and the DELL U2711's. The Circuit Assembly cables DO NOT. I'm SO GLAD! No my poor computer can get some sleep in it's brand new home for the first time... WITHOUT GOING BLIND WHEN WAKING UP!

 

[Vylen]

Maybe the place I bought my cables from (Australian Mac Store) use the same cables from Monoprice...

The only common thing i can see between my cables and Monoprice cables is that only support DisplayPort 1.1 (no audio).

Maybe one of you can read off what the Monoprice cables have written on them? Mine has "DisplayPort E301195 AWM STYLE 20276 80C 30V VW-1 PAK HENG"

Dunno if the CA cables support newer DP specification... and if it's the reason for the issues.

Anyway... it's good to know that it's just the cables... but slightly annoying since it's sort of a waste of money >_>

 

[Gh0stKiller]

To ANYONE who has had this issue other than myself and GhostKiller, THERE IS A SOLUTION!!!! GhostKiller, your solution to use apple's DL-converter to MDP is a good but expensive solution. I want to thank wally21 for silently solving our problem. IT IS IN FACT THE MONOPRICE CABLES!!!!!! I purchased the circuit assembly 3 meter cables and I have restarted my computer 4 times now, put it to sleep, woke it back up, unplugged it, let it sit, turned it back on, etc... AND FLAWLESS! Just like it is supposed to! I am confirming that the the MONOPRICE CABLES LOSE THE LINK BETWEEN THE 5870 and the DELL U2711's. The Circuit Assembly cables DO NOT. I'm SO GLAD! No my poor computer can get some sleep in it's brand new home for the first time... WITHOUT GOING BLIND WHEN WAKING UP!

Huzzah! Thanks for the update, buddy! This is very good news. Much easier solution than sending my monitors back.

Ordering the new cables now!

EDIT: Damn, the Circuit Assembly cables only got up to 5', which I'm not sure is long enough for my needs. I'm going to purchase some from Amazon by a company called StarTech. Hopefully, the results will be the same.

 

[Gh0stKiller]

Hi everybody,

it seems that the displayport issue also occurs when using only one display.

I have a NEC MultiSync EA231WMi and the 2010 Mac Pro with the 5870. My odysee with this issue started with WoW:

The display is delivered with a DVI cable, so I first used this one. But when starting WoW in fullscreen/maxed window mode, the display resolution was set from 1080p to 1080i. I could set the resolution back to 1080p via the system settings, but it was annoying. After doing some research I found some information that someone had the same issue with a 2008 Mac Pro/Radeon 4870 when starting City of Heroes and he solved it by using a MiniDisplayPort to DisplayPort cable. Therefore I bought such a cable from DeLock via Amazon.
When I got it, I first tried the MDP right next to the DVI but I got no signal. Then I tried the other one and it worked, but it was very sensitive to any motion on the Mac Pro side. A slightest touch and the signal disappeared (why the heck are they using MDP at all? There's enough space for 2 DP and 1 DVI plug and the MDP seems very fragile to me). This worked for about 1.5 weeks (and btw, it did not solve the resolution issue with WoW :-/).

A few minutes ago, I woke my Mac from sleep and got no signal on the DisplayPort. I tried everything from shutting down and unplugging the display for 30 seconds from power supply, trying also the other MDP interface on the graphics card. No luck. It seems as if the DisplayPorts don't work any more. DVI still works.

Your issue seems a bit different. If I had to chance a guess, it sounds like you have faulty MDPs on your machine. I would recommend taking it in the the Apple Store and getting them to test it out.

From personal experience with school computers, sometimes the ports on the Mac Pro just get messed up. There were a dozen Mac Pros at my campus editing lab, and each one of them had a broken headphone jack and at least one firewire port that would randomly stop working.

The weirdest part is the 1080i/1080p issue. Not really sure why it would be defaulting to that.

 

[Framedvision]

Hey Ghostkiller

Just in case it was an oversight, The circuit assembly cables are in METERS so you can get a 5 meter which goes up to 16 feet. But maybe you do need more than 16 feet. Just thought I might help. ALSO, My old MONOPRICE cables do in fact read, (E301195 AWM STYLE 20276 80c 30v VW-1 PAK HENG) Those are the monoprice ones and those DO NOT WORK with the Dell u2711 / ATI 5870 config.

The ones that DO WORK say, (E74020-C AWM STYLE 20276 80c 30V VW-1 www.circuitassembly.com)

Great job everyone for the persistence

 

[Vylen]

Just in case it was an oversight, The circuit assembly cables are in METERS so you can get a 5 meter which goes up to 16 feet. But maybe you do need more than 16 feet. Just thought I might help. ALSO, My old MONOPRICE cables do in fact read, (E301195 AWM STYLE 20276 80c 30v VW-1 PAK HENG) Those are the monoprice ones and those DO NOT WORK with the Dell u2711 / ATI 5870 config.

The ones that DO WORK say, (E74020-C AWM STYLE 20276 80c 30V VW-1 www.circuitassembly.com)

Great job everyone for the persistence

Well, awesome stuff for the cable confirmation... I guess I should buy some cables from CA then to replace these...

 

[wally21]

Hey, glad I could be of help. Someone over at HardForum gave me the link to Circuit Assembly, else I probably would have ordered the monoprice ones and been in the same boat as you guys. I like that CA actually manufactures their cables and adapters.

 

[Gh0stKiller]

Just in case it was an oversight, The circuit assembly cables are in METERS so you can get a 5 meter which goes up to 16 feet.

Heh, yeah. That was an oversight. Damn the metric system.

Oh well. Hopefully the ones I ordered from Amazon work out.

 

[Vylen]

Hey, glad I could be of help. Someone over at HardForum gave me the link to Circuit Assembly, else I probably would have ordered the monoprice ones and been in the same boat as you guys. I like that CA actually manufactures their cables and adapters.

I like that CA sells their stuff internationally...

Except $16 AUD for Fedex postage is a bit nuts

 

[barefeats]

I can report that I have been able to get three displays to work reliably on all models of Mac Pro from 2006-2010 with both the 5770 and 5870.

Sometimes when I booted up, however, only one display was lit. But when I would pull out one of the Mini Display Port cables, then two would light up. Plug it back in and now three were lit. So there is still some "ooga booga" to do with multi-display support.

Here is my setup:
one 30" Cinema on the DVI port,
one 23" Cinema ($99 dual-link DVI to MDP adapter) on the first MDP,
and one 24" LED Cinema direct to the second MDP.

 

[jenzjen]

To ANYONE who has had this issue other than myself and GhostKiller, THERE IS A SOLUTION!!!! GhostKiller, your solution to use apple's DL-converter to MDP is a good but expensive solution. I want to thank wally21 for silently solving our problem. IT IS IN FACT THE MONOPRICE CABLES!!!!!! I purchased the circuit assembly 3 meter cables and I have restarted my computer 4 times now, put it to sleep, woke it back up, unplugged it, let it sit, turned it back on, etc... AND FLAWLESS! Just like it is supposed to! I am confirming that the the MONOPRICE CABLES LOSE THE LINK BETWEEN THE 5870 and the DELL U2711's. The Circuit Assembly cables DO NOT. I'm SO GLAD! No my poor computer can get some sleep in it's brand new home for the first time... WITHOUT GOING BLIND WHEN WAKING UP!

I don't know much about electronics, so I'm hoping someone that does can chime in as to why my setup (Hex / 5870 / 3 Dell U2410s) works with those Monoprice cables? Could the UXX11's from Dell be more sensitive to signal vs the UXX10s?

2 of my monitors are connected via Monoprice MDP/DP cables and the 3rd via vanilla dual link DVI cable.

 

[akacaj]

I also had the same issue with the Monoprice MDP to DP. New hex core with ATI 5870 card connected to a Dell 2408WFP monitor. I got no signal at all even with a single monitor. Almost cried after waiting for so long to receive my mac only to find out it was DOA. Luckily this monitor has an abundant number of ports so when I tried a DVI cable it worked.

Glad that its just the cable and not my video card. or is it? I used that same cable for over a year with my 17" Mac Book Pro with no problems.

 

[Gh0stKiller]

I also had the same issue with the Monoprice MDP to DP. New hex core with ATI 5870 card connected to a Dell 2408WFP monitor. I got no signal at all even with a single monitor. Almost cried after waiting for so long to receive my mac only to find out it was DOA. Luckily this monitor has an abundant number of ports so when I tried a DVI cable it worked.

Glad that its just the cable and not my video card. or is it? I used that same cable for over a year with my 17" Mac Book Pro with no problems.

I contacted Monpoprice support about the issue and this was the response I received.

It may be that our cables are not active cables so the the display port connector doesn’t have the chip in it. Since these cables are passive the monitors may not have adaquit power pushed to them to bring them out of hibernate or powersaver mode. Usually the way to remedy this is to just push the power button.

I can confirm that hitting the power button does nothing, but this explanation does kind of make sense to me. Unfortunately, I can't find anything on the Circuit Assembly site that describes their cables as active cables, but maybe they are.

It also makes jenzjen's working 2410s seem even more odd. Maybe that particular model doesn't require as much power?

 

[JDoggery]

I am having issues using multiple monitors, one via the DVI port and the other 2 with Apple Mini Display Port to DVI adapters (MB570Z/A) with DVI cables. Any ideas? Do I need the Dual Link adapters? I was originally considering using MDP to Display Port, but heard there were issues.

 

[mjsmke]

Why not have both conected via DVI leads? For the second display use a MDP to DVI adaptor. Thats what i do on a 2009 Mac Pro and ive never had an issue.