Imac thunderbolt -vga

just got a thunderbolt -vga adaptor but on the old tv im trying to use as a secondary monitor i am getting a "no VGA signal"

Thunderbolt isn't found on PPC Macs. It wasn't introduced until 2011. So I can only assume you have a newer Mac. iOS is the operating system found on iPad/iPod/iPhone, or iPod Touch. Using an old TV for a secondary signal is not really wise, as Mac OS X requires a lot of real estate. Old TVs that only support VGA only support 720 x 480 resolution.

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Mac Mini and thunderbolt/vga to LCD TV

Hi All,
Here is an interesting one......
I have just taken delivery of 5 new Mac Minis which have the thunderbolt port on them. The Mac Minis each connect using displayport tb/vga adapter to a switch then on to 5 LCD TVs.
The HDMI/DVI is not used.
In this config, if I start a Mac Mini the display will not route through the Thunderbolt/vga adapter to any of the TVs (even though I have selected them on the switch). The display seems to want to go through the default HDMI port.
If I connect a standard PC monitor to the tb/vga adapter and reboot, the screen shows correctly on the monitor. If I then change cables without a reboot, the LCD TVs show correctly!
I can add the PC monitor as a second monitor using HDMI/DVI and ensure that the outputs are mirrored AND that the VGA display is the primary. However, on reboot it's as if the details are all forgotten!
Searching around it seems that there are issues with Mac Minis and VGA connections to LCD TVs. That said, I wanted to put my environment out there and see if anyone had an ideas.
Interestingly enough, with older Mac Minis (without the tb/vga) it works perfectly well, indicating a problem with the new Mac Minis.
Thanks for ANY ideas!!!!

Hey Spost!
You have explained exactly what happened to me last night. I was afraid it was part of the 10.8.3 update or the latest ATV software update that hit this week. I tried from my macbook pro and the airplay from 10.8.3 and the atv software worked fine.
Previously my mac mini was connected to a monitor in my basement but last night i made it "headless" and moved it to my "server closet" airplaying prior to the move worked great ... then last night 4:3 Green Screen.
My guess is the computer needs to be connected to a external display in order for airplay resolution to figure itself out. Via Logmein i could see that the Mirror mode wanted to use the resolution that fit the mac and not what was best for the Apple TV ... Even forcing the change made the setting go right back to this mac.
Looks to be a bug in a plist file that apple would need to fix as many people run headless mac mini's and now wish to AirPlay to their Apple TV's without the need for a external cable run.

How to get screen content onto external VGA screen? Do have thunderbolt-VGA adapter but only get screensaver across

how to get screen content onto external VGA screen? Do have thunderbolt-VGA adapter but only get screensaver across

VGA and DVI do not carry sound. Only HDMI.
Use a minidisplay-to-HDMI adapter. Then when the TV is connected to the system use "System Prefences > Sound > Output" to select the TV for sound.
Or connect speakers to the output port of the MBP.

Connecting iMac to VGA projector problems

I have just connected my Mac to a new NEC VGA projector via thundertbolt with thunderbolt-VGA adapter. Even though I have done evrything that's recommended for the display differences in both the mac and the projector, the image remains poor, blurry, with a overall fuchsia tint.
What should I do?

The Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter is what works in the Thunderbolt Port.
see > thunderbolt to VGA - Apple Store (U.S.)
Did you try a different VGA cable like I suggested...?
Did you try a different Adapter like I suggested...? If not, then take that adapter to your local AASP and have them test it.

Thunderbolt VGA adapter drivers on Windows 7

I am now using MacBook Pro 13" Early 2011 and I installed windows 7 on it. Everything works fine except the thunderbolt for the secondary display. So, can someone help me give links to the driver? Thanks

I also have a thunderbolt VGA adaptor for my 13" macbookPRO. Works well connecting to a 19" monitor but not when connected to my Sony TV. My VGA cable works just fine between my PPC mac mini and the Sony TV. Am I missing something?
Is there some something I have overlooked? I have had a number of Macs over the past many years and almost always find that I am the problem not the equipment.

Thunderbolt-VGA problem

Hi,
I have a MacBook Air 2013 and have recently bought a Thunderbolt-VGA Adapter. However when I connect it to the beamer which I use at work (Panasonic), nothing happens - the blue screen projected by the beamer just remains there!
I have then tried with another adapter from the person which held a presentation there after me and it worked! Therefore my question:
Are there different VGA Adapters for Macs? When yes could you tell me which one I should buy? Or is my adapter just not working?
Regards

It isn't so much different VGA adapters, but some Displayport adapters are not Thunderbolt aware, as Thunderbolt was developed later. Is there no DVI or HDMI on the Panasonic? Much higher resolution ranges are possible with DVI, and HDMI also includes the possibility of audio transfer over the same cable.

What printers work best with the iMac thunderbolt?

What printers work best with the new 21.5" iMac Thunderbolt?

Which iMac model and which Mac OSX version? The pre-2006 iMacs this forum covers are now either poorly supported or complete adandoned by most pritner makers.
If "About this Mac" (from your Apple menu at the left end f the menubar) shows the word "Intel," please let us klnow and we can get you moved to the forum for newer iMacs; that one gets much more traffic.

Does my June 2013 imac Thunderbolt support Thunderbolt 2?

Does my June 2013 imac Thunderbolt support Thunderbolt 2?

No past or currently shipping Mac supports Thunderbolt 2. The only Mac announced that will is the new Mac Pro.
Regards.

Connect third party monitor to iMac thunderbolt

Trying to help my brother find some answers. He is going to purchase the newest iMac and knows that a monitor can be connected via the Thunderbolt port, but needs to know what kind of adapter he might need to connect a third party monitor.
Any help will be appreciated
Thank you in advance

He needs a Mini Display Port to either VGA, DVI or HDMI adapter. The MDP and Thunderbolt connections are the same size. If he wan't a really nice external monitor tell him to get the Apple Thunderbolt Display. Those retail for $999 but can be found on Apple's refurbished store for $849 which is a good buy.

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.

I have a late 2010 MB Air (mini display port) and a new 2013 iMac (thunderbolt) which I would love to use as an external display. I suspect that target display mode won't work.Any ideas for how to achieve this?

According to the TDM support page, this isn't possible. I tried it with a Mnidisplay port to minidisplay port cable without success. Its a shame that thunderbolt doesn't appear to be backwards compable as I could have achieved this with an older iMac.
Cheers

You are correct....it will not work. Please carefully read Apple's Target Display Mode: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

IMac G3 VGA to s-video

I have searched for, but cannot find, an adaptor which will allow the connection of my iMac G3's video out port (VGA) to the s-video input on a TV. I don't need sound output.
I have a mini adaptor for my G4 iBook which does the deed... but an iMac G3? (standard dual FireWire indigo model).
Thanks in advance.

Standard VGA has Red, Green, Blue. H-Sync. V-Sync.
S-Video has Luminance, Chrominance, and Sync.
You can't get there from here.

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.

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!

Maximum Thunderbolt/VGA resolution for external displays?

Hi there
Until recently, I've been using a Macbook Air Core 2 Duo with a MiniDisplayPort output. This is connected via the Apple MiniDisplayPort > VGA adaptor to an LG Flatron W2246 22" display, and running 1920x1080 quite happily.
I recently bought the Macbook Pro 15" quad core i7 with the Intel HD 3000 and AMD Radeon 6490M - a much more powerful machine with a much more powerful graphics card.
However, it only seems to allow me a maximum resolution of 1600x1200 on the Thunderbolt external display port - it won't give me an option for 1080p.
Any ideas? It seems strange that the Macbook Air will give me higher resultions!
Thanks

I had similar issues to Jason with the technical documentation. It was clear on the maximum resolutions for the laptop's screen and the max resolution on an external monitor, and the max for single and dual link DVI on the adapter pages, but vague on VGA.
I suspected it should work since I have a PC laptop with a graphics card that is a generation behind that can do the full res of my monitor over VGA, but thank you BSteely for confirming this.

Imac thunderbolt -vga

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