Mini Displayport broke on me

[Verix]

I've been using my MacbookAir 11inch (2011) for school exclusively, pretty mild use over the years (I use my desktop at home).

Last week I could no longer connect to my external BenQ display I sometimes use when I need more display width. Same on book camp. Visited the apple store now, same on their displays. They told me I'd need a new motherboard, would cost over €500

Any idea if there could be some quick dirty fix? I've never heard of someone's displayport to stop working honestly. Some bad luck.

 

[cruisin]

You can clean the contacts with 99% proof isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol and a cotton swab on a stick. If that doesn't work then the solder inside might be cracked. Did someone trip over the cable?

 

[Verix]

I'll try cleaning it that way, thanks.

No tripping that I'm aware of. Shouldn't be the cause.

 

[Verix]

Still rocking the tiny 11 inch display exclusively :'(
Bumping out of hopelessness (lol)

 

[cruisin]

Since it fails on bootcamp as well, it definitely is a hardware issue. Aside from your cable going bad (did you try another one?), your only choice is to get someone to maybe resolder the plug. Your internal screen still works, so it's not the GPU and I doubt the internal wiring for the external display went bad.

Apple wants to replace the whole board to guarantee to fix the issue (and likely get more money). At €500 you could sell your current model and buy a refurbished model which will be a bit faster.

You can VNC into your Mac from the desktop, but you need two computers to do the work of one.

Do you use multiple desktops? You can push some stuff to the second desktop and then 4 finger swipe between them (you might have to enable this in the trackpad menu).

 

[Verix]

Interesting, thanks for the insightful reply.

I did buy a new cable, which unfortunately did nothing for the issue. Tested it with other laptop and it worked there.