Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter issues

[GamaReyes]

I own an old macbook pro (late 2011) that doesn't have an HDMI port so I bought a Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter to use a second display (LG Monitor). So far I have bought 3 adapters from different brands and all of them have stopped working after a week of use. The display stays blank with a "No signal" message. I've tried every solution I could find online but nothing has worked for me. To be honest, all of of these adapters have been fairly cheap but I don't understand why the same thing keeps happening. Is there something wrong with my macbook or could it be that I should buy a more expensive one? and if so, which brands are the good ones for this adapter? Please help, this is very frustrating.

 

[Stephen.R]

Does the display not support DisplayPort?

 

[GamaReyes]

no, it only has hdmi and vga ports

 

[Juicy Box]

Can you post what adapters you are trying?

I have used a few MDP to HDMI adapters and cables with no issues on my Late 2011 17" MBP.

The display stays blank with a "No signal" message.

Have you tried with a different monitor?

 

[GamaReyes]

Can you post what adapters you are trying?

I have used a few MDP to HDMI adapters and cables with no issues on my Late 2011 17" MBP.


Have you tried with a different monitor?

This is the adapter. I have 2 of these and they are pretty much the same, just different brands. I connect it to a regular hdmi cable and it works just fine with a windows laptop. Also, I have tried using a different display and it doesn't work either.

Today I'm getting a replacement and I could bet my life it is going to work and then stop working again. I'll keep this thread updated.

 

[Fishrrman]

Try a minidisplayport (Mac end) to HDMI adapter (display end).

A 2011 MBP DOES have displayport output.
It's the thunderbolt port.
They are THE SAME THING.
Same port with different names and functions, depending what's plugged into it.

The minidisplayport to HDMI adapter plugs right into the tbolt port.
Look here:

Amazon.com: mini displayport to hdmi adapter

Amazon.com: mini displayport to hdmi adapter

www.amazon.com

 

[pshufd]

I have 2014 and 2015 MacBook Pros with Thunderbolt 2 ports and I had no problems plugging them into a lot of different monitors whether MiniDisplayPort, HDMI or DVI. I have a box with a bunch of different adapters. I have run into the problem of a cable not working but it was usually due to monitor settings as my monitors typically take from 3 to 6 different video inputs.

If your monitor has multiple imports, maybe you can check to see if the port you plugged the cable into is the selected port.

 

[Swade01]

Try a minidisplayport (Mac end) to HDMI adapter (display end).

A 2011 MBP DOES have displayport output.
It's the thunderbolt port.
They are THE SAME THING.
Same port with different names and functions, depending what's plugged into it.

The minidisplayport to HDMI adapter plugs right into the tbolt port.
Look here:

Amazon.com: mini displayport to hdmi adapter

Amazon.com: mini displayport to hdmi adapter

www.amazon.com

But look here:

 

[Juicy Box]

But look here: View attachment 1774097

TB1 and TB2 definitely is also Mini Display Port. Did you miss this part of the photo you posted?:

 

[Swade01]

Ok Vertical Smile. I caught your drift. Maybe you can help me with this. I have a 2015 MBP (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) running Big Sur 11.3.1. A vizio razor LED was running great as an external monitor by an HDMI cable from the monitor to an HDMI slot in my MBP until this past Monday, May 3rd. I have read about all sorts of issues of incompatibility with Big Sur. I purchased an adapter from Apple (Belkin HDMI to TB1 or Mini Display Port). I still get No Signal on my monitor. Here are 2 pictures. The first one shows how flush the HDMI cable went into the HDMI slot. The second picture is the way my adapter looks plugged in. The HDMI cable does not appear fitting flush into the adapter. Could this be the problem? Why doesn’t it fit flush into the adapter? Thanks for any insight someone may have.

Here’s the HDMI shown fitting flush into the HDMI slot

 

[Juicy Box]

A vizio razor LED was running great as an external monitor by an HDMI cable from the monitor to an HDMI slot in my MBP until this past Monday, May 3rd.

If it was running great until Monday, did something change? Do you have auto-updates enabled?

If there was a SW update, I would suggest going back to an older OS version of Big Sur, or maybe back to Mojave or Catalina. If anything, just to test to see if your HW is working correctly, but if you have no reason to run newer OS versions, just stick with stuff you know works.

ere are 2 pictures.

I think you may have forgot to post the photos.

I purchased an adapter from Apple (Belkin HDMI to TB1 or Mini Display Port).

Can you post the adapter you purchased?

Thanks for any insight someone may have.

My guess is that it is SW related, or maybe something wrong with the HW (maybe GPU?) of your Mac, but I am betting on SW/OS related.

While I do think it is probably an update that broke the external display, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to run an Apple Hardware Diagnostic Test to rule out anything HW:

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

Apple Diagnostics, formerly known as Apple Hardware Test, can check your Mac for hardware issues.

support.apple.com

Basically, hold down the "D" key on startup, and give it a few minutes to boot up. You can let go of the "D" key when you see the globe.

Note: In my experience, the Apple Hardware Diagnostic Test gives a lot of false negatives, meaning it might say all the HW is fine, but there is a problem. So, just because it passes doesn't 100% mean that your HW is good.

But, I don't think it ever gave me a false positive before, with the exception of it saying that there was a problem with a fan, but it ended up being dirty not failing.

 

[Swade01]

dup post

 

[pshufd]

I didn't know such an adapter existed. I just bought straight adapter cables, not dongles. Don't recall if it was MDP to HDMI or TB2 to HDMI.

 

[Swade01]

If it was running great until Monday, did something change? Do you have auto-updates enabled? Yes, I did; I don't now.

If there was a SW update, I would suggest going back to an older OS version of Big Sur, or maybe back to Mojave or Catalina. If anything, just to test to see if your HW is working correctly, but if you have no reason to run newer OS versions, just stick with stuff you know works. It's a little late to do the right thing now. But I've learned a lesson. And I do not know how to uninstall an update. I was incorrect on the days I said earlier. It happened on Monday, May 10th not the 3rd. I checked and my update to Big Sur 11.3.1. occurred on May 6th.



I think you may have forgot to post the photos. They are posted now.


Can you post the adapter you purchased? It's posted below.


My guess is that it is SW related, or maybe something wrong with the HW (maybe GPU?) of your Mac, but I am betting on SW/OS related.

While I do think it is probably an update that broke the external display, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to run an Apple Hardware Diagnostic Test to rule out anything HW:

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

Apple Diagnostics, formerly known as Apple Hardware Test, can check your Mac for hardware issues.

support.apple.com

Basically, hold down the "D" key on startup, and give it a few minutes to boot up. You can let go of the "D" key when you see the globe.

Note: In my experience, the Apple Hardware Diagnostic Test gives a lot of false negatives, meaning it might say all the HW is fine, but there is a problem. So, just because it passes doesn't 100% mean that your HW is good.

But, I don't think it ever gave me a false positive before, with the exception of it saying that there was a problem with a fan, but it ended up being dirty not failing. Thanks for all your feedback. I will try the hw tests and most likely buy a new HDMI cable to see if the other one is bad.

If it was running great until Monday, did something change? Do you have auto-updates enabled?

If there was a SW update, I would suggest going back to an older OS version of Big Sur, or maybe back to Mojave or Catalina. If anything, just to test to see if your HW is working correctly, but if you have no reason to run newer OS versions, just stick with stuff you know works.



I think you may have forgot to post the photos.


Can you post the adapter you purchased?


My guess is that it is SW related, or maybe something wrong with the HW (maybe GPU?) of your Mac, but I am betting on SW/OS related.

While I do think it is probably an update that broke the external display, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to run an Apple Hardware Diagnostic Test to rule out anything HW:

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

Apple Diagnostics, formerly known as Apple Hardware Test, can check your Mac for hardware issues.

support.apple.com

Basically, hold down the "D" key on startup, and give it a few minutes to boot up. You can let go of the "D" key when you see the globe.

Note: In my experience, the Apple Hardware Diagnostic Test gives a lot of false negatives, meaning it might say all the HW is fine, but there is a problem. So, just because it passes doesn't 100% mean that your HW is good.

But, I don't think it ever gave me a false positive before, with the exception of it saying that there was a problem with a fan, but it ended up being dirty not failing.

If it was running great until Monday, did something change? Do you have auto-updates enabled?

If there was a SW update, I would suggest going back to an older OS version of Big Sur, or maybe back to Mojave or Catalina. If anything, just to test to see if your HW is working correctly, but if you have no reason to run newer OS versions, just stick with stuff you know works.



I think you may have forgot to post the photos.


Can you post the adapter you purchased?


My guess is that it is SW related, or maybe something wrong with the HW (maybe GPU?) of your Mac, but I am betting on SW/OS related.

While I do think it is probably an update that broke the external display, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to run an Apple Hardware Diagnostic Test to rule out anything HW:

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

Apple Diagnostics, formerly known as Apple Hardware Test, can check your Mac for hardware issues.

support.apple.com

Basically, hold down the "D" key on startup, and give it a few minutes to boot up. You can let go of the "D" key when you see the globe.

Note: In my experience, the Apple Hardware Diagnostic Test gives a lot of false negatives, meaning it might say all the HW is fine, but there is a problem. So, just because it passes doesn't 100% mean that your HW is good.

But, I don't think it ever gave me a false positive before, with the exception of it saying that there was a problem with a fan, but it ended up being dirty not failing.

 

[Juicy Box]

The HDMI cable does not appear fitting flush into the adapter. Could this be the problem?

I don't think so.

The pictures look normal, I just think the adapter has a more shallow port compared to the MBP. If your HDMI port on the MBP worked, but the adapter didn't, I might think that maybe there is something wrong with the adapter, but since they both don't work, I would suspect a SW problem, or maybe a HW problem.

It could be the monitor. Have you tried the monitor with other devices? Or other inputs on the monitor?

Have you tried other HDMI cables? These do go bad sometimes, especially if they are kinked.

Have you ran the HW digonostic test?

Have you tried using an older OS version?

I just bought straight adapter cables, not dongles. Don't recall if it was MDP to HDMI or TB2 to HDMI.

It was most likely a Mini Display Port to HDMI adapter cable. I have a few of these, but have never seen a TB2 to HDMI cable.

Thunderbolt 1 and 2 ports are also Mini Display Ports, so really no reason to have a TB2 to HDMI cable.

I also have a few of the dongles around, but prefer the cables as it is one less connection that has to be made and one less thing to fail.