2011 imac thunderbolt ports dead

My first time on here - desperate for a solution having taken my machine to Apple Store 3 times, had on-site maintenance from a specialist Apple authorised repairer, all through AppleCare. So far it hasn't cost me anything (and must have cost Apple a fortune), however the issue has not been solved.
I have a mid 2011 imac 3.4 Ghz i7, top of the range with SSD and HD, full RAM. I bought it because I needed FW800 and thunderbolt, it was the only machine apart from the mac mini offering that combination at the time. All worked fine for 2.5 years until one day about 2 months ago I started up the machine and nothing was detected at the thunderbolt port.
System info displayed "no device connected" at either thunderbolt port, despite there being a WD velicraptor drive, a La Cie FW drive (with TB-FW adaptor) and a Sonnet PCexpress card 34 attached. I did an SMC reset (several times) and a PRAM reset (also 5-6 times), no joy.
Took the imac to Apple Store in Geneva where they diagnosed a faulty motherboard. Repaired in 2 days, came back home, plugged everything in and started up, all was fine for about 20 minutes, then thunderbolt devices disappeared again. Same "no device connected" info.
Back to the Apple Store, they started up the machine and said the TB ports were working fine, it must be my peripherals. They wouldn't keep the machine whilst I went back to get my peripherals (I live 2 hours from Geneva) so I had to return 3 days later with the imac and all my cables, devices, hard drives etc. They plugged them all in one by one and, hey presto, everything showed up. Changing devices, ports and cables around (all Apple TB or TB-FW cables) resulted in the same conclusion = no thunderbolt problem, there must be some problem with my installation at my place.
Naturally back at home I got the "no device connected" story. After a long and fruitless phone call to Apple support in France I managed to persuade them to give me on-site maintenance - a guy came from a specialist repairer and noted the problem with my installation - no thunderbolt ports working, "no device connected". He took the machine back to his facility in Geneva and had it on test for 10 days, then came back to me with "no fault found".
So - to sum up - I have a thunderbolt enabled imac whose thunderbolt ports work everywhere except where I need them to work, no-one can come up with a solution, calls to Apple are met with a rather disdainful "what you are reporting is physically impossible", the specialist repairer has given up and I am at the point of throwing this piece of junk out of the window.
Before I do, is there anyone out there who can suggest what might be happening and why. To deepen the mystery, I have a 2011 Macbook Pro with thunderbolt, plugged into the same electricity supply, and when I plug all the same peripherals into the thunderbolt port of that machine, they all show up. Therefore there is apparently no issue with any cable or any thunderbolt enabled external device, except when I try to attach them to my imac.
I'm an experienced mac user with several machines and I have never seen anything like this before, nor (it seems) have Apple themselves. Other users have reported problems with the thunderbolt interface on the imac, but not this exact issue. Apple support won't let me talk to an engineer, so I appear to have exhausted all avenues of support, other than writing directly to Tim Cook and asking for my money back! I would be very grateful for any advice.

It could be the Thunderbolt cables.
Do you have other known working Thunderbolt cables you can try?
Make sure the cable ends are making a strong, tight connection at the connection ends of your Thunderbolt device connections.
Also, your connections on the connected Thunderbolt device might be faulty instead of the ones on your Mac.
Try each Thunderbolt device individually.
A few years back 8 had two WD MyBook drives with both FireWire 400 and 800 connections and on one drive, the FW800 connections were flaky and didn't always keep a connection and the other WD MyBook drive had faulty FW400 connections that would work on and off.
The MyBook enclosures were crap once I realized this , I had the actual drives removed out of those enclosures by my local Mac reseller/repair center transfer these actual WD drives into two OWC FW800 drive enclosures and these, now, still work fine with my newer iMac.
So, it could be either cable issues or peripheral issues, you need to test to find what cable and/or connected periphereal device is causing all of your ills.
It may NOT be your Mac that is the issue with your Thunderbolt connection.
Good Luck!

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Any way to connect older digital video recorder to my 2011 imac thunderbolt port, instead of defaulting to firewire?

Dont know if theres an adaptor on the way or if i have to wait for a thunderbolt capable vide recorder....

What ports are available on your digital video recorder?? If Firewire is the only digital interface on your video deck, then even if there was an adapter/cable (which there isn't any currently) that went from Thunderbolt-->Firewire, the speed would still step down to the speed of your firewire connection (400 or 800).
If you are wanting to take advantage of TB speeds (going from computer to video deck), then you may have to wait for awhile until some pro/pro-sumer level video decks come out.
If you already have a video recorder that captures SDI or HDMI (or just want to capture analog)... Blackmagic has a video converter available already...
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/ultrastudio3d/
Hope this helps...

Is it possible to use a new iMAC 2011 (with thunderbolt port) as a passive screen with a Macbook (MacBook5,1 - End 2008) ?

s it possible to use a new iMAC 2011 (with thunderbolt port) as a passive screen with a Macbook (MacBook5,1 - End 2008) ?

No, you would need to upgrade the MacBook to a 2011 MacBook Pro that also has Thunderbolt.
Roger

Imac thunderbolt ports ain't work.

what can i do? how to repair thunderbolt ports?

Amazing lack of information in post = equaly amazing lack of help. Please be specfic, remember we cannot see your computer or look over your shoulder. Please post what is occuring and what troubleshootinng steps you have taken. I am assuming you have a 2011 or late 2012 iMac, the only two iMacs with Thunderbolt ports. If we know what you are connecting, what cables you are using and what problems you are encountering we may be able to help.

How to connect iMAC thunderbolt port to a cable TV set top box?

I am moving to a house that will have combination TV-phone-Internet services delivered via cable (Optimum is the provider). I understand that with my new iMac which has a "thunderbolt" port that I can use the iMac as a tv monitor and DVR (recorder) and watch live TV or recorded TV. I think it is possible to record TV shows either on the iMac's hard drive or the Optimum DVR. Beyond that, I get confused because I do not understand the details of RCA cables, coaxial cables, HDMI connectors, etc. Apple does not provide support for set top boxes (I called Apple), and Optimum does not provide support for Macs (I called them too). Since Apple is the party advertising the capability of watching TV on a Mac, I would think the burden is more on them to explain how that works, and maybe they have done so on their web sites, but I cannot find it so far. I can understand that the cable company does not want to tell people how to bypass the need for their DVR equipment. Before I go out and hire a consultant for a few hundred dollars to explain it, I was hoping I might find online some tips on how to set up a system at home. No luck so far.
Am I correct in assuming that wireless connections are NOT an option because a TV signal has too much bandwidth to work wirelessly? (I do have a wireless router already.)
If so and if I am using wires to connect the iMac, am I correct to think I want to use the thunderbolt port for best results?
If so, what next? What exactly is the adapter or cable I need and how do I plug it into the set top box? There are several people in the household, and so I would want the flat screen TV monitor to work normally at times rather than only use the iMac. Does that require several set top boxes? I would think that this would be an issue for many people, and it seems to me that this forum would be an ideal place to get help. So far the people I have spoken with say "well it depends on what you want to do and what your equipment is and for that you have to go ask ___________[someone else]"

I do not understand what Apple TV is. I have TV already. When I look up "Apple TV" on the Apple website I see that is has been redesigned to be small in size but big in entertainment. Since I did not know what it was BEFORE it was redesigned, knowing that is has been redesigned does not help me understand it. Now it is smaller? So it was too big before? "Watch Netflix titles instantly." But I can do that with my mac and an internet connection now. So what is Apple TV that makes it a better or different way to watch Netflix movies? "Best of all, Apple TV is just $99" Sorry, but how is that the Best of All part? My Optimum Cable is charging me $30 a month for TV. But Apple TV's best part is it costs $99? Is that per month too? I also see that everything streams wirelessly to Apple TV, and all I need it so connect apple tv to my widescreen TV using an HDMI cable sold separately. Now I am really confused. I plug in a cable to get wireless streaming? If it is wireless, why does it need a cable? If there is a cable involved, how is it wireless? Color me clueless. I cannot find a straight forward description of what Apple TV is. And so I don't get how that is the answer to my question. Sorry for being so simple-minded. Thanks for the suggestion and I will go research further to learn what is an Apple TV.

2011 mini-thunderbolt port to monitor not working

I have a 2011 i5 Mini which I am using as a media server - hdmi port to my tv and the Thunderbolt port to my 1920x1080 monitor. The problem is with the Thunderbolt port.
I understood that I could use a Mini Displayport (MDP) adapter and go to the monitor either as VGA or DVI. Hooked up the MDP-VGA adapter and all was good for the last couple of weeks: both the monitor and the TV works and the monitor also worked fine with the TV off.
However, today, the monitor wouldn't show a signal. Figuring it was the cheap monitor, it pulled it and hooked it to a 2010 mini and it worked correctly with dvi and vga. Put it back on the 2011 Mini and tried a MDP-DVI adapter, but no joy. Image came on the monitor for perhaps 2 seconds and then disolved to just white noise. Re-booted with same result.
Pulled the HDMI cable that was going to the TV and used the supplied HDMI to DVI adapter to the monitor and it now works, but now I can't use the TV.
I am assuming that this is a trip to the Apple store for warranty work unless anyone has an idea to try. BTW, the 2011 MIni is fully up to date according to Software Update.
Thanks, all.
Peter

Solved the problem with a new dvi to mini-display port cable from amazon. My 2 adapters must be bad.
Peter

IMac Thunderbolt ports stopped working

I have a late 2012 iMac 27". Both Thunderbolt ports no longer work.
Have tried an external monitor and hard drive. Nothing happens. Both work on another iMac.
Reset PRAM (left cmd+option+p+r), but nothing changed.

eyewander,
Hi, please create your own thread. Your situation may be totally different than the original poster, they symtoms may be the same however the cause may be 100% different. If you would tell us what you are experiencing in a new post someone will be happy to assist.
FYI...what you are doing is condidered rude which I am sure is not your intent at all. It's called thread jacking. Just create a new thread and someone will be happy to help.

Imac thunderbolt port not recognising hardware

I recently purchased a late 2012 27' imac 3.4GHz, i7. The things works beautifully, however I'm having a particular issue with the thunderbolt ports. It's not recognising hardware I plug in - to either port. I've done a fair bit of research - done the whole restart thing, tried different combinations of connecting and booting up, uninstalling and re-installing the hardware drivers I'm trying to connect, used previous versions of the drivers, tested the hardware on my old macbook pro and it worked, but the new imac is just not recognising it through the thunderbolt ports. Specifically, the hardware is a Mbox 3 Pro, with Firewire 800 to 400 to thunderbolt cable. Long chain, but I do know it works. Any help/ideas on getting the imac and hardware to communicate would be greatly appreciated

I assume you mean System Information?
The Thunderbolt Bus information reads:
Firmware Version: 23.4
Port:
     Status: No device connected
     Link Status: 0x7
     Link Controller Firmware Version: 0.12.3
Port:
     Status: No device connected
     Link Status: 0x7
     Link Controller Firmware Version: 0.12.3
Since the post, I went out and bought a new thunderbolt adapter, but still no go, it's weird because the Mbox pro is consistently working on my laptop but not on the Imac.

2011 Imac firewire port

I have a 2011 imac. Has anyone had intermittent connection problems with the firewire port? When I have been importing video sometimes imovie would say there is no video signal and the imovie screen would turn blue. This happened only a couple of times. Once I went back to firewire plug and push it in and it came back. Also I am getting random messeges that a device wasn't properly ejected. I do have a cheap usb hub wih a couple of drives connected but if it is that I don't see how that would effect the firewire port.
Cassini

Not real important, but what FireWire Camera or device are you using?
I'd try another > FireWire 800 to 400 9 to 4 pin Cable first and then if that doesn't work go to > Apple - Support - iMac - Service FAQ

Aluminum iMac USB port dead?

Hello,
I think one of the USB ports on my Aluminum iMac (2.0 GHz) has stopped working. When I plug in my iPod into this particular port it no longer recognizes the iPod, however when I move the iPod to another port it is recognized. The port worked fine last week. I've tried other things in this port (e.g. USB hard drive), and it's the same thing.
Could this still be a software issue, or is this pretty much a hardware problem?
Is there any other troubleshooting I can do before calling Apple?
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Hm thanks for the idea den.thed
So how do I then see that something is slowing everything down?
Here is my tree
http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture28et1.png
What I find mostly strange is that apparently there are 2 "USB BUss" which are not being used.
No idea where those are sitting, because all my 3 USB Plugs in the back of the iMac are used up.
Maybe they are 2 free ones in my Mac?
Then what also suprises me it that there is another USB Hub in my USB Hub?
I only have one USB hub, that hub as oyu can see has 2 leaves.
One an external harddrive, the other leaf is a USB Hub with the iPod and another external harddrive.
And as mentioned above I don't know where to look now for the thing that is slowing everything down.
How do I recognize that?
Thanks a lot

Connecting a Canon HV30 camcorder vai a thunderbolt port to a new imac

Hi all
I was using imovie 11 with my old imac (purchased Summer 2008) using the firewire connection to transfer DV/HDV video from my Canon HV30 camcorder (tape). I just bought a new 27 inch imac with the thunderbolt ports and now I am stuck as there is no firewire
The camcorder had a 4 pin firewire output so I have tried the following
Used the original camcorder cable (Firewire 400), converted to firewire 800 with an adapter and then used the Apple firewire to thunderbolt adapter
Used a cable that converted the 4 pin firewire to firewire 800 and then used the Apple firewire to thunderbolt adapter.
In each case, imovie is not seeing the camcorder.
I know that my camcorder is not listed as being supported by imovie but has worked fawlessly on my old machine running the same software and operation system (Mountain Lion)
Any ideas - thanks
Kevin

Hi epjustin,
What I said in the previous post (Oct 9 2013) works for me but I can try to explain in more detail if that helps.
Firstly. remove the battery or the ac power connection from the camcorder. - VERY IMPORTANT
Turn on the Imac and login
Attach a thunderbolt to firewire 800 adapter to the IMac thunderbolt port - you can get this from the Apple Store
Now attach a firewire 800 to firewire 400 adapter to the the end of the previous adapter. You should now have the appropriate firewire 400 connection so that you can attach the original firewire cable that came with the camcorder.
Now connect the camcorder cable to complete the connection between the camcorder and the computer
Now connect the power supply or the battery to the camcorder and turn on the camcorder. Set the camcorder up so that it exports through the cable as normal
You should now be able to detect the camcorder in imovie. If you can't see the camcorder in imovie, go into system report from about this mac and you should see an entry in the thunderbolt section relating to the connected camera.
As I mentioned above, turn on and disconnect the power from the camcorder before disconnecting the camcorder from the Imac or turning off the Imac
If you can't get things to work, you may want to try connecting the camcorder to another computer as there is a chance that the board is fried if it doesn't work
Please let me know if you need any further help
Kevin

My Thunderbolt ports on fritz

Greetings. I have a late 2012 iMac (27inch). The two thunderbolt ports have stopped working and I can't seem to get them to work. Trying to avoid lugging it to the Apple store. I have tried the SMC and PRAM reset in order three times as recommended in this discussion:iMac Thunderbolt ports stopped working. I have also done hardware diagnostics it says all is OK in hardware.
I can't seem to find any other proposed solutions out here. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Many thanks.

The technician scheduled via Apple Care provided on-site service as promised. It was confirmed that my Thunderbolt ports had fried and he replaced the logic board. All is working perfectly.
We were blown away by the efficiency and level of support and follow-up by Apple Care. This is so much different to support issues we've had in the past with companies such as HP. They really have their act together and I am relieved that I took out the three year care plan option when I purchased the iMac. It's already paid for itself, as all servicing and repairs were covered by the plan.

I have a new (mid-2011 27" Imac with 2 Thunderbolt ports each driving one 27" Thunderbolt display. The 3 displays work perfectly in OSX Lion but in Bootcamp 4.0 with Windows 7 (64 bit) only 2 screens come up. everything is up to date. Anyonce who can help

I have a new (mid-2011 27" Imac with 2 Thunderbolt Ports each driving one 27" Thunderbolt display.
Graphic card is AMD Radeon HD 6970M with 2Gb of VRAM. All works 100% in Lion but
in Bootcamp 4.0 running windows 7 Professional (64 bit) Only 2 of the 3 screens work not all three.
Tried updates, calling Apple etc. But no luck. Windows doesn't recognize the 3rd screen while
checking on the driver in windows is tells me it's the latest and best available. ? In VMware
Windows 7 also works fine over three screens so windows can do it. But I need it natively to
work. (i.o.w. in Bootcamp). Does Anybody know how to solve this, or if Apple is working on a
solution for this ? It really hurts to have one of these expensive screens staring at you being dead.

I have a new (mid-2011 27" Imac with 2 Thunderbolt Ports each driving one 27" Thunderbolt display.
Graphic card is AMD Radeon HD 6970M with 2Gb of VRAM. All works 100% in Lion but
in Bootcamp 4.0 running windows 7 Professional (64 bit) Only 2 of the 3 screens work not all three.
Tried updates, calling Apple etc. But no luck. Windows doesn't recognize the 3rd screen while
checking on the driver in windows is tells me it's the latest and best available. ? In VMware
Windows 7 also works fine over three screens so windows can do it. But I need it natively to
work. (i.o.w. in Bootcamp). Does Anybody know how to solve this, or if Apple is working on a
solution for this ? It really hurts to have one of these expensive screens staring at you being dead.

Can i Play Sony Playstation 4 on my iMac, 27-inch, Mid 2011[Thunderbolt Port Only] ??

I Use a iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011). Which has only Thunderbolt ports. Is there any way i can Connect The Sony Playstation 4 to my iMac and play games ? Just to let you know the Playstation has a HDMI out which has to be connected to my iMac's thunderbolt port to use it as a display.
Have been searching everywhere for a solution but unable to find it.
Desperately waiting for your replies.
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Sandeep

thunderbolt to hdmi cable

Has anyone tried driving two external monitors (3 total displays) on the iMac 2011 through the thunderbolt ports on Windows 7 Bootcamp?

I would love to purchase an iMac 2011 with the Thunderbolt ports, but I need to occasionally boot to Windows 7 Bootcamp.
I imagine this will work in general... but has anyone tried driving two external monitors using the Thunderbolt ports in Windows 7 Bootcamp?
Thanks in advance!
Ralph

Hi,
I am trying to get this working at the moment. both monitors are fine in Lion but I am losing the second monitor in windows. I will update you when I get it working.

2011 imac thunderbolt ports dead

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