I’m having trouble with my newly purchased Studio Display. If I connect it to my mac, it works fine as expected. If I connect it to my work laptop, the display will briefly flicker on but then go black.
The USB ports work, so does the webcam and speakers. Windows is also detecting the display and detects it at the correct resolution. I’m able to move Windows to the screen and take a screenshot even though the display is black. When my IT department remotes into the machine, they can see the external display rendering as well.
Here’s a demonstration of what’s happening (please watch video).
First, it’s plugged into my wife’s laptop (we work for the same company but different model machine). You can see it’s fully functional, mirroring the display (which is expected).
Then I plug it into my mac. It shows an extended display (as expected) and the image remains.
Then I plug it into my work laptop, and it briefly flickers on for about a quarter second before shutting off. Peripherals all detected and working as expected.
Setup
Keyboard, Mouse and USB mic plugged into Monitor. Monitor plugs into laptop. No docks or other devices connected.
Previous Setup
This laptop was connected to an LG UltraFiiiiine 5K display. It could be connected directly or through a work provided Lenovo Thunderbolt dock. My peripherals were all connected to the dock. The display is starting to flake out so I bought the new Studio Display hoping to be rid of the LG once and for all.
Hardware:
Work Machine - Lenovo P1, Gen 2
Intel Xeon Processor
Dual nVidia/Intel graphics
Thunderbolt display support (up to 5K)
32 GB RAM
Windows 10
Wife’s Work Machine - Lenovo T490
Intel i5
Base RAM
Personal Machine - 2021 14" MBP
M1Pro
32 GB RAM
What have I tried
Playing with resolutions - no change
Playing out output modes (extended, mirrored, external only) - no change
Updating to latest drivers from Lenovo - no change
Disconnecting all peripherals connected to the display - no change
Retrying old UltraFine 5K - it worked, but no change for Studio Display
Different Thunderbolt Cable - Both cables I have work with UltraFine. Both show same behaviour with Apple Studio Display.
Using the dock as an intermediary device between the display and the laptop - no change
At this point, if I don’t find a solution soon, I’m going to need to return the monitor to Apple which I REALLY don’t want to do because it’s otherwise very very nice.
It could be related to Nvidia not compatible with the DP/thunderbolt signal. Can you force the computer to run the Intel graphic card, which is probably the same graphic card as your wife’s?
Sadly, in the BIOS, I can select hybrid or discrete only. I can’t just use the Intel graphics which is what I would’ve liked to have done anyway, if only to keep the machine from heating up and spinning those god awful fans (I hate this machine with a fiery passion). I have tried that as well, but no difference.
I’m a bit surprised though that the nVidia drivers would be a thing for a display. As I understand it, drivers tell the OS how to interact with the hardware. The monitor is coming up as “Generic PnP Monitor” in device manager. The camera, speakers and mic are also explicitly detected as Apple Studio Display. Maybe I’m misunderstanding something though so if you’re able to clarify, I’d greatly appreciate it!
Thanks. It’s not really a flickering since it only briefly comes on once and then never re-appears, but I get your point.
For those interested, I’ve found numerous references to people using nVidia graphics cards in Windows with the display so it doesn’t seem to be an issue here. Like @mina mentioned, I’m guessing it’s Thunderbolt controller related or my corporate IT department putting some sort of blocker on the device.
I tried 2 new things last night:
Installing Apple Studio Display Brightness Controller - Despite Windows warnings, it installed properly but registers the display as a brightness of 0 and playing with the knobs doesn’t have any impact
Installing Bootcamp drivers - IT department fully blocking the execution of the Bootcamp.msi installer so this didn’t work.
I’ve posted on the macrumors forum you listed to see if I can get some help there. Appreciate the help!
I have no direct experience with this, but have you tried the old standby of “turning it off and on again”? That is, unplug the monitor from power, restart your work Windows computer without the monitor connected, then after you’ve logged in, connect the display and then connect the monitor to power.
Yes, I have. It’s a totally fair question to ask though given the A series chip in the display.
So far, my solution has been to get my work to ship me a new laptop . I’ve asked them to put a rush on it and we’ll see when it gets here. Sadly it won’t be a Mac. There’s a pilot program to roll them out but the initial feedback is anyone using them constantly faces many security related heacaches.
And you usually get an intel MacBook Air that is slower than anything on earth. In my old job, I asked to switch from Windows to Mac and I really regretted that. I hope your experience is better.
Well my solution of throwing my employer’s money at the problem worked! New machine working quite nicely with new the display. Time to pack up the old machine.
On a totally unrelated note, anyone looking to buy a mighty fine UltraFiiiiiine display ? In all seriousness though I’ll try and sell it on eBay or something.
. I’ve asked them to put a rush on it and we’ll see when it gets here. Sadly it won’t be a Mac. There’s a pilot program to roll them out but the initial feedback is anyone using them constantly faces many security related heacaches.