LG UltraFine 5K - Issues/bugs

[turbineseaplane]

I feel like I'm reading a battered spouse forum here or something..

Nobody should be putting up with all these nags and hangups on their brand new $1,000 display.

It's really a shame "this" is the release experience for so many.

 

[fpenta]

It seems that mine has two different tints. In the first pic I pushed the image to the limit. Should I take it back?! Do you have such a problem? Could this be normal?

 

[Ph.D.]

It seems that mine has two different tints. In the first pic I pushed the image to the limit. Should I take it back?! Do you have such a problem? Could this be normal?

The ability to own and use such a display is absolute MAGIC. Sure, one can peer at it from every angle using photoshop to exaggerate slight, normal variations that are entirely within the absolute limits of current technology (or are due to the angle at which the photo was taken, the camera itself, etc.), but why?

Why not relax and enjoy the magical ability to have a beautiful, unbelievably crisp screen on your desktop that a previous generation could not even imagine in their wildest dreams?

People, give OCD a rest for a day or a week, revel in the glory of 5k vs. your old display, and enjoy.

 

[fpenta]

The ability to own and use such a display is absolute MAGIC. Sure, one can peer at it from every angle using photoshop to exaggerate slight, normal variations that are entirely within the absolute limits of current technology (or are due to the angle at which the photo was taken, the camera itself, etc.), but why?

Why not relax and enjoy the magical ability to have a beautiful, unbelievably crisp screen on your desktop that a previous generation could not even imagine in their wildest dreams?

People, give OCD a rest for a day or a week, revel in the glory of 5k vs. your old display, and enjoy.

Today the purple tint has almost gone. I still have the right side yellowish tho. Will keep an eye and see if it gets better before replacing it. Maybe the monitor IPS panel needs to stablize?

 

[wtphoto]

Hi everyone,

This monitor is a huge disappointment from a QC perspective, in my opinion. I wanted to add my experience to the thread, as it seems a lot of you are having similar issues.

I have 2 15" TB MBP 2.9/16gb/Radeon 460 4gb/1tb. With the exception of the HDD, all specs are maxed out so I find it frustrating to have so many performance issues.

First 5k monitor came in DOA. Included TB3 cable passed power, but no video on either MacBook. They did not detect an external display. Did the usual reboots, reset SMC, etc. Had Apple exchange it (which took almost 2 weeks, on top of the weeks I waited for it to be available to purchase, and the initial few weeks it took to ship).

Replacement monitor connects normally, but intermittently disconnects when launching any GPU intensive apps (such as LR in develop module, and Photoshop). It's unusable on both computers. And, like most of you, I'm also experiencing all sorts of issues when waking from sleep, or when docking/undocking without a reboot.

Hopefully the new iMacs will have target display mode and Apple patches whatever TB3 problems are causing this nonsense.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Hey, at least we are understanding why Apple wanted to pass this mess off to LG to deal with, right?



Sad this is the experience they are putting out to their customers...

 

[mattiasfromvienna]

Just received my LG UltraFine 5K Display. It continuously connects and disconnects from my MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2016). Reconnecting the cable or changing the port did not resolve the issue. Anyone experiencing the same problem?

 

[wtphoto]

Just received my LG UltraFine 5K Display. It continuously connects and disconnects from my MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2016). Reconnecting the cable or changing the port did not resolve the issue. Anyone experiencing the same problem?

Yes, the exact same problem with both my 15" MBP Touchbars. Hopefully Apple will identify the underflying problem and patch it in a future update, but for now I have returned my monitor.

 

[Shakko]

It seems that mine has two different tints. In the first pic I pushed the image to the limit. Should I take it back?! Do you have such a problem? Could this be normal?

I would ask Apple to replace the display -- this is clearly a hardware defect. I don't think any amount of calibration is going to fix this since it's half the display which has the tint.

Both of my displays had the same issue with color tint, and I received replacements for both from Apple. The replacements are much better, but one of them still has the same tint issue (and terrible light bleeding), so I'm getting another replacement.

Agree that the QC on these is terrible. These are $1000 displays -- I sure didn't expect they don't have issues like these. I previously had two thunderbolt displays, purchased a few years apart, and both were calibrated perfectly, no tint issues.

 

[turbineseaplane]

@Shakko Are you not getting worried about what the future will hold for these displays given how the experience is starting out?

Yikes...

 

[dreamvillian]

I was having no connectivity issues for the past couple days, but now it has started blinking on and off every 2-3 minutes. Completely unusable. I've tried all 4 TB3 ports, and blowing air in the ports / cable, but nothing seems to be fixing it. Has anyone with similar issues had better luck with a replacement? Is it an issue with specific units, or is it a universal issue?

 

[triumph71]

@dreamvillian do you have any WIFI router close? If so try moving it further away.

 

[dreamvillian]

@dreamvillian do you have any WIFI router close? If so try moving it further away.

Nope, only things on/near my desk are the 5K, 3 MBPs, Apple wired keyboard, Logitech MX master, and Logitech speakers. My router is in the same room, but on the opposite side. I would think (hope) it's not an issue from that distance.

 

[Brookzy]

Nope, only things on/near my desk are the 5K, 3 MBPs, Apple wired keyboard, Logitech MX master, and Logitech speakers. My router is in the same room, but on the opposite side. I would think (hope) it's not an issue from that distance.

Where are the three MBPs? If you keep the one you are using too close to the metal stand of the display, especially in clamshell mode, it triggers the lid open/closed sensor and puts your MacBook to sleep!

 

[dreamvillian]

Where are the three MBPs? If you keep the one you are using too close to the metal stand of the display, especially in clamshell mode, it triggers the lid open/closed sensor and puts your MacBook to sleep!

Ok this might be it! The one that's plugged in to the display rests on the display stand. Will try moving it and report back.


Edit: Immediately after moving it I'm no longer having any issues. I'm a little confused because I've been using my MacBook and the monitor in this arrangement since I received them, but have only just started getting these issues, but regardless looks like this might have been the fix. I will report back after a full day of use!

 

[fpenta]

I would ask Apple to replace the display -- this is clearly a hardware defect. I don't think any amount of calibration is going to fix this since it's half the display which has the tint.

Both of my displays had the same issue with color tint, and I received replacements for both from Apple. The replacements are much better, but one of them still has the same tint issue (and terrible light bleeding), so I'm getting another replacement.

Agree that the QC on these is terrible. These are $1000 displays -- I sure didn't expect they don't have issues like these. I previously had two thunderbolt displays, purchased a few years apart, and both were calibrated perfectly, no tint issues.

Thanks for the info! After your experience I'm definitely going to replace it. I only hope the replacement will be here sooner than the 4-6 weeks that they claim ( I live in Europe).

 

[Donnie-4711]

The drivers seem to have improved things for me. Before ethernet and wifi got the same speed. Now ethernet gives me a consistent 75MB/s while wifi sometimes hits 75 but drops to 10 and every number in-between while copying.

The Belkin adapter does get really hot, even when the ethernet cable isn't plugged into it.

I had the same problem with the Belkin USB-C to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter. The performance of the adapter via my LG UltraFine 5K display was approx. 50% of the throughput it reached when directly connected with my MBP 13" Touchbar. To overcome this issue I've installed the latest USB 3.0 Ethernet driver for RTL8153, Version 1.0.16 from Realtek since the Realtek Ethernet chip is used in the Belkin adapter. The driver package can be found here: http://www.realtek.com/downloads/do...=56&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false
After the installation which was easy I have the same throughput performance via the LG display as I have on my MBP. I consider my problem finally solved!

 

[dreamvillian]

Where are the three MBPs? If you keep the one you are using too close to the metal stand of the display, especially in clamshell mode, it triggers the lid open/closed sensor and puts your MacBook to sleep!

After a day of use without any problems, I think it's safe to say this was it.

If anyone else is having issues with your display randomly blinking on and off, make sure your MBP isn't too close to the metal stand. I moved mine from sitting directly on the stand to a platform ~2inches above the stand and my issues disappeared.

 

[hollandog]

It seems that mine has two different tints. In the first pic I pushed the image to the limit. Should I take it back?! Do you have such a problem? Could this be normal?

It's really your call. I would consider a replacement if you do a lot of photo retouching and editing.
Mine's pretty even.

 

[fpenta]

It's really your call. I would consider a replacement if you do a lot of photo retouching and editing.
Mine's pretty even.

A lot of photo editing here. It's definitely going back
Thank you!

 

[pete1961]

Just received my LG UltraFine 5K Display. It continuously connects and disconnects from my MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2016). Reconnecting the cable or changing the port did not resolve the issue. Anyone experiencing the same problem?

I would recommend returning it. I had the same problem going back to the first batch being sent out.
Received a replacement and no problems whatsoever.

 

[fischer.vienna]

Hey there!

My setup is a maxed out macbook pro 2016 15" in combination with the LG Ultrafine 5k monitor.

Unfortunately I also came across some issues. I tend to use my macbook in clamshell mode and from time to time (at least once every hour) the monitor went to black and then, after a couple of moments, turned itself back on. No matter what I tried, I couldn't fix it.

Thanks to the internet and this specific forum I repeatedly came across the line "the LG supplied cable sucks" so I decided to give the Belkin Thunderbolt cable a shot before I go trough all the hassle of returning the monitor. Recieved it today, plugged it in and everything seems to work fine now!

Only one question remains: Who's going to pay for that extra cable?

 

[hollandog]

Hey there!

My setup is a maxed out macbook pro 2016 15" in combination with the LG Ultrafine 5k monitor.

Unfortunately I also came across some issues. I tend to use my macbook in clamshell mode and from time to time (at least once every hour) the monitor went to black and then, after a couple of moments, turned itself back on. No matter what I tried, I couldn't fix it.

Thanks to the internet and this specific forum I repeatedly came across the line "the LG supplied cable sucks" so I decided to give the Belkin Thunderbolt cable a shot before I go trough all the hassle returning the monitor. Recieved it today, plugged it in and everything seems to work fine now!

Only one questions remains: Who's going to pay for that extra cable?

problem is the belkin cable is only rated for 60w power delivery where the LG one is rated for 85w.

 

[fpenta]

Hey there!

My setup is a maxed out macbook pro 2016 15" in combination with the LG Ultrafine 5k monitor.

Unfortunately I also came across some issues. I tend to use my macbook in clamshell mode and from time to time (at least once every hour) the monitor went to black and then, after a couple of moments, turned itself back on. No matter what I tried, I couldn't fix it.

Thanks to the internet and this specific forum I repeatedly came across the line "the LG supplied cable sucks" so I decided to give the Belkin Thunderbolt cable a shot before I go trough all the hassle returning the monitor. Recieved it today, plugged it in and everything seems to work fine now!

Only one questions remains: Who's going to pay for that extra cable?

Oh gosh. I'm going to return mine too for tint issues. Could I return my LG without the Thunderbolt cable into the box to prevent a new faulty one?

 

[mattiasfromvienna]

problem is the belkin cable is only rated for 60w power delivery where the LG one is rated for 85w.

That's true but I'm not sure if it actually makes a difference! I'm also planning to try a Belkin cable before returning the display. Since the 0.5 m cable is not readily available from the Austrian Apple store and the 2 m is quite expensive, I'm thinking about buying a Belkin 1 m cable from Amazon. However, the 1 m cable is only 20 Gbit/s (instead of 40 Gbit/s). Does this make a difference if only running 1 display? Which one are you using?

Thank you very much for your help!