I have two 30-inch monitors on my Mac Pro. Whenever the machine goes to sleep, the second monitor will flash on and off after I wake it up.

I've updated everything. The only "solution" is to pull the power plug on the monitor and plug it back in. This "fixes" the issue until the next time the machine goes to sleep.

Any thoughts?

Not an Apple Guru. I know windows had a lot of similar problems. Waking from a sleep state has often been an issue with laptops and dual monitor setups. I am going to guess at a few possible ideas.

1. Is your OS patched up fully?

2. Is your BIOS chip updated on your motherboard?

3. Are you running proper drivers for the monitors?

4. Are running the newest video card drivers?

5. Have you played with different configurations in your power saving areas?

6. Have you considered not allowing it to sleep (change your config) and just physically turning off your monitors, and turning them back on when you need them?

The last one is a last resort work around if the top 5 don't work.

Just bouncing a few PC based ideas around, not sure how well they will translate to the Apple World.

Roman

1-5 Yes.

I think I'm going to switch positions between 1&2 to see what happens.

It's a pain to get to though

You mean see if swapping the monitors will help? Definitely give it a try, but my instincts tell me this is an OS problem and nothing to do with your monitors.

Best to try and confirm though.

Let us know either way.

Roman

For my dual monitor support, there is a separate section in the display options (configured thru the video card not the OS) where you can make all the adjustments needed instead of letting the OS decide.

I have had a similar problem on my wife's pc where the bios would load, windows screen would splash, and then when it was time to load windows, the monitor would go black and the orange light would blink. All the drivers were up to date, and everything else was in line. The fix ended up being hooking the monitor up with a dvi cable instead of vga. I can swap them back and forth now and don't get the problem anymore.

Sometimes its the most random thing.

Hey Jim,

Chanthee and i got in late last night so we did not get a chance to look at this. She said she would look into it today.

James

Thanks, I'm going to try swapping them today if I can find time to tear the office apart to get to everything.

Hi Jim,

Here are some questions that I would start with:

1. How long have you had your current setup without a problem?
2. Have you installed anything prior to the problem occurring - any new software or updates?
3. Did you also update the drivers for the monitors?

I have read extensively about other Apple users (not just those using Mac Pros) using dual monitors having similar problems as yours and there does not seem to be a general fix. However, the above suggestions are a good start to finding a solution.

You can also try these even though they may seem trivial. Sometimes it is the simplest thing that is overlooked that is the problem:

1.Checking your power cables first to make sure that they are working properly/not loose/not damaged - if you have a spare switch cables.
2.If you have more than one port try connecting to a different one (i.e your dual link DVI port).
3.If you have another computer perhaps a PC (or have access to one), you can connect the dual monitors to the the other computer and see if the monitors behave the same way or is also not working properly in some way- this will confirm or rule out faulty monitors - it is a hassle and a lot of work to do this though.
4. When your monitor is flashing have you tried to adjust the monitor settings to see if it would stop?

Just a few ideas. Sorry, I can't be more helpful. Keep us posted about what you did and if anything worked.

Good luck,
Chanthee

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