I wonder if we should start a new thread or just use this one to co-ordinate putting a bit of pressure on LG support to get their finger out and resolve the outstanding firmware issues.
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LG UltraFine 5K - Issues/bugs
- Thread starter iBrooker
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I really think this product is dead in LG's eyes.
It's still an Apple Store exclusive, so it seems there are no ambitions from LG to increase its market presence. There is no "only at Apple" badge on it on the Apple Store so this doesn't seem to be due to an exclusivity agreement.
It probably was a loss maker and brand damaging for them overall. It can't have been a cheap product to design and build, had the Wi-Fi fiasco and consequential high return rate, an unplanned 25% discount applied, and of course the Apple Store tax.
If there was anyone who could put pressure on LG it's Apple, yet they seem to be happy to let its shortcomings slide. And we can be reasonably sure that Apple is aware of its shortcomings - examples: the mixed reviews on the Apple Store, their fixing of the laggy brightness adjustment in 10.12.4, and the complete absence of reference to the ambient light sensor (because it doesn't work) on Apple's site and support pages, despite it listing every other specification in detail.
Such a shame because most of the issues are almost certainly fixable in a comprehensive firmware update.
Well LG ain't getting off the hook that easily as far as I'm concerned. They have released a product which has faults and I for one expect them to fix them, or at least attempt to. If the USB thing was some weird edge-case which is easily worked around then fair enough but that's not the case. This problem is easily reproduced.
I'm going to prepare a complaint about the volume issue and USB reconnection issue and see what they have to say.
Maybe you could collect signatures from other members - would be nice to demonstrate to whoever at LG reads it that it isn't a one-off!
Maybe you could collect signatures from other members - would be nice to demonstrate to whoever at LG reads it that it isn't a one-off!
I've emailed LG support regarding the USB issue but also mentioned the volume non-linearity. I only had 1000 characters to play with so had to keep it brief. Once I get in contact I will hopefully be able to point them to this thread and all other (un)happy customers...
Oh dear, I've had a couple of run-ins with the email form people and they're utterly useless. One person told me my issues might be the cable, and suggested I buy a new one, linking me to a 0.9 metre USB-C cable on Amazon (which obviously wouldn't work). The second person thought I was talking about a washing machine.I've emailed LG support regarding the USB issue but also mentioned the volume non-linearity. I only had 1000 characters to play with so had to keep it brief. Once I get in contact I will hopefully be able to point them to this thread and all other (un)happy customers...
Haha, yeah I know the support quality can be poor but I'm pretty persistent.
I have a weird issue with my screen...everything works perfectly, except the webcam and FaceTime!
I use my 5K mostly with my Mac in Clamshell, so everything is going through the monitor. When I do a FaceTime call, I am using the monitor's webcam, mic and terrible speakers (using external speakers makes a lovely echo).
After about 5 minutes, suddenly the microphone goes on mute, and the people can't hear me anymore on the other end. The only way to solve this is to just disconnect the screen and use my laptop.
Can anyone suggest a fix? Or had this issue as well?
Will
I use my 5K mostly with my Mac in Clamshell, so everything is going through the monitor. When I do a FaceTime call, I am using the monitor's webcam, mic and terrible speakers (using external speakers makes a lovely echo).
After about 5 minutes, suddenly the microphone goes on mute, and the people can't hear me anymore on the other end. The only way to solve this is to just disconnect the screen and use my laptop.
Can anyone suggest a fix? Or had this issue as well?
Will
Good luck dealing with LG. They are completely and utterly useless at support!
Tried to get info on TB3 cable spares, and took several independent attempts, as they have no clue on even their own parts supply chain. Dumb, in the highest regard.
But yeah, give them hell from me on the outstanding issues. Doubt it'll get anywhere except round in circles between staff/departments at LG, but defo worth a kick up the arse nonetheless! :-/
Tried to get info on TB3 cable spares, and took several independent attempts, as they have no clue on even their own parts supply chain. Dumb, in the highest regard.
But yeah, give them hell from me on the outstanding issues. Doubt it'll get anywhere except round in circles between staff/departments at LG, but defo worth a kick up the arse nonetheless! :-/
My interim fix is to change the microphone input up in the "Video" tab on the menubar. I do have two 5K monitors, and switch between the two microphones, you should be able to swap to the internal microphone, then swap back. This is still very annoying, and is the reason I'm on this forum looking for a fix.
With my previous monitor I simply had to leave the monitor disconnected from the computer for some time, and when i reconnected it my keyboard wouldn't work.
When did you get your display? The monitor I got last week continues to work well.
Not a hint of retention on either of mine.
(The 5K iMac next to them, however, is another story - horrendous retention, and it's already on its second panel for that issue - can't be bothered to take it in again. LG screens are just hit-and-miss with retention I think.)
Well, this has just become a lot more interesting for me. I was up until now using a G-Technology G-Drive 2TB HDD as my test device and it will only connect if I disconnect either end of the cable between HDD and display and then reconnect it. It doesn't matter if I eject the drive first or not (I generally do eject). However, just tonight I got another couple of drives and tested it the same way with them and it connects and mounts to those drives every single time! My test process is as follows:
1. With MBP connected to display(s) attach the hard drive to the display using whatever cable/dongle combination you require. Confirm the HDD mounts correctly.
2. Eject the drive (highlight + Cmd-E) and wait for it to unmount
3. Disconnect the display to which the HDD is connected from the MBP by removing the TB3 cable from the MBP. Wait for the laptop to finish syncing (a few seconds)
4. Reconnect the cable between display and MBP and wait to see if the drive remounts.
So the things in common in all my tests are:
1. The MBP - no reboots between tests
2. The USB-C to USB-A Apple dongle connected to the display
The different HDDs tested are:
1. A G-Technology G-Drive 2TB (doesn't work except for the initial connection)
2. "Dynamode" USB-3 to Serial ATA enclosure with (I think) a WD Scorpio 1TB drive inside. (Works every time)
3. A WD MyBook 3TB external drive. It's the aluminium one that comes formatted for macOS. (Works every time)
So, it looks like maybe this problem isn't a clear cut display issue. It might be that the display is doing something "unusual" such as maintaining power to the device even when disconnected from the MBP and this is preventing the G-Tech drive from restarting but the other drives are perhaps less sensitive to this issue. Who knows but this at least gives me another avenue to investigate and I shall be getting in touch with G-Technology to see if they are aware since this is a product being sold by Apple in their stores.
Quick update on the LG support progress. I got a reply from 1st level support pretty quickly actually and they requested further information which I have only just supplied back today so I can't fault them quite yet. What would be helpful is if anyone else out there can do the same test with other hard drives to see if this problem is isolated to the G-Technology drive or other drives. I might switch focus with LG to the volume control issue and brightness level changing all the time etc.
Indeed, temporarily swapping inputs works, but you have to repeat this every 5 minutes...and in the middle of work FaceTime calls is this a little bit ridiculous!
The display also doesn't appear to have full USB 3.1 bandwidth. I connected it to my Mac, and then connected a USB-C hub thing with ethernet to the display, when I run bandwidth tests with WiFi off I get about 450Mbps down and 650Mbps up, when I connect the same adaptor directly to the MacBook Pro I get over 900Mbps in both directions. I also get similar results with the Belkin USB-C adaptor:
Server -> USB-C Hub thing -> LG -> MacBook Pro:
server:~ my_username$ iperf -c macbookpro.local -f m
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to macbookpro.local, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.13 MByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 5] local 192.168.0.10 port 52787 connected with 192.168.0.194 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 5] 0.0-10.0 sec 530 MBytes 444 Mbits/sec
MacBook Pro -> LG -> USB-C Hub thing -> Server:
macbookpro:~ my_username$ iperf -c server.local -f m
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to server.local, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.13 MByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 5] local 192.168.0.194 port 51100 connected with 192.168.0.10 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 5] 0.0-10.0 sec 759 MBytes 637 Mbits/sec
Server -> USB-C Hub thing -> MacBook Pro:
server:~ my_username$ iperf -c macbookpro.local -f m
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to macbookpro.local, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.13 MByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 5] local 192.168.0.10 port 52929 connected with 192.168.0.194 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 5] 0.0-10.0 sec 1082 MBytes 908 Mbits/sec
MacBook Pro -> USB-C Hub thing -> Server:
macbookpro:~ my_username$ iperf -c server.local -f m
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to server.local, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.13 MByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 5] local 192.168.0.194 port 51339 connected with 192.168.0.10 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 5] 0.0-10.0 sec 1116 MBytes 935 Mbits/sec
Server -> USB-C Hub thing -> LG -> MacBook Pro:
server:~ my_username$ iperf -c macbookpro.local -f m
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to macbookpro.local, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.13 MByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 5] local 192.168.0.10 port 52787 connected with 192.168.0.194 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 5] 0.0-10.0 sec 530 MBytes 444 Mbits/sec
MacBook Pro -> LG -> USB-C Hub thing -> Server:
macbookpro:~ my_username$ iperf -c server.local -f m
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to server.local, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.13 MByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 5] local 192.168.0.194 port 51100 connected with 192.168.0.10 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 5] 0.0-10.0 sec 759 MBytes 637 Mbits/sec
Server -> USB-C Hub thing -> MacBook Pro:
server:~ my_username$ iperf -c macbookpro.local -f m
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to macbookpro.local, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.13 MByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 5] local 192.168.0.10 port 52929 connected with 192.168.0.194 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 5] 0.0-10.0 sec 1082 MBytes 908 Mbits/sec
MacBook Pro -> USB-C Hub thing -> Server:
macbookpro:~ my_username$ iperf -c server.local -f m
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to server.local, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 0.13 MByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 5] local 192.168.0.194 port 51339 connected with 192.168.0.10 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 5] 0.0-10.0 sec 1116 MBytes 935 Mbits/sec
5K @ 60hz 10bit is about 32Gbps bandwidth. TB3 has a limit of 40Gbps. So what we're left with is about 8Gbps shared amongst the 3 USBC ports, speakers, and webcam. I'm not sure how the bandwidth is shared between these ports, but you're correct in that the USB ports aren't full speed.
Handy tool for calculating monitor bandwidth. https://k.kramerav.com/support/bwcalculator.asp
Much was made of this earlier in the thread. At the moment it is fairly safe to assume that the display is acting correctly within the constraints of Thunderbolt 3, as mentioned by @MrX8503 and further explained by Intel - I've copied the relevant bits below but the full document is a good read for anyone interested.
They go on to make the interesting observation that Thunderbolt 3 is 40 Gbps bidirectionally, and display data is overwhelmingly one-way. Thus incoming data should be largely unaffected by display traffic.
Oddly though it seems that the outgoing data is significantly less impacted than the incoming data.
If you get a moment, can you try again but firstly with the USB-C connector that is closest to the Thunderbolt 3 socket, and secondly with the USB-C connector furthest away from the Thunderbolt 3 socket, and see if you get different results?
Hi Brookzy, if the devices are connected to the port closest to the Thunderbolt 3 socket, I can reproduce the connectivity issues with (nearly) 100% probability.
For the past 10 days, I have tried your suggestion and used the port furthest away from the Thunderbolt 3 socket, and so far I have not experienced any connectivity issue! So this seems like a temporary nice fix
.