Q: Thunderbolt Display will not wake up after sleep!!!!!!

Good News...

I changed the USB keyboard for a bluetooth keyboard and by now the thunderbold display is working like a charm..

It was time to replace my hard drive for a bigger one. In the process one has to redownload the operating system  then migrate the data from a backed up hard drive. It is a lenghty process. But one unanticipated benefit is now the Thunderbolt display wakes up like a charm

Just for the record everybody. I just bought a monitor, my macbook pro is updated to OS 10.8.4 and this problem still persists.

Alas, I have a MBP with a Thunderbolt display and have exactly the same problem on OS 10.8.5.

Hello.

MacBook Pro late 2011 – installed Mavericks - wake from sleep with Thunderbolt Display is now even worse than before. it disconnects nearly every time the machine goes to sleep.

I'm running Mavericks, and there is no change in the operation of the TBD. It works flawlessly and wakes every time from sleep. I posted earlier on this page, and for me, the problem was the Combo cable (I think that is why the solution of connecting an individual TB cable to the TB port on the back of the TBD works). A trip to the Apple Store (thanks Apple Care!) and my TBD has been working flawlessly for months. Replace the combo cable.

Mavericks has made no differnece to these on going problems with the TBD.

working fine. then Unplug: TB monitor WILL NOT START UP

when USE external TB cable it works for awhile, then it goes black again. have to restart the computer and unplug and plug in the monitor power source.

USB PORTS WORK RANDOMLY but not reliably.

When TB monitor goes BLANK, SOUND RETURNS TO THE MBP

RESTART MBP AND ALL MAY OR MAYNOT WORK.

Playing a video on TB and sound moves to MBP, video still active.

Then TB goes black and MBP doesn’t work either. Audio still playing. Mouse won't work.

TB won’t work at all with monitor TB cable, only with external TB cable

THESE ISSUES HAVE SHOWN UP ON 3 TBDs using 2 MBPs and variety of mice & keyboards.

I've been tracking these threads (re: Thunderbolt display won't wake up, and similar) for a couple months, desperately trying all of the suggested solutions.  Intermittently my display would shut off and then not come back on without disconnecting the power and reconnecting.

Meanwhile, seemingly unrelated, we were having an occasional flickering of our lights, sometimes almost like a "brown out," where the lights would dim and flicker for 10-15 seconds.  Well, the power company came out and found a lose connection in our transformer box (near the street).  My Thunderbolt display has been working flawlessly ever since.

Theory: There's protective circuitry in the Thunderbolt power supply that, when it detects irregular line voltage, trips off.  This is to protect the display, but requires a disconnect/reconnect of power to reset.  The voltage drops in my house were causing the display to "protect itself." 

So, if you are having this trouble with your Thunderbolt AND you've noticed the lights in your house flickering occasionally, you might want to have your power company or an electrician investigate.  In our case, no other electronics or appliances had trouble with this; only the Thunderbolt.

In our case it was a problem at the transformer.  Line voltage drops can also be caused by lose connections in your breaker box, a breaker going bad, a short in your house wiring or even a lose lightbulb arcing in its socket.  Some of these situations can be very dangerous, so perhaps your Thunderbolt is telling you something important??

Hello:

I am having the same issue only I am using 10.9 Mavericks.  I looked for these files in Mavericks and cannot find them.

  /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist

  /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.AutoWake.plist

Any idea where they went?

Make sure you are looking in the system Library and not the User folder Library for the files.

And, this is a "me too" post.  Mac mini, Mid 2011, 2.5 GHz i5, AMD Radeon 6630M with Thunderbolt display.  Occasionally, when the computer goes to sleep, the Apple thunderbolt display will not turn back on.  The only "fix" I have found so far is to unplug the TB cable from the mini and reattach it.  Was happening on 10.7 and still on 10.9 (skipped 10.8).

Just got off the phone with Apple support (super nice by the way.. my first time)

The fix seems to be doing a "SMC Reset"  that seems to have solved my problem.

To do a SMC Reset follow these instructions  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Good luck.

FYI, I have Mavricks, MBP 2011, and late 2013 TBD.

So I have tried the SMC reset 3 times and the sytem still won't wake up unless I lft the lid to the MBP. Then I get the error message that my back up drive was disconnected incrrectly. I have to unplug the Thubolt screen and re-connect it to get the screen to work.

What's my next option?

Alright found the solution>>

had my Thunderbolt display at a Apple maintenance centre and was told that my MBP being 2011 it would not wake up from blutooth keyboard or mouse. The solution is to have any USB device plugged in the MBP then it works. For example just leave a USB thumbdrive and your Thunderbolt display will wake up from your mouse or keyboard.

If you use the latest MBP then you should not have this issue. As I also have an non thunderbolt Apple Display I didn't have this problem before and yes they came with a USB cable.

Has anyone tried having their logic board battery replaced? Apple suggests doing that if a NVRAM and PRAM reset doesn't work. You all seem to have glossed over this fact. I'm thinking of taking my macbook pro 2011 in to have this done.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379

"If issues persist, your Mac's logic board battery (not a portable Mac's rechargeable battery) may need to be replaced. The logic board battery helps retain NVRAM/PRAM settings when your computer is shut down. You can take your Mac to a Mac Genius or Apple Authorized Service Provider to replace the battery on the logic board."

My Solution: I have two external monitors through thunderbolt.  One monitor would not wake up sometimes when I tried with a bluetooth device. I put the macbook back to sleep and tried waking it using my built in keyboard and it works like a charm.