Over the last many months of using the M1 MacBooks and Big Sur there has been
almost constant issues with external displays. I have tried multiple Macs, multiple displays,
and multiple cables and docks with no working solution. How is this a thing in 2021?
Hey, Im Jerry and ……consider this a rant. This was not the video I was going to make
but This is the video I feel I needed to make. A few days ago, Macrumors had a post
detailing issues with “Some customers who have purchased an M1 Mac mini have been experiencing
an issue that causes the machine not to wake a connected third-party display from sleep.”
And they quoted a guy names Mike saying “I have a new Mac Mini M1 with 16 GB of
RAM running Big Sur 11.2.3 and every time the computer and screen go to sleep, the computer
will not be able to wake the screen up. Actually, I get "No Signal" displayed on
the screen after the Mini wakes so technically the computer wakes the monitor but it fails
to send a video signal………..The only way I can get the Mini to send a signal to
the display is to unplug and replug in the Thunderbolt cable. Sometimes repeatedly. “
Sound familiar? I made 3 videos in November and December last year detailing some of these
same issues, as well as a few others, when using external displays with the M1 MacBooks.
At first I was having issues getting 60hz through thunderbolt or displayport
with an expensive, but amazing, BenQ PD3220U display……luckily, MacOS Big Sur 11.1 did fix
the issue with getting 60hz on that display but unfortunately many other issues started happening
with either waking external displays from sleep or just connecting them.
I would get weird mirroring or distortion issues where an external display would have overlapping
desktops and the built in screen would be mirrored partially to the external display,
leaving the internal display a laggy mess.
I ran a bunch of tests with thunderbolt, displayport and hdmi on the display
using the MacBook Pro M1, Air M1, and the 16” macbook pro and they
all displayed issues in some form. Sometimes distortions with thunderbolt or displayport,
sometimes there are color inversions using HDMI, and sometimes the displays
simply would not turn on like what Mike described in the MacRumors article.
I went and bought 2 other 4k displays and the cheapest display I tried was a Samsung UJ59
series monitor and actually all computers seemed to work ok with that monitor….but
it was a bad monitor that I couldn’t use with any kind of accuracy…….Then I tried the Samsung
UR55 display and they all failed on HDMI but seemed ok most of the time with DisplayPort.
So what does that say so far? Maybe specific monitors are better suited to the Mac than others?
Maybe everyone should go get a sub-par cheap display because it worked better?.....No….but
more on that in a minute.
I ended up sticking with the mid-range Samsung Ur55 which is a 28” 4k display
as it had fewer issues than the BenQ and an OK screen quality. And when big sur 11.2
came out it seemed to completely solve my connection issues when using DisplayPort.
I was super excited that for weeks after the 11.2 update my MacBook Pro would reliably wake up my
external display every…. Single….. time!.... I though “great” my issues are solved. So naturally
I tried HDMI and still ended up getting weird color inversions but figured oh well,
as long as I stay on displayport I should be good….Well, about a month later on march 8th,
Big Sur 11.3 came out and I am back to having almost constant display issues
when waking or plugging in my MacBook to the same display that was working just fine for a month.
Here is an example of waking from sleep while connected via displayport. I don’t even know
how to explain it but you can see that the desktop picture is only showing on a portion of the screen
but the menu bar somehow thinks it is across the whole desktop.
With this one the resolution on the external display is warped and stretched
so that you cant even see the clock on the menu bar and the dock is cut off on the bottom.
Switching to HDMI and using Apple’s AV adapter
I get the reverse colors on the display when waking from sleep.
And that’s not the only display issues, just look at this MacRumors article from February
where Apple informed service providers that it is aware of and investigating an issue
that may result in "pink squares or pixels" appearing on displays connected to an M1 Mac mini.
Apple’s troubleshooting steps were to: Put the Mac mini to sleep
Wait two minutes and wake the Mac mini
Unplug the display from the Mac mini, and then plug the display back in
Adjust the display's resolution in System Preferences > Displays
If the issue reoccurs after restarting the Mac mini, Apple says to repeat the steps above.
With each of these problems unplugging the cable and reconnecting or rebooting
usually fixes them………..but…….why is this a thing in 2021.
And some will say that when I buy a first gen product with the M1 and I
have to expect these issues. That’s like saying that when I buy a new generation car
I should expect that the windshield just pops out of place sometimes while driving.
First, I reject that something as simple
as a standard peripheral connection wouldn’t just work on a new computer.
And if there was an issue as severe as that it shouldn’t take more than 3 months to fix it.
And second, I reject the first gen issues because I get similar issues on a 16” macbook pro
as I already talked about so this is not limited to first gen products and seems to be OS related.
Now, what are people like us to do? Are we supposed to be grateful that Apple offers
a $5k dollar Pro Display XDR that may be works better? Do we have to limit ourselves to a cheap,
third party display that has terrible colors, brightness, and viewing angles because it
works better? Actually, I don’t know if it still works or not because I didn’t keep that display.
I guess we could forgo external displays completely which
isn’t really an option for the MacMini and even still, what happens when you have issues
with built-in mac displays like this issue that happened to me the other day …………..
So, Im not sure what else I can say about these display issues except
they are continuing to happen months after the release of the M1 Macs and MacOS Big Sur.
We are talking standard computer peripherals with standard connection types….Are these issues deal
breakers for recommending or being on the Mac platform?........No, probably not. There are
still a ton of benefits to being on the Mac like Apps that are super optimized for the Mac hardware
like Pixelmator Pro, or the benefits of the whole ecosystem like iMessage. But when you
look at these continued display issues, add in the very common Bluetooth connection issues, and
the unreliability of continuity and handoff, I do get a little concerned about using products
that are not cheap and from a company that prides its self in its stuff just working.
But what do you think? Am I blowing this out of proportion or have these issue been enough
to make you think twice about a new mac? Lets talk below. If you want to see more about the
testing I did between computers, displays, and adapters, check out this video right over here.
Hit the thumbs up button if you liked it, hit subscribe if you want and Ill see you next time.