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LG UltraFine 5K - Owners Thread

I own two of them, one at work and one at home and while it looks nice it doesn't work very well. There is a 50% chance that the monitor will crash my Mac book when being plugged in or after unlocking. The one at work flickers randomly. The flicker is very fast unlike the one from the shielding issue. And if you run virtual machines, parallels at least can't run a virtual machine at that resolution. There just isn't enough power under the hood to run this monitor with anything significantly graphical.

Does anyone else run into the problem where the Mac book pro crashes when plugging into the monitor?
 
bab5139 said:
I own two of them, one at work and one at home and while it looks nice it doesn't work very well. There is a 50% chance that the monitor will crash my Mac book when being plugged in or after unlocking. The one at work flickers randomly. The flicker is very fast unlike the one from the shielding issue. And if you run virtual machines, parallels at least can't run a virtual machine at that resolution. There just isn't enough power under the hood to run this monitor with anything significantly graphical.

Does anyone else run into the problem where the Mac book pro crashes when plugging into the monitor?
Click to expand...


on high Sierra yes... 10.13...

I am on the beta... and supposedly fixed but I am not near my monitors to test....
 
I am not sure if this has been discussed in this thread earlier.

But I am having the MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports), this is connected to a LG UltraFine 5K screen with USB-C / Thunderbolt cable.

I am running two desktops and when switching between those two, there is a huge lag and it's very annoying. Do someone have a fix for this or something that fixes this?
 
atwater said:
I am not sure if this has been discussed in this thread earlier.

But I am having the MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports), this is connected to a LG UltraFine 5K screen with USB-C / Thunderbolt cable.

I am running two desktops and when switching between those two, there is a huge lag and it's very annoying. Do someone have a fix for this or something that fixes this?
Click to expand...


"Running two desktops" meaning virtual machines or virtual desktops or actually using a KVM setup to switch between two physical computers?
 
macross87 said:
"Running two desktops" meaning virtual machines or virtual desktops or actually using a KVM setup to switch between two physical computers?
Click to expand...

Ah, sorry for not pointing that out.
What I meant is when you use the gesture "swipe left or right with three fingers"
 
atwater said:
Ah, sorry for not pointing that out.
What I meant is when you use the gesture "swipe left or right with three fingers"
Click to expand...

AH, makes more sense. I cannot comment about swipe gestures as I mainly use the MBP in clamshell mode. I perform the "swipe" with the keyboard and do not notice any delays. I do notice a delay, usually what appears to be the first "swipe" when moving to the Dashboard via the mouse/keyboard, but not to my apps or VMs.
 
I have done some more testing and it looks like it is my mac that can't handle it. Cause if I hide (CMD+H) several of the applications that I have open, the switching is smooth as butter. But if I have all the applications open, it lags a lot.

I have the basis model of the 13" MacBook Pro.
 
Are people still having issues with this panel, or is there some sort of bizarre issue with my MBP that I need to resolve? The panel frequently "disconnects", where the LG panel will go dark, my Mac will move all of the desktops and windows that were displayed on the LG panel to the internal panel, and then the panel will often reconnect. Usually it goes dark for at least 5 seconds, and this sometimes happens 3-4 times a minute. I can usually resolve it by powering down my MBP, unplugging the LG panel, waiting a few minutes, booting up my MBP, plugging the LG panel back in to power and the MBP, doing a factory reset of the panel, then rebooting the MBP again, but this is a HUGE annoyance.

There are times where the panel will work seamlessly for weeks, and others where it's unusable. Often I can't unplug my MBP for fear it'll either make the MBP completely unusable (IE, completely frozen, not rendering Touch Bar, not rendering anything on display, have to hold down power/TouchID and reboot the machine in this manner) or when I go to use the 5K panel again, I'll have to spend 20 minutes rebooting the darned thing. >_<

Anyone have any advice other than "send it in for a 5th repair to LG"?
 
PSA: When explaining your problem...
- list your exact model/setup.
- confirm you’re using the latest display firmware.
 
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Yes, running the latest firmware, 3.04, latest version of High Sierra, 10.13 17A405.

Edit: Just got the notification there's a new build of 10.13 and am updating, but I'm not particularly hopeful that will actually resolve the problem considering it's persisted through Sierra and High Sierra... >_<
 
jsagurton said:
Yes, running the latest firmware, 3.04, latest version of High Sierra, 10.13 17A405.

Edit: Just got the notification there's a new build of 10.13 and am updating, but I'm not particularly hopeful that will actually resolve the problem considering it's persisted through Sierra and High Sierra... >_<
Click to expand...


Best case scenario if it isn't software related is that it's just the TB3 cable, worst is that it's the TB3 input on the monitor. See if a new TB3 cable fixes it first.
 
ostimusic said:
Just got mine and realized that I don't have the option to rotate it - an option that appears to be prevented via software. (I've never had an external display - going back to the old ACDs - that didn't give the option to rotate 90 degrees.) For my line of work, I need to be able to rotate to "portrait" orientation. It's not only me who can't select this via the display preferences, right? (You used to be able to force the option by holding command and control when opening Preferences, but that seems to be missing from Sierra.)

I switched back to my Dell monitor, which does allow rotation. The LG needs to go back to Apple, sadly, unless there's some pending firmware update. (Shouldn't this all be coming from the MacBook Pro's graphics card anyway? Or is this some bizarre 5K limitation? One would think that the new 15" MacBook Pro with touch pad could drive anything. How can 90 degree rotation be a problem?!)
Click to expand...

sidewinder said:
Okay. I just installed "SwitchResX" again and it works perfectly rotating the LG 5K UltraFine Display 90 degrees. It was a little hard turning my head sideways....but is does work. Maybe I need to buy "SwitchResX" and a VESA mount arm....
Click to expand...

Have you guys been able to still operate your 5K LG in Portrait Orientation? I attempted trying out SwitchResX and was able to do this under Sierra only if 1 of the LG displays were connected. If I were to connect the second display, it would output the image wrong UNLESS I were to set the second display to also be in Portrait Orientation. Since I needed to have my screen on the left to be in Landscape and the screen on the right to be in Portrait, I was not able to make use of SwitchResX like I had hoped.

Then since I couldn't use the rotation as I had hoped, I went ahead and updated to High Sierra, which now doesn't seem to allow me to be able to get either display to be forced into Portrait Orientation, regardless of having one display connected, or the pair of them both forced into Portrait, etc.

Called Apple...and they searched and couldn't find anything to help, so then they ecallated my issue to a "Senior Tech" who only sounded like they had simply worked in the call center for a slight bit longer, and also could not be of any help. Even the developer of SwitchResX (prior to me updating to High Sierra) was not able to solve the issue of being able to run the layout that I wanted to. Says that it is a driver issue that Apple needs to take care of. His customer support was wonderful, btw.

Here's the wild part...while I was in my local Apple Store just a couple of days ago, I looked at 3 systems that they had with LG displays running. A 2013 Mac Pro with an LG 5K, a Mac mini with an LG 5k, and a MacBook with an LG 4K. Two of these were running MacOS 10.13 and one of them was running 10.13.1 on these machines. The kicker is that ALL THREE machines had the "Rotation" menu natively within the System Prefs, and allowed me to rotate them accordingly. When I mentioned this to Apple Support this afternoon, they hinted that it must be due to my machine not permitting it due to the hardware.

How ironic that a brand new 2017 15" MBP-TB with the AMD 560 cannot perform a feature that a 4+ year old Mac Pro and basic Mac Mini can. However, those systems are only capable of driving the 5K panels at 4K and then scales the image terribly at non Hi-DPI settings, so perhaps that has something to do with it. I think I'll ask them to connect a 15" MBP up to one of the 5K displays and see if it permits the menu option to rotate the output to Portrait Mode or not. I can't believe that page 15 of this thread is the only place that I can find anyone talking about the need to rotate the display 90º to Portrait Orientation.

System:
MBP 15" w-TouchBar
3.1GHz CPU
Radeon Pro 560 4GB
Intel HD 630

2 LG UltraFine 27" 5K displays
Firmware: 3.04
 
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I've been having recurring flickering issues with both of my LG Ultrafine 5K displays over the last 2 weeks, both connected to a late 2016 MBP 15".

It generally goes a bit beyond the standard flickering, launching into a complete breakup of the image, flashing randomly over the two LG screens and the MBP screen.

I've made sure I've got the latest version of the LG Screen Manager (2.08), latest version of the monitor firmware on both (3.04) and I upgraded to macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 Beta 2 (17C67b) to try and resolve the issue.

LG Screen Manager is intermittently telling me there's an update available , but never goes through successfully (because, I assume, it's worked out there is no newer version of the firmware than v3.04.

I've been trying to trace whether it's the screens or the video card on the MBP, but I can't reproduce the issue when I'm connected to my backup 27" 1080p Samsung screen. I was wondering if it was the Radeon drivers but I can't find alternatives.

Has anyone else experienced similar and traced it to the cause? Apple did give me an RMA on the monitors so it might be easier to swap them over but starting to wonder if I should get replacements.
 
bigkevracer said:
I've been having recurring flickering issues with both of my LG Ultrafine 5K displays over the last 2 weeks, both connected to a late 2016 MBP 15".

It generally goes a bit beyond the standard flickering, launching into a complete breakup of the image, flashing randomly over the two LG screens and the MBP screen.

I've made sure I've got the latest version of the LG Screen Manager (2.08), latest version of the monitor firmware on both (3.04) and I upgraded to macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 Beta 2 (17C67b) to try and resolve the issue.

LG Screen Manager is intermittently telling me there's an update available , but never goes through successfully (because, I assume, it's worked out there is no newer version of the firmware than v3.04.

I've been trying to trace whether it's the screens or the video card on the MBP, but I can't reproduce the issue when I'm connected to my backup 27" 1080p Samsung screen. I was wondering if it was the Radeon drivers but I can't find alternatives.

Has anyone else experienced similar and traced it to the cause? Apple did give me an RMA on the monitors so it might be easier to swap them over but starting to wonder if I should get replacements.
Click to expand...
How long ago did you get both LG 5K displays?
 
bigkevracer said:
I've had them since early on. I think one came in Jan and one in Feb. So they don't have the shielding fix but have never shown the symptoms others have.
Click to expand...
I'm quite surprised Apple gave you an RMA, 10 months after purchasing!

As surely they deem the warranty to be LG's responsibility after their two week returns period?

As the price has gone back up since April 2017, I'd get two new ones from them, I guess.
 
bigkevracer said:
I've been having recurring flickering issues with both of my LG Ultrafine 5K displays over the last 2 weeks, both connected to a late 2016 MBP 15".

It generally goes a bit beyond the standard flickering, launching into a complete breakup of the image, flashing randomly over the two LG screens and the MBP screen.

I've made sure I've got the latest version of the LG Screen Manager (2.08), latest version of the monitor firmware on both (3.04) and I upgraded to macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 Beta 2 (17C67b) to try and resolve the issue.

LG Screen Manager is intermittently telling me there's an update available , but never goes through successfully (because, I assume, it's worked out there is no newer version of the firmware than v3.04.

I've been trying to trace whether it's the screens or the video card on the MBP, but I can't reproduce the issue when I'm connected to my backup 27" 1080p Samsung screen. I was wondering if it was the Radeon drivers but I can't find alternatives.

Has anyone else experienced similar and traced it to the cause? Apple did give me an RMA on the monitors so it might be easier to swap them over but starting to wonder if I should get replacements.
Click to expand...
I have had the same confounding "blinking out" issues and am beginning to think it is linked to the Adobe CC updater. Whenever the CC menu is "demanding" an update the monitor will start to blink on and off. Twice now I've consented to the updates and the blinking has ended. Do you use Adobe CC? If you update does the blinking go away? I have never returned the monitor for the shielding fix and will do so over the Thanksgiving break.
 
Maflagulator said:
Have you guys been able to still operate your 5K LG in Portrait Orientation? I attempted trying out SwitchResX and was able to do this under Sierra only if 1 of the LG displays were connected. If I were to connect the second display, it would output the image wrong UNLESS I were to set the second display to also be in Portrait Orientation. Since I needed to have my screen on the left to be in Landscape and the screen on the right to be in Portrait, I was not able to make use of SwitchResX like I had hoped.

Then since I couldn't use the rotation as I had hoped, I went ahead and updated to High Sierra, which now doesn't seem to allow me to be able to get either display to be forced into Portrait Orientation, regardless of having one display connected, or the pair of them both forced into Portrait, etc.

Called Apple...and they searched and couldn't find anything to help, so then they ecallated my issue to a "Senior Tech" who only sounded like they had simply worked in the call center for a slight bit longer, and also could not be of any help. Even the developer of SwitchResX (prior to me updating to High Sierra) was not able to solve the issue of being able to run the layout that I wanted to. Says that it is a driver issue that Apple needs to take care of. His customer support was wonderful, btw.

Here's the wild part...while I was in my local Apple Store just a couple of days ago, I looked at 3 systems that they had with LG displays running. A 2013 Mac Pro with an LG 5K, a Mac mini with an LG 5k, and a MacBook with an LG 4K. Two of these were running MacOS 10.13 and one of them was running 10.13.1 on these machines. The kicker is that ALL THREE machines had the "Rotation" menu natively within the System Prefs, and allowed me to rotate them accordingly. When I mentioned this to Apple Support this afternoon, they hinted that it must be due to my machine not permitting it due to the hardware.

How ironic that a brand new 2017 15" MBP-TB with the AMD 560 cannot perform a feature that a 4+ year old Mac Pro and basic Mac Mini can. However, those systems are only capable of driving the 5K panels at 4K and then scales the image terribly at non Hi-DPI settings, so perhaps that has something to do with it. I think I'll ask them to connect a 15" MBP up to one of the 5K displays and see if it permits the menu option to rotate the output to Portrait Mode or not. I can't believe that page 15 of this thread is the only place that I can find anyone talking about the need to rotate the display 90º to Portrait Orientation.

System:
MBP 15" w-TouchBar
3.1GHz CPU
Radeon Pro 560 4GB
Intel HD 630

2 LG UltraFine 27" 5K displays
Firmware: 3.04
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1511143137][/doublepost]I have the same issue (late 2016 15" MBP with the Radeon 4GB) - and saw the same thing at the apple store, the display there had a 13" 2017 MBP (specs unknown) and the "rotation" drop down was there and it worked. I also saw it on a Mac Pro on display. The guys there had no idea why it wouldn't work. The guys at the store said to try a PRAM reset, so I went to my office and did that and it still wasn't an option (regardless of whether I had one or both monitors connected to my computer.

I then called AppleCare when I was at my office today - they were clueless, said it was a hardware compatibility issue, etc. and I said well then why does it work at the store to which they had no response. I confirmed my monitors were using 3.04 and LG manager was updated. I always had one of the displays and never tried to rotate it, so I don't know when or if the option to rotate went away (if it was ever there).

I also plugged in a 2017 13" MBP w/ TB to one of the monitors, same issue.

This is the only forum that I have found which recognizes the issue, but I sure wish there was a fix. ScreenRezX doesn't do it. I am going to stop at the apple store tomorrow and try plugging in my computer and try and get to the bottom of this. I'm tempted to try the scorched earth approach and just reinstall OSX and see if it works on it.

I will try to report back if I get anywhere. @Maflagulator - I don't know where you live, but it's really funny you have the same issue I do and we've both essentially taken the same steps to try and resolve it.
 
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acwlaw said:
[doublepost=1511143137][/doublepost]I have the same issue (late 2016 15" MBP with the Radeon 4GB) - and saw the same thing at the apple store, the display there had a 13" 2017 MBP (specs unknown) and the "rotation" drop down was there and it worked. I also saw it on a Mac Pro on display. The guys there had no idea why it wouldn't work. The guys at the store said to try a PRAM reset, so I went to my office and did that and it still wasn't an option (regardless of whether I had one or both monitors connected to my computer.

I then called AppleCare when I was at my office today - they were clueless, said it was a hardware compatibility issue, etc. and I said well then why does it work at the store to which they had no response. I confirmed my monitors were using 3.04 and LG manager was updated. I always had one of the displays and never tried to rotate it, so I don't know when or if the option to rotate went away (if it was ever there).

I also plugged in a 2017 13" MBP w/ TB to one of the monitors, same issue.

This is the only forum that I have found which recognizes the issue, but I sure wish there was a fix. ScreenRezX doesn't do it. I am going to stop at the apple store tomorrow and try plugging in my computer and try and get to the bottom of this. I'm tempted to try the scorched earth approach and just reinstall OSX and see if it works on it.

I will try to report back if I get anywhere. @Maflagulator - I don't know where you live, but it's really funny you have the same issue I do and we've both essentially taken the same steps to try and resolve it.
Click to expand...

UPDATE: Went to apple store today, we narrowed it down to what seems like a limitation between the MBP and Thunderbolt 3. If you use adapters to change the TB3 to TB3 (using the mini displayport adapter on both ends -- computer output and monitor input), the rotation drop down menu appears. But if you just hook it up with the TB3 cable it comes with, that's not an option. Problem is, once you start using adapters, the max resolution is 4k, so the true use of the display being a 5k display doesn't work in portrait mode. Bummer. Seems like I will return the new one I got and just get a 4k 27" at a much cheaper price. The apple store guys were unaware of this limitation. I tried to experiment with ScreenRezX in the store, and maybe that's a workaround to get it to 5k, but when I was in the store trying to make that work, it didn't appear to be as crisp as 5k should be.
 
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