Pro Display XDR Repair

[kelvin.lau]

After 3 years, my Pro Display XDR broke. I'm looking for advice on how to proceed. Here are the symptoms:

• No video is rendering on the display
• Peripherals attached to the display will draw power from the display in brief "pulses" every 5~ seconds
• The MacBook Pro that I connect the XDR to will show a brief popup that reads "Allow accessory to connect?" that pulses every 5~ seconds
• When connected to a Mac Studio, the display functions correctly

I've brought it to Apple and they quoted me $3200 for a complete replacement. It seems like the display works for my Mac Studio, so I can potentially use it specifically for that.

Any advice on how to proceed? I'm hoping there's someone that has encountered this and can offer some insight on the behavior. Is third party repair an option?

 

[hg.wells]

Sounds like an issue with the MBP rather than the display if it works with a Mac Studio. Do the peripherals work with the Mac Studio?

Have you installed anything recently or done any updates. I’m guessing you’ve already tried restarting the MBP.

 

[kelvin.lau]

I've gone through the standard troubleshooting steps:

* Swapped TB3 cables
* Tried all ports
* Tried my other MBP M1Max

Mac Studio is working fine with peripherals. One difference between MBP and Mac Studio is that the MBP draws power from the display, and the Mac Studio doesn't. I'm theorizing this has an impact here.

 

[rumz]

Someone posted today on the Pro Display XDR thread about theirs going black and no longer working. (Link) (won‘t work with any of his devices, but they’re all portable devices that do draw power.)

This led me to doing some searching online about other such issues and I can’t find the post I was looking at earlier, but one person said an NVRAM reset on the MBP solved the problem initially but that eventually it completely died, which is worrisome.

Have you tried resetting the NVRAM on the MBP?

 

[mombil]

My XDR also went black last week, see the other Thread (Link).
I can't believe the out-of-warranty service in those cases are this bad.
Someone on the Apple Forum also had a similar issue and they quoted him $3000.
I kind of think out-of-warranty cases with a $6000 display that breaks after 3 years should be treated otherwise. A lifespan of 3 years for such an expensive device is a joke. Also I think people buying the XDR Display are very likely "high revenue" customers of Apple, spending a lot more than the average customer. Pissing those people off is just a bad business move, but I get that Apple doesn't have to care about that at all.

 

[Bigwaff]

This might be an interesting experiment... although expensive if you don't already have the equipment... The XDR delivers 96W over the TB4 cable. MBP charge via TB. If you plug-in multiple charging sources via TB, the MBP will charge from the source delivering the most power. You don't specify the model of MBP you have, but assuming your MBP can draw more than 96W, if you were to plug-in a power source delivering more than 96W via TB4/USB-C (cable has to be rated for high wattage power delivery) at the same time as connecting XDR, MBP would draw power from other power source, not XDR. XDR connection would be TB data only. Perhaps XDR display and connected peripherals will work? If so, issue likely XDR power supply/components. This experiment should be reproducible at Apple Store, although unknown whether Apple make a different support/repair decision w/ this information.

Best of luck, my friend.

 

[MacGizmo]

It's possible that the port on the MacBook Pro is bent out of shape and it just isn't making a good connection. I had this problem with an LG Ultrafine years ago–probably from the multiple times per day I disconnected and reconnected the display. The LG would work with other Macs, just not my main MacBook Pro 16". Jiggling it for 5 minutes would eventually get it to work, but it was annoying as heck. I then noticed that plugging in external SSD drives had the same problem using the same port.

 

[kelvin.lau]

Just wanted to give an update here.

This might be an interesting experiment... although expensive if you don't already have the equipment... The XDR delivers 96W over the TB4 cable. MBP charge via TB. If you plug-in multiple charging sources via TB, the MBP will charge from the source delivering the most power. You don't specify the model of MBP you have, but assuming your MBP can draw more than 96W, if you were to plug-in a power source delivering more than 96W via TB4/USB-C (cable has to be rated for high wattage power delivery) at the same time as connecting XDR, MBP would draw power from other power source, not XDR. XDR connection would be TB data only. Perhaps XDR display and connected peripherals will work? If so, issue likely XDR power supply/components. This experiment should be reproducible at Apple Store, although unknown whether Apple make a different support/repair decision w/ this information.

Best of luck, my friend.

My MBP is the M1Max. I had the MagSafe power connected. The cable's LED shows up as orange, so I'm assuming the MBP is drawing power from MagSafe rather than the monitors.

It's possible that the port on the MacBook Pro is bent out of shape and it just isn't making a good connection. I had this problem with an LG Ultrafine years ago–probably from the multiple times per day I disconnected and reconnected the display. The LG would work with other Macs, just not my main MacBook Pro 16". Jiggling it for 5 minutes would eventually get it to work, but it was annoying as heck. I then noticed that plugging in external SSD drives had the same problem using the same port.

I have both a personal and work MBP M1Max. Unfortunately, all 6 USB-C slots across both laptops fail to connect.

_____________

Apple ended up charging me $3199 + tax for replacement. They're not making repairs - they're giving me a brand new display.

 

[mombil]

Apple ended up charging me $3199 + tax for replacement. They're not making repairs - they're giving me a brand new display.

I got a 2500 Euro quote (roughly $2680 + tax).
Absolute BS...
Also, it's absolute nuts that they are unable to make repairs and always have to replace the whole display...

 

[kelvin.lau]

Want to update this thread. I ended up declining the replacement for $3199. Luckily I found a solution to the problem.

My MacBook connected to the iVanky dock that connects with my XDR revived the semi-dead XDR. I suppose since the dock doesn't draw power from the monitor, it circumvented the issue that I was having.

 

[scapps83]

I think there may be a bug in the latest Sonoma or XDR firmware update. My XDR recently started randomly disconnecting (after the last update). Then I noticed if I pushed my MacBook Pro M1 16", especially heavy graphics I could force it to disconnect. When I ran the Geekbench GPU or CPU benchmark I could watch it disconnect, reconnect, disconnect, reconnect, etc... I could do the same in heavy Photoshop edits or running a bunch of apps at the same time. Sometimes I would get a USB Exceeds power error. I did all the troubleshooting, new cables, safe mode, and MacOS reinstall. I thought my 3 year old monitor had died. Then I read this thread and got the idea to plug my 140w power supply into my Mac so the monitor didn't power my Mac. So far so good after about 20 tests. It seems something in the code may be allowing the Mac to exceed the power output of the Thunderbolt cable from the monitor when you push it, thus shutting down the port until the power returns back to a more nominal level.

 

[kelvin.lau]

I think there may be a bug in the latest Sonoma or XDR firmware update. My XDR recently started randomly disconnecting (after the last update). Then I noticed if I pushed my MacBook Pro M1 16", especially heavy graphics I could force it to disconnect. When I ran the Geekbench GPU or CPU benchmark I could watch it disconnect, reconnect, disconnect, reconnect, etc... I could do the same in heavy Photoshop edits or running a bunch of apps at the same time. Sometimes I would get a USB Exceeds power error. I did all the troubleshooting, new cables, safe mode, and MacOS reinstall. I thought my 3 year old monitor had died. Then I read this thread and got the idea to plug my 140w power supply into my Mac so the monitor didn't power my Mac. So far so good after about 20 tests. It seems something in the code may be allowing the Mac to exceed the power output of the Thunderbolt cable from the monitor when you push it, thus shutting down the port until the power returns back to a more nominal level.

Fwiw my issue started in 2022. Mine started with those random disconnects and reconnects.

 

[rumz]

Want to update this thread. I ended up declining the replacement for $3199. Luckily I found a solution to the problem.

My MacBook connected to the iVanky dock that connects with my XDR revived the semi-dead XDR. I suppose since the dock doesn't draw power from the monitor, it circumvented the issue that I was having.

Really glad to hear you are up and running. From what I can recall, it seemed like it was mainly people running MacBook Pros and powering them from their XDR that were having problems; this is the first I've heard that powering them separately from the XDR resulted in getting the display working again.

Seems to me to be a flaw or an unnecessary weak point in the design, though-- disappointing that there's not a recall or something to address it from Apple outside of that really expensive replacement option. Sounds like, at least in your case, the panel is fine but that the power delivery hardware has in some way failed. Thanks for updating us. I bought AppleCare+ on XDR last fall as a precaution, but I'm both running it through a thunderbolt 4 dock & also both Macs I use are being powered directly with their AC adapters-- Mac Studio and M1 MBP. (I'm probably just overly paranoid but I don't like how hot even the dock gets when it's supplying power to a MacBook Pro, I'm trying to prolong the life of that device as well.)