Comment by apt-apt-apt-apt
13 hours ago
I had to service the UltraFine 5K twice before realizing that using it to power the Macbook was killing it (seems power delivery overload). Hooking up the Mac to its own power fixed it.
Anyone else experience this?
The thing I heard was always killing them was the ports coming loose from people plugging and unplugging things all the time.
Could it have been that you were plugging and unplugging the MacBook?
Obviously that should totally work. I don’t know what I heard is correct, but I got the impression if you plugged a Mac in and just left it there it would be fine.
I usually left the monitor-to-MBP cable plugged in, but I did have some minor finicky connection issues at one point. But that was nothing compared to the monitor actually dying.
The monitor setup seemed like the ideal solution, less cables and just plug in to the monitor. But the combination of heat from powering the monitor, MBP, the monitor itself, and hot weather does seem like a plausible cause to me.
I’ve been using one for over five years, exclusively with MacBooks which were always powered by the display. I haven’t had any issues with mine. (Except maybe once last year, when it wouldn’t turn on. I had to unplug the display from the power and plug it back in.)
Were you running high loads? I ran heavy, constant gaming loads with the monitor on (monitor specs say typical 140W, max 200W). After switching to the MBP charger, haven't had an issue for 5 years.
So it would be drawing 200W constantly. While it may have been a twice defective fluke, I suspect either the power delivery or heat killed it somehow.
The 100W MBP charger gets very hot by itself, and its twice that for the built-in monitor charger, which is also right next to the hot display panel. Add hot weather to the mix, and it seems like it could be trying to do too much.