I had an issue with an Intel Mini (2018) and its second display: in extended display mode I could see the arrow cursor move with the mouse on the second display but no windows, the screen was entirely black otherwise. (It's hard to know if it was showing the background image as that's black as well.) I'm writing to ask if anyone has seen the issue and might have a possible explanation.
The configuration is HDMI to the primary and then USB-C to HDMI (via Apple's USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter) to the secondary (which is a Blackmagic HDMI to SDI converter, 150' of SDI cable, SDI to HDMI converter, and HDMI into a projector). Unplugging the primary HDMI caused the Blackmagic rig to become the primary, so it appears that none of the hardware in that chain is responsible. The primary had no issues with either HDMI port (and the projector never indicated that it lost the HDMI signal). It's a little convoluted but has been a reliable setup for hundreds of hours of work.
Eventually I rebooted and things all started working again briefly -- a minute or two -- and then resumed the failed behavior. A few minutes later everything magically started working again. (Which, honestly, I was pretty grateful for under the circumstances but I hate that I have no idea what the root cause might be.) No further issues cropped up in the next couple hours.
The only oddity is that I was rehearsing in a hot venue; the ambient temps were in the mid to high 80s. I wasn't pushing the Mini at all at the time but could thermals have had a role in the weirdness? Thanks for any thoughts you might have. (And apologies for any lack of clarity, it's tech week and my brain is mush after a couple of 10 out of 12s.)
The configuration is HDMI to the primary and then USB-C to HDMI (via Apple's USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter) to the secondary (which is a Blackmagic HDMI to SDI converter, 150' of SDI cable, SDI to HDMI converter, and HDMI into a projector). Unplugging the primary HDMI caused the Blackmagic rig to become the primary, so it appears that none of the hardware in that chain is responsible. The primary had no issues with either HDMI port (and the projector never indicated that it lost the HDMI signal). It's a little convoluted but has been a reliable setup for hundreds of hours of work.
Eventually I rebooted and things all started working again briefly -- a minute or two -- and then resumed the failed behavior. A few minutes later everything magically started working again. (Which, honestly, I was pretty grateful for under the circumstances but I hate that I have no idea what the root cause might be.) No further issues cropped up in the next couple hours.
The only oddity is that I was rehearsing in a hot venue; the ambient temps were in the mid to high 80s. I wasn't pushing the Mini at all at the time but could thermals have had a role in the weirdness? Thanks for any thoughts you might have. (And apologies for any lack of clarity, it's tech week and my brain is mush after a couple of 10 out of 12s.)