Brightness Control and 2 x 24" LED Cinema Display

I think I've discovered a bug with the Display System Preferences panel.
I have a new 2009 Mac Pro with one ATI 4870 and one Nvidia GT120, each having a 24" LED Cinema Display attached. When I keyboard brightness buttons (F1,F2), only the one display changes brightness. When I use the sliders on the Display System Preferences panel, both sliders control the one display. So I can change the brightness of one display 3 different ways, but no way to control the other (or both at the same time, which is most desirable).
What is even more interesting, is that the controllable panel changes depending on which monitor's USB connector is connected into which USB port and in what order they are connected. After trying different USB combinations, I once got the slider on the left screen to control the brightness of the right screen, and vice versa, but the controls are seemingly randomly reassigned on system sleep, and I havent been able to duplicate that behavior since.
What is the best way to report this? It appears to be a bug in the USB code associated with the brightness sliders and the Display Preferences panel. My desired behavior would to have the keyboard buttons control the brightness of both displays at the same time.
Thank You

No problem with my 24" and a 2008 Mac Pro with an nVidia GE120. I'm betting that the problem isn't with the monitor but with the video card. I also have a unibody Mac Book Pro and discovered the color shifting problem without any monitor attached. It started occurring when I used my Huey Pro Pantone monitor calibrator on the LED display of the MBP. Recalibrating the display exposes the color shift. Putting the monitor back to the shipping calibration makes the display problem go away completely.
At the same time, I never noticed any problem on the 24" cinema display before calibrating it, and exposing it to the hardware monitor calibrator exposed a way out of gamma color. After recalibrating the monitor in hardware, the picture is utterly flawless - best I've ever seen on a display of this size. I think the Apple software calibrator is a piece of junk and I suspect that it messes with the monitor in unhelpful ways. I'd suggest having the monitor professionally calibrated and see if that cures the problem.
Also, it will be interesting to see whether anything in the 10.5.7 update fixes any display issues being reported prior to the release yesterday.

Similar Messages

  • 24" and new 27" LED Cinema Displays constantly malfunction, anyone having similar issues as below?

    Long story short:
    I had 2x 24" LED LCD's for ~three years directly connected to my 12-Core Mac Pro5,1 ATI Radeon HD 5770. Each had power supplies and LCD panels replaced 2-3 times, one was swapped for a new model. In May, 1 display wouldn't turn on. As the AppleCare on each was due to exp. in Oct., I called Apple Tech. To my surprise, within 24 hours they approved 2 new 27" models and refunded my AppleCare.
    While working last night, 1 of the displays shut down. I reset my Mac Pro's NVRAM and SMC, plugged it into another surge protector (main is a APC SMART-UPS 1500 workstation “sine wave” for Mac Pro's), connected it to my new MacBook Air, 2012 Mac Mini, let it sit unplugged over night and it will not turn on. I connected the working display to the second input on my Mac Pro and it functioned properly. My Mac Pro does not recognize the second display when it is connected.
    I researched APC SMART-UPS systems in case the UPS was at fault, nothing; if it were my other display and Mac would definitely be effected. I did read a lot of threads on the same issues with Apple's LED displays. I wrote the Apple rep. who approved the replacements, but I'm concerned this will keep happening, impeding my workflow. Has anyone else had this many issues with their displays? I'm very disappointed, the previous 23" CCFL LCD's lasted ~8 years each. This is unacceptable.
    I'm hoping anyone with knowledge and experience might shed light onto this matter, ruling out any possibilty the cause may be related to my setup.

    Thanks... But I do still want to be able to use the built-in iSight and the USB hubs.

  • Controlling Brightness on Dual LED Cinema Displays

    I got my mac pro and 2 x LED cinema display yesterday, very pleased with the whole setup (ordered a couple of extensions for the displayport cable after looking around in threads on here too). Something that bugs me a little though is that it seems only possible to control the brightness of the display connected to the graphics card in slot 1. using f1 and f2 adjusts this display's brightness but not the secondary monitor, likewise the system preferences display panel shows a brightness slider for each display, yet both sliders adjust the brightness of the same display.
    I assume this is a software issue and will be fixed either in the next build of leopard or in snow leopard, but am just wondering if anyone has found a workaround / some kind of keyboard shortcut I'm missing or anything?

    You are not alone:
    <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1988252&start=0&tstart=0>
    There is one report (Filchescat) of it working correctly (apart from the Windows 7 user, whose brightness keys control three 24" displays).
    I don't see how Apple can make independent brightness control of external displays work from the computer. The brightness is controlled via the USB cable. Unless each display sends a serial number through both its USB and display ports, how is the computer going to know which USB port corresponds with which display. System profiler doesn't seem to show serial numbers for displays or USB devices.

  • Controlling brightness on two 24" LED Cinema Displays

    I have an 8-core Mac Pro from this summer with two NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 cards and two 24" LED Cinema Displays. I'm running Snow Leopard 10.6.1, and when I try to adjust the brightness, the slider on both panels controls only one monitor. I therefore can't adjust the brightness of one of my displays. Has anyone found this?

    I filed a bug report at bugreporter.apple.com, and received a pretty quick reply:
    This is a follow up to Bug ID# 7222745. After further investigation it has been determined that this is a known issue, which is currently being investigated by engineering. This issue has been filed in our bug database under the original Bug ID# 6828443. The original bug number being used to track this duplicate issue can be found in the State column, in this format: Duplicate/OrigBug#.
    Looks like I'm S.O.L. until they fix this!

  • 24" LED Cinema Display not working with Mac Pro

    I have a Mac Pro (2 x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core, model identifier MacPro5,1) purchased in late 2010 and a 24" LED Cinema Display. The Mac Pro has three video ports--a full-sized DVI and two mini DVI. When I plug the Cinema Display into either of the mini DVI ports, I cannot get a picture, although the iSight camera works fine. If I plug another monitor into the full-sized DVI port the computer believes that is the only monitor. The Cinema Display works fine with my MacBook, so there is nothing physically wrong with it.
    Is it not possible to use this monitor with a Mac Pro without an adapter, even though the Mac Pro does have mini DVI ports?

    Atiya wrote:
    I have a Mac Pro (2 x 2.4 GHz Quad-Core, model identifier MacPro5,1) purchased in late 2010 and a 24" LED Cinema Display. The Mac Pro has three video ports--a full-sized DVI and two mini DVI. When I plug the Cinema Display into either of the mini DVI ports, I cannot get a picture, although the iSight camera works fine. If I plug another monitor into the full-sized DVI port the computer believes that is the only monitor. The Cinema Display works fine with my MacBook, so there is nothing physically wrong with it.
    Is it not possible to use this monitor with a Mac Pro without an adapter, even though the Mac Pro does have mini DVI ports?
    I use a 24" LED with my Mac Pro. Works a treat!
    Does this help you? http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2400
    EZ Jim
    Mac Pro Quad Core (Early 2009) 2.93Ghz Mac OS X (10.6.6); MacBook Pro (13 inch, Mid 2009) 2.26GHz (10.6.6)
    LED Cinema Display; G4 PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11); iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9); External iSight; iPod4touch4.2.1

  • 27" LED Cinema Display, no brightness control

    I have a 27" LED Cinema Display that has the Mini DisplayPort cable and I am plugging into a MacbookPro 15" with a thunderbolt port. When I go into System Preferences there is no brightness control or ability to turn off automatic adjustment for the LED display, just the computer. I have the usb port plugged in as well. I have seen previous updates to fix this for earlier versions (10.6) but that didn't work on my OS X 10.8.2. Is there anything to remedy this? The automatic adjustment of brightness is very distracting and I would like to have control of the brightness of my monitor.

    FINAL NOTES
    It’s possible that the issue might simply be resolved when applying both a Software and a Firmware update for the LED Cinema Display. If you haven’t already, please download and install the following to see if these updates resolve the issue:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1338
    http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1107
    Secondly, if you are using Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) or Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), please try this additional Software Update for the LED Cinema Display if you haven’t already installed it:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1613
    Additionally, my research into other customers’ cases with these issues (brightness controls and USB functions not behaving correctly) regarding the LED Cinema Display shows that the following method might fix your issue: When connecting the affected LED Cinema Display into your Mac Pro, first plug the USB connector into the Mac, then plug the Mini-Display connector into the Mac, and finally re-open System Preferences to see if the brightness controls have returned.
    That mentioned just previously is worthless for those with an updated operating system but is mentioned regardless.
    As it works out those installers will not allow installation and merely state that you don't need this software in updated systems.
    They require that you make a brand new OS installation to be of any effect and are included in Software Updates.
    They are worth a try if all else fails.
    You should also try Disabling your Bluetooth "Discoverable" setting.
    The Discoverable Bluetooth setting seeks to establish a wireless USB connection and depending on your RF environment, can become very busy if not conflicted. (can override a wired USB connection)
    Last but certainly not least.
    Do NOT connect your monitor USB through a USB hub.
    Internally your monitor has a USB hub.
    Connecting a USB hub TO a USB hub is just asking, (if not blatantly begging), for problems.

  • 27 LED Cinema Display Audio and Brightness when powering MacBook Pro

    When my 27 LED Cinema Display is powering my (or another) 2009 13" MacBook Pro, I have experienced three issues:
    1. The dropped audio problem other users have mentioned. Shutdown, then disconnect power/usb/displayport, then wait ~15s, then reconnect and reboot temporarily fixes the problem.
    2. I also have the sluggish keyboard behavior when adjusting the volume that others have mentioned.
    3. I have experienced shifts in display brightness which are obvious when the display is dimmed. I have disabled the ambient light sensor as well as any interfering power management or energy saver settings. Opening apps, scrolling and other normal activities seem to aggravate this behavior.
    This last strange behavior inspired me to try using a power adapter for the MacBook Pro instead of display's laptop power connector. *Doing so seems to have resolved all three issues.*
    It seems that this may indicate an underlying problem with the display's power supply. Can anyone confirm?

    mmayo wrote:
    I am having the same issues & with a 1 day old display. I am using a 15" MBP. The screen is killing me when it dims down when no lights are on. I didn't notice the issue when the screen is brighter with the lights on. Anyone know if this is a hardware or software issue? I'd like to utilize the ambient light sensor but not if its going to make my screen flicker when it is dim....
    (1) I have never had any deaths associated with my screen, but on rare occasions my display's brightness will flicker when I manually adjust the brightness. The fix I have found for this is to increase the brightness one more setting or decrease it one more setting. Changing the screen from full dim to full bright and then setting the brightness I want sometimes helps, too.
    (2) You can check whether this software update has been applied to your 27-inch:
      http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4293
    (3) Your Apple Service Provider could tell you whether your problem is related to hardware or software.
    Mac Pro Quad Core (Early 2009) 2.93Ghz Mac OS X (10.6.4); MacBook Pro (13 inch, Mid 2009) 2.26GHz (10.6.4)
    LED Cinema Display; G4 PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11); iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9); External iSight; iPod touch 4.1

  • VMware Fusion and Apple LED Cinema Display

    I have a 2008 MBP and a 27" Apple LED Cinema Display. My OS is 10.7.2.
    I am running Windows 7 with the latest updates in VMWare Fusion 4.1.1. I have several issues.
    1) When I go to chose my monitor it say Apple LED Cinema Display but "Generic Non-PnP Monitor." I downloaded and installed the boot camp drivers as I understood those contained the drivers for the monitor, but that didn't seem to help. Do I need to have the Boot Camp drivers?
    2) When I try to access the Boot Camp Control panel in Windows 7 in Fusion I get "An error occured while tyring to access the startup disk settings. You may not have privileges to change the startup disk." My guess is this is because the Boot Camp drivers are only needed if you actualy run Boot Camp.
    3) In Windows I cannot choose the native resolution of the Apple display (2560 x 1440).
    4) The resolution ia 1277 x 1234. That is weird.
    5) If I minimze the Fusion window and then immediately open it, it looks fine. But if I wait for awhile and open it, the window will be black until I click inside of it.
    Something is wrong, Any help in fixing this would be greatly appreciated.
    Bryan

    you have to separate out what is Fusion and what is Windows native.
    Even doing updates to Windows sometimes should not or cannot be done properly in VM.
    And there is no way to change the default boot drive - a VM doesn't have access and that is the host OS's job, not the guest's.
    Install the latest AMD driver for mobility - and dont' use the "auto detect" - that is not going to work on Apple hardware.
    You dont' run Boot Camp. But the Apple drivers and serives needed for hardware support, yes, they aren't running or loaded.

  • 27" LED Cinema Display – noise and buzz

    Hello,
    I recently purchased a second hand 27" Apple LED Cinema Display, and I now started to have some issues.
    The first issue started today, it is some kind of buzz that comes out of the right speaker whenever I lower the brightness of the screen. I have about the opposite happening for other people – whenever the brightness would be above 3/4, a buzz sound would come up. For me it's when the brightness is below 1/4. The lower the brightness, so higher the pitch of the buzz. How weird is that?
    The second issue is that, whenever a sound is played, some kind of white noise starts coming from I believe both speakers of the display. Even if I just adjust the volume on the keyboard (which makes a sound as well), this white noise would come up. It would last around 15-30 seconds, and then it would disappear. If headphones are connected to the Mac Pro, it doesn't happen (and it can't be heard in the headphones either). I once hooked up the Mac Pro to a Panasonic TV to test, and there was no buzz coming from the TV either.
    Now I just noticed that the white noise is constantly here since the buzz appeared today (when I lower the brightness). Something is failing here I believe. It could also be the graphics card I guess?
    Sometimes I get a very quick weird flash on the screen (black & white stripes I believe) for half a second, then they're gone. It's quite rare so it's hard to troubleshoot. Maybe it has to do with the Cinema Display as well. Or perhaps it is my graphics card (It's a Sapphire HD 7950 3 GB – the Cinema Display is connected with Mini DisplayPort). Or it might just be bad drivers for this card – they were never that good apparently.
    Perhaps someone knows more than I do
    All helps is appreciated…
    Cheers!

    No ideas?

  • Can't control volume on LED Cinema Display from keyboard

    I have a LED Cinema Display attached to my Mac Mini. The volume control buttons on the keyboard don't work anymore. The only way I can change the volume is to use the volume control on the video I am watching. I tried the headset trick on the output port on the Mini, and now that works with the volume keys. But, the display volume is still not working. Any hints?

    The reason why that has happened in the first place is because MAC OS, is programed to not adjust the volume through an HDMI interface. If you have the volume control shown on the upper bar like i do, it appears light grey.When you click on it you cannot move it up or down. This is of course what the keyboard controles for volume. It does not control the program.

  • Adjusting brightness with two 24" LED Cinema Displays

    I'm wondering if there are any other Mac Pro users out there with two 24" LED Cinema Displays? If so, are you able to adjust the brightness of both displays? For me, no matter which brightness slider I adjust in System Preferences, only the brightness of one of the displays is adjusted.
    I originally created a thread last September:
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2160532
    If you have this problem too, please report it to <http://bugreporter.apple.com/>. My original Radar bug was #7222745, and it was found to be a duplicate of #6828443. Based on the IDs, I'd say this has been a known issue for at least a year.
    Thanks,
    Patrick

    I filed a bug report at bugreporter.apple.com, and received a pretty quick reply:
    This is a follow up to Bug ID# 7222745. After further investigation it has been determined that this is a known issue, which is currently being investigated by engineering. This issue has been filed in our bug database under the original Bug ID# 6828443. The original bug number being used to track this duplicate issue can be found in the State column, in this format: Duplicate/OrigBug#.
    Looks like I'm S.O.L. until they fix this!

  • 27'' LED Cinema Display flickers when powering MBP and dimmed down

    The 27'' LED Cinema Display flickers (backlight flickers) in the following situation:
    * The display powers an MacBook Pro (e.g. later 2010).
    * The MacBook Pro is fully charged (i.e. power is not used for charging).
    * The MacBook Pro performs some GPU intense task (moving the mouse over the dock with magnification enabled).
    * The brightness of the display is dimmed down to one of the lower settings (one or two "bars").
    The problem disappears if the MBP is powered by an independent charger.
    We reproduced the problem with two different MBPs (13'' and 15'') and two different displays.

    Same problem here! I bought two brand new 27 inch Cinema Displays, one for work and one for my home office. Both showed the problem. I returned both, go replacement displays and both show the same problem. I am using them with a 13 inch MacBook Air late 2010. I use them with the MacBook's display lid closed and powered by the Cinema Display. The problem only occurs when the display brightness is at 1 to 5 bars. From 6 bars on everything is fine. I also noticed that the flickering is stronger when I USE the computer, i.e. dragging around windows, typing, etc. When I just look at the screen, the flickering occurs more sporadically. The flickering looks like a short switching off of the display light (a few milliseconds).
    I just tried the hint suggested in this thread and indeed, when I open the lid and have the MacBook running on batteries (not powered by the Cinema Display), the flickering is gone! So it really seems to be dependent on that.
    Please fix it, Apple! This is not acceptable for a premium-quality display! We have already done a good job narrowing down the conditions under which the problem occurs. You should easily be able to reproduce the issue like this:
    - use a MacBook (e.g. new MacBook Air) and turn it on
    - plug in all three cables provided by the 27" Cinema Display (power, DisplayPort, USB)
    - close the lid of the MacBook and re-awake it with an external keyboard so the Cinema Display will be the only display in use
    - wait a few hours for the Cinema Display to become warm (not sure if this is a necessary condition but it could be)
    - then, use the computer under low-light conditions and ensure the brightness is at 5 bars or less
    --> You will see the problem.
    By the way, the recent Cinema Display firmware update (to address the audio issue) did NOT solve this problem.

  • Horizontal shifting bars on MBP 15 after disconnecting 24" LED cinema display and waking up from clamshell mode.

    I use my MBP 15 (late 2011) with 24" Apple LED Cinema display in a clamshell mode. After disconnecting external display, and opening display, it shows horizontal shifted bars, so it becomes completely unusable. Have to hard reset laptop. Any hints on how to resolve this? Thanks.

    Ok, more information for anyone that might care. The wake-up seems to be the familiar dark wake in order to go into hibernate mode. Except now, it's a death wake. Looking at the logs, I see that it happens exactly 70 minutes after sleeping, even though hibernatemode = 0 (which shouldn't hibernate at all!)
    So my power settings look like this:
    Currently in use:
    standbydelay         4200
    standby              1
    halfdim              1
    hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
    darkwakes            0
    gpuswitch            2
    disksleep            10
    sleep                10
    autopoweroffdelay    14400
    hibernatemode        0
    autopoweroff         1
    ttyskeepawake        1
    displaysleep         2
    acwake               0
    lidwake              1
    standbymode is 70 minutes, what a coincidence. I'm going to try setting it to 0 and see what that does.

  • Under Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Boot Camp, my 27 inch Apple LED Cinema Display checks out as a Generic PnP Monitor and is shown as NOT HDCP compliant.  I haven't been able to find any kind of an .inf file to use.  Does anyone have a solution?

    Under Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Boot Camp, my 27 inch Apple LED Cinema Display checks out as a Generic PnP Monitor and is shown as NOT HDCP compliant.  I haven't been able to find any kind of an .inf file to use.  Does anyone have a solution?  Or is Apple's implementation of HDCP (if it's there) incomplete?

    I am having this same issue. Im not sure if this is the cause but I think this is keeping PowerDVD Ultra 11 from playing back Bluray under Windows 7 / Bootcamp

  • New Mac Pro and LED cinema display

    Sorry if this has been asked before, I tried searching for it but none of the topics answered my question specifically enough.
    I have a 24" Apple LED Cinema Display purchased less than a year ago. Will it connect to a new Mac Pro and what happens to the power cable that's attached to the LED display?

    I have a 24" Apple LED Cinema Display purchased less than a year ago. Will it connect to a new Mac Pro
    Yes. All the standard cards that come in the Mac Pro have one Mini DisplayPort. The 24"LED display will plug into that.
    and what happens to the power cable that's attached to the LED display?
    It is not used if you don't have a MacBook.

Maybe you are looking for