Decrease 27" Cinema Display Heat

My 27" Cinema Display failed completely after 2 years. Did the brief black flashes and eventually cut out to black.
Now that I have it back from repair, I have stopped using the 27" Cinema Display to charge my 2011 17" MacBook Pro. It's a shame really, this is even the set-up Apple uses in the picture on the outside of the box the Cinema Displa comes in and the feature is designed to reduce cord clutter, but, it just makes the monitor get too hot and there is no real ventilation on this thing other than Apple's belief that a mass of Aluminum, ie the back of the monitor, makes a good heat sink.
I have gone back to using the 85w charger that same with the laptop and the temps of the Cinema Display are much lower now.
I can't say for sure that will extend the life of the monitor, but, the monitor went from almost too hot to touch on the back to barely warm with this move, so, I'm gonna stick with it.

Almost 3 years since the purchase, and this 27" Cinema is blacking out more and more frequently. And this, without being powering a laptop (it is connected to a Pro tower). Thank you for posting -- it helps to know that this problem is identifiable.

Similar Messages

Cinema Display 30" problem

Hi
I have a 30 inch Cinema Display from 2006-ish. I have not used it for a while and when i powered it up again a few days ago it was kind of broken.
There is no image from my Mac, only these vertical lines (check the photos). The lines change a bit if I move a window around and using a different Mac does not help.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/69744417@N06/15415125321/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/69744417@N06/15231698748/
The screen itself appears to be intact. Does anyone know of anything I can try to get it fixed? Or replace a part or two?

If you're not yet sorted - I had similar prob with my then 1 year-old iMac - AppleCare swore blind it wasn't a hardware problem and told me to wipe my hard drive and re-install EVERYTHING...!
Fortunately, I didn't believe them, and hunted thru various forums...and identified that, as I thought, it WAS a hardware prob - and the next AppleCare guy acknowledged it and sorted the repair, finally!
The heat sensor was from a bad batch (that it turned out Apple knew about and could have identified immediately by the serial number, so could have saved me days of frustration and wasted time) and it was erroneously turning the Mac off as what it perceived was a safety thing. Hope that helps...

PowerBooks and Cinema Displays

I should know the answer to this but...Can the PB be used with the Cinema display only and with the lid closed?

I thought about that but the truth is the PB actually stays cooler with the lid shut. I've been watching it closely. It's kind of like the question about whether or not your refridgerator light goes off when you shut the door. When the lid gets closed the processor goes to sleep. Clicking the mouse wakes up the Cinema display and my obvious assumption is that the PB display is off while the lid is closed. This seems to cut down on the heat build up. I also use a Targus Podium Coolpad to elevate the back end of the PB and it stays very cool.
The only glitch I've had with the lid closed is that my Airport connection also shuts off. So I use my Airport Express to convert back to hardwire and re-connect to my Ethernet port. That way I can stay connected and I also reduce heat build up by not running the Airport card inside the PB.
Having said all that I also agree using both monitors is very handy.
Thanks for the feedback.

Restarting MacBook pro with cinema display and lid closed?

Is it possible to restart the macbook pro with its lid closed when it is hooked to an apple 20" cinema display?
I have a 15" macbook pro 2.33GHz and want to be able to use it like a desktop system with just the external display when I am at home.
Also should I worry about heat issues running it with the lid closed sitting on the wood desk top?
Thanks

Thanks, I just realized that I phrased my question rather badly.
My real problem is how to start my computer without opening up the lid. I have a stand on my desk that the display is on and the macbook slides under when it's closed. Having to unplug it and pull it out every time it is shut down and needs to be started is rather a pain. The button on the side of the display seems to work for sleep/restart/shut down, but it doesn't seem to be able to start the computer once it is shut down; so my question is, is this possible?... am I dreaming?
Macbook Pro 15" 2.33GHz Mac OS X (10.4.9) 20" apple cinema display

MacBook Pro connected Cinema Display lid closed - is this alright?

I have my Macbook Pro connected to a 23" Cinema Display and I was just reading something about heat and wanted to make sure its fine to have my Macbook Pro connected to the Cinema Display with the lid closed. Actually, I'm guessing there's no problem as only rarely do the fans kick in and this has to be when the CPU is being held wide open for an extended length of time.
However, I thought I'd just bounce it off the forum to make sure this is fine. I think I asked Apple ages ago when I got the display and they told me it was fine. I've run it this way I suppose for 2.5 years so and everything runs fine. But, I know this thing can get hot when I sit it on my lap which is rare now since I have a iPhone.

It's fine to do that, but personally, I would leave the lid cracked open about an inch to aid in cooling. Air is drawn in through the keyboard.
Dave M.
MacOSG Founder/Ambassador  An Apple User Group  iTunes: MacOSG Podcast
Macsimum News Associate Editor  Creator of 'Mac611 - Mobile Mac Support'

Turn Macbook Pro on, if it is hooked up to my cinema display, closed door?

Hi all,
I have searched and searched, but not found an answer, so I thought I would post this....
I have a 1 year old 30" cinema display I just got to use with my macbook pro.
I have my laptop tucked under the 30" display, sitting on top of the stand base, so one cannot open the door of the laptop display door as a result to power the computer on easily when need be.
I did not get any CD with the display, original box, etc, but no cd...... is there software that would allow me to use the monitor power button to turn the laptop on after turning it off?
Presently, I have set the display power button in preferences to allow it to go to sleep. but there is no option to turn computer on or off.
Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Seems dumb that one has to open the laptop door every time one turns the computer off, if using an external display, mouse, keyboard.
Cheers for any clarification.....

I don't have an answer to your question, but just wanted to warn you about running the macbook pro closed with an external monitor. I did that for over a year and the heat from the macbook pro ruined my macbook pro LCD screen since it was right on the heat. There ended up being blotching all over it and the only solution was to get the screen replaced.

Sweating in front of Cinema display

I went into an Apple store a couple of weeks back, and did some email and web surfing there, using a new MacPro with a large Apple Cinema Display attached.
After a while, I noticed that I was sweating, and absent-mindedly thought that Apple should turn up the air-conditioning in the store.
But when I turned away... Relief! I turned back, and realised that the cinema display was projecting quite a bit of heat!!!
I then checked other LCD displays, and found them to produce quite a bit of projected heat as well, although the large cinema display was much hotter than the smaller ones.
Is this normal?
Is there a way to avoid/remove the heat from these screens?
Thanks

Yes, this has come up before. See this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2672122&#2672122
The way to reduce the heat is to reduce the backlight level. It's directly proportional. Usually, in the Apple Stores, the backlight is all the way up because the stores are brightly lit. At home, you can usually run at a much lower backlight level. It will have the added benefit of being more restful for your eyes. Many people run their LCDs way too bright and never realize why they have dry eye and/or eyestrain.

23" CFL Apple Cinema Display or 24" LED Cinema Display?

The 24" has some great advantages: LED backlighting (no dimming over time!), speakers, power for a MacBook Pro, a built-in iSight camera.
The big advantage of the 23" display: the matte display. The big disadvantage: it's a significant source of heat, noticeable in the Austin, TX summers.
I'm not a graphics professional, but I worry about the reflections on the 24" Cinema Display. To make matters worse, I have a window directly behind me and my office isn't really reconfigurable.
Am I really better off with the 23" Cinema display?

Unless you really need only the features of one of them. *get both* so you have the right tool for the job. When you need the other's advantage, the changeover is simple.
Of course, if you only need one feature set, buy that one.
If you are concerned about dimming over time, you can buy another 23 if it becomes necessary.
My five-year-old 20 inch LCD is still doing fine and it runs every day (although I have set it to sleep it when it is not used for longer than 3 minutes.) It has dimmed a bit, but certainly not to the point that I ever need to run its brightness anywhere near maximum.
Moreover, in another five years, you may have moved on to the boss's office and the worries will be different!
G5 DP 1.8GHz w/Mac OS X (10.5.7) PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11) iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9) External iSight

Apple, Please Fix Your Cinema Display Adapters Already

I know this is not a new issue since there are already topics identical to my problem. I bought my Cinema Display in 2007, since then I have had to buy 3-4 power adapters. When they fail the screen goes black, then you unplug it and it works for a short time but as you keep using it the time they work keeps decreasing. My question here is why, Apple, have you not fixed this problem which I have had for the last 5 years? The other issue besides money spent is my computer is basically worthless until Apple sends me the new part. I either have to have a backup power supply for the Cinema Display or have a different brand monitor as a backup. Apple, please fix this problem, I like the display, fix the adapter.

Brian,
I had this same issue and finally found a prefPane called SwitchResX that addresses the issue that I wish Apple had. It is designed to many other things but I only use it to deactivate a second display and it seems to work well for that.

Dual G5 won't boot with printer plugged in to 23" Apple Cinema Display

I shut down my Dual G5 the other day due to the excessive
heat it throws out as we were having someone stay in our guest room.
Upon restart next day it would not boot up entirely it would get
to the apple screen with start up wheel (not beachball)
then it would go to a blue screen and stay.
I have cross eliminated the problem to a print device
that I had plugged into the back of the 23" Apple Cinema Display.
I merely unplugged the usb and the computer finished loading up.
I have a slimline keyboard plugged into monitor as well and that does not seem
to cause any problems. Has any one had this problem and or a fix.
Thanks in advance,
Sean

Hi, and a Warm Welcome to Apple Discussions and the Power Mac G5 Forum!
Well - presuming that you have inspected the tab on the locating peg of the air deflector for damage - shown in Figure 4 here
http://www.info.apple.com/usen/cip/pdf/g5/073-0891.pdf
and that the booting ok without the deflector, and then running ok with the deflector is a repeatable symptom - there is some discussion of a similar-ish problem here
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5748156#5748156
The theory there was that 10.4.10 was picking up on a (real or imagined) CPU-Logic Board mismatch - which may have continued into 10.5.1. As suggested, this may be able to be verified by checking the entries in system.log. If nothing in the log catches the eye, you could copy and post the Startup sequence entries.
There are some things to try suggested there; running the Apple Service Diagnostic is a possible as you still have AppleCare. It would be interesting to hear what they think is the problem.
Please post again if you have any questions. Good Luck.

Apple LED Cinema Display extreme Smell

Hi, I recently bought a Cinema Display and i can't get rid of its "New electronics" smell.
Each time the Diplay is turned on, and the fan is turning this penetrant smell starts filling up my room.
Has anybody experienced this ?
I bought a new Macbook pro at the same time and that it stopped smelling after one or two days.
Its really annoying, each time i work an hour on the Mac i get a headache
By the way i sometimes experienced the well known ticking sound when I turn down the brightness of the display under 50%.
An other thing i noticed was that when i turn the display on it cracks, like something inside is expanding under the heat that is build up.
I will bring it back to the Apple dealer, see if i can get it exchanged for a new one !

Brightness is controlled via USB. Is the display's USB cable plugged into the computer?

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

2010 13" MBP performance with the 27" Cinema Display

Hi. I have a 2010 13" Macbook Pro bought about a year and a half ago (my first Mac and despite the problems described below, I'm a very happy camper), with RAM upgraded to 8 GB but otherwise it's pretty much a standard issue machine, certainly still a good computer. Last summer I bought the 27" Cinema Display to go with it and I just love it. From time to time, though, I'm a bit concerned about the performance of my computer with the display. I usually use a lot of apps at a time (hence the maxed out memory) and with the display, more often than not, the computer runs a bit on the slow side, the animations are not the smoothest, the "beach ball" is oft-present, or, very prominently, there's no way flash video (such as on YouTube) plays smoothly in full screen, making it unwatchable (I often "cheat" by using the universal access zoom to magnify the video, which does the job pretty well). The fan inside the laptop usually spins audibly at the maximum RPM and the CPU temperature is usually around 70°C (rarely less, but rarely much more). None of these problems happen when I'm using it without the display, on the road. I have already given up on keeping the see-thru Zagg plastic case when at home and not traveling, to keep the computer cooler in the clamshell mode and I'd be willing to buy an external cooling system (the Moshi Zefyr 2 cooler looks really worthy) but do you think the performance degradation could be heat-related at all? I know my MBP is really the entry-level model and still has the ancient C2D CPU, only 256 MB of video memory and I shouldn't expect miracles. But I just wanted to make sure I'm doing everything right and my computer is really "supposed" to perform worse with such a large display. Thank you very much for any kind of help or advice.

Thanks a lot for your reply. Isn't it weird, though, that Apple would make the display compatible with all of their notebooks without any warning about the possible performance penalty with some of the lower end models? Why aren't they offering smaller external displays? And the MBP 7,1 is no slouch too, when this particular Cinema Display originally shipped, it was the most powerful Apple laptop after the 15" and 17" MBPs.
Oh well, it still works OK though, and I'm going to stick with this setup for at least another year or so, certianly till after the rumored MBP redesign takes place and I hope the graphics on the future machines will be powerful enough to drive large displays smoothly. It's a good thing the Cinema Display is future-proof and forward compatible with the Tunderbolt port. All in all, it's a beautiful display and will remain so for a long time.
Do you think an external cooler (such as the mensioned Zefyr 2) would help in the meantime?

Disconnecting MacBookPro from Cinema Display

Here's a stupid question that appears to be too elementary to address in the documentation: When I want to disconnect my MacBookPro from the Cinema Display, do I simply remove the connections or do I have to shut the laptop down first?
Related stupid question: when I return with my laptop, can I simply plug in the Cinema connections, or does the laptop have to be powered down?
Thanks.

You don't have to shut it down.

How to connect a 2009 Cinema Display with mini DisplayPort to modern card

Hello:
I am ready to install a new NVidia Quadro K5000 for Mac in my not so old Mac Pro 4,1 (2009). I already installed Mountain Lion (10.8.3) as required. The problem is that the Mac Pro came with a Led Cinema Display which apparently only can be connected with a mini DisplayPort plug and the graphics card only have DVi and DP 1.2. I tried to find an adapter but the ones I have find are minidp male to DVI female and obviously I need a minidp female to DVI or DP female.
I will appreciate any help.
Alex Sierra

The fifth and sixth item on this page are DisplayPort male to Mini DisplayPort female "Extension cables". Under US$6 plus shipping from a reputable seller:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10246#1024602

Decrease 27" Cinema Display Heat

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for