How do I tell Lion to disable the LCD screen even when the lid is open?

Guys I totaly found out how to do it in really easy way.U can have even ur display from macbook open, and use its keyboard and trackpad. You need to do following:

1. Go to display option

2. Chose tab Arrangement

3. Just move bigger screen(external one) on the other side, and the MENU BAR(from the top of the small screen) on that bigger one(external). Then you can have ur external screen as a main one.

I disagree. There are multiple reasons why the changed behaviour in Lion was an issue for people. This addresses one of those reasons, so will work for some.

Worked great for me too, BUT, it did not work until I disconnected the secondary display. Then I issued the command and reconnected the other monitor, and everything slept just like it did pre-Lion. Thanks very much! (And BTW, I was directed to this fix by Apple support).

Has anybody tried booting into Windows 7.0 and seeing if the problem is only with Lion or if it's endemic of the MacBook Pro?

Hi a,

aeplager wrote:

Has anybody tried booting into Windows 7.0 and seeing if the problem is only with Lion or if it's endemic of the MacBook Pro?

There are a number of very large threads on this topic, so please excuse me if I cannot remember what was said in each thread without rereading dozens and dozens of pages, but all MBP's which shipped prior to Lion are able to disable the display using a little work-around Apple forgot to close; connect external display, kb and mouse, close display, MBP goes to sleep, hit any key or move mouse, MBP and external display wakes up, MBP display remains off, open MBP display and it remains off. Thus, the hardware is positively capable of this action, and it sounds like it would be a relatively simple software option to give users. Your guess is as good as mine as to why even this simple work-around has been taken away . . . .

All, I worked with Apple for the better part of 3 weeks on this issue and what we found was, with the clamshell closed, you need to eliminate the noise in the wireless network. What we did was install an Apple Extreme base station and an Airport Express Base Station in the room near my laptop, then the laptop worked really well with the clamshell closed. I'm now getting the same speed with the clamshell closed as I do with the clamshell open.

We have a new 11" Air (i5 1.6) .One of the reasons I wanted to try to turn off the Macbook's display when driving a 27" Cinema display was to see if it brought down the average CPU temp from 55-60c (figuring the Air's integrated GPU is working harder to drive two displays).

The env args command worked - inasmuch as it turned off the in built display, but the weird thing is, the CPU temperatures shot up to 70c+. This is with the lid opened, of course.

Reversing the env args command (and zapping PRAM to be sure), the CPU temps dropped back to 55/60c.

Doesn't make sense to me, and could well be a coincidence, but thought I'd mention it - you might want to check for any unusual CPU temperature.

I also sent feedback to Apple's asking for a 'formal' return to previous behaviour - fingers crossed this appears in a future Lion update.

Works like a charm, after reboot. Thank you!

That solution didnt seem to work for me, but according to Apple, you MUST HAVE the AC adaptor plugged in. I'm glad to say this worked. The trick is to have the adaptor plugged to your laptop, then closelid and wake with external keyboard!! 😀

Cheers

-2011 MBP-Lion 10.7.2

jk10003: Does this work on battery power?

If I disconnect the power adapter, the machine reverts to the behavior it used to have - the behavior I prefer - where closing the lid puts both the computer and the external monitor to sleep.

Also, the solution - workaround - suggested recently by Apple support, is to put the machine to sleep manually, using Apple Icon ==> Sleep, and then closing the lid. This works, but involves an extra step which was not necessary previously.

I just bought a mini DP to DVI small adapter, it cost like 12 dollars and it works great in 1080p@60Hz.

I started knowing all about these PROBLEMS in Lion recently...

To fix 2 things (Sleep when lid is closed AND Mouse going anywhere because 2 Displays were active at the same time) i just downloaded the Insomniax 2.0 version here:

http://semaja2.net/archives/206

After installing it, i selected the "Disable Lid Sleep" option, closed the LID and now 2 things were resolved at the same time.

Also, Lion graphics are working with no lag in 1080p cos only 1 display is detected after closing the Lid.

After finding out that I could switch which display that I wanted my dock and menu bar on I realized that it was way better to just use both screens.

You can also use secondbar to have to menus on both displays as well.

I ended up just using the 22" external monitor as my main screen with dock etc and then the 11" MBA screen as kinda a scratch paper, side table deal. Much better.

Thanks to everybody who worked on this solution, it's great to have a community to come to for answers. I have however come across an interesting scenario with my workflow and using the Terminal fix. I would be interest to see if other users can replicate this as well.

After applying the Terminal command, and restarting the open clamshell works as described. But I have found that because Mac OSX "thinks" the lid is closed it shuts off my microphone and will not allow me to audio chat, even with the lid open and the screen off. This creates a secondary effect that I cannot initiate a single screen screenshare because iChat says the audio is not available.

If I put the MBP to sleep and wake up with both monitors turned on, the audio and screenshare work perfectly. Of course, anyone that has tried to screenshare with dual monitors knows it is impossible to see as you get two small screens on one monitor on the other end of the chat. It's also useless to initiate an audio chat with the clamshell closed because the reverberation off the screen causes feedback into mic.

The only workaround I have been able to achieve is to set Lion back to it's original state, open the clamshell with both monitors turned on, initiate an audio chat, then use the magnet trick to shut off the internal screen, and then initiate a screenshare after that. Phew!

So if Apple doesn't think there is an issue with the default Lion settings with external screens, they should, as they have rendered one of their own applications useless under normal circumstances.

I would like to see if other users on this forum can replicate the same scenario.

Thanks.