ehdonhon

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

Hello,

 

A known issue with MacBook Pro's is that the WiFi reception is poor when running in clamshell mode.    A workaround for this issue when using an external monitor only has been to close the MacBook, wake it with a USB device and monitor attached, and then re-open the lid.

 

Unfortunately, this doesn't work in OS X Lion.   That's because as soon as you open the lid, Lion re-detects all the displays and re-enables the LCD monitor.  I'm sure in some circumstance, that's very helpful.   But not in mine.

 

Does anybody know of a way to keep Lion from re-enabling the monitor whenever the lid is opened?

 

Thanks!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 20, 2011 12:44 PM

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

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  • by macison,

    macison macison Jul 5, 2013 2:46 PM in response to Felix Lieb
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 5, 2013 2:46 PM in response to Felix Lieb

    Yes, I just reconfirmed. I'm running 10.8.3 on a MacBook Pro, and when I shut the lid, the monitor turns off, and the computer goes to sleep (as I would suspect most people would want; I wish Apple would expose more switches in their Energy Saver system prefs in the first place).

     

    Anyway, it works for me.

     

    Greg Dixon

  • by code.samurai,

    code.samurai code.samurai Jul 7, 2013 10:29 PM in response to macison
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 7, 2013 10:29 PM in response to macison

    lol, I think there is some confusion here with macison's post.  What he's saying is he wanted his MBP to go to sleep even when an external monitor is connected by just closing the lid on his MBP.  And that chenga.8's solution worked for what he wanted.

     

    The problem is that in this thread we don't want our MBP to go to sleep, what we want is to turn off the built-in display of our MBP while the lid is open.

     

    Anyway as an update to this thread, I'm still running 10.8.3, I wish I can regress back to 10.8.2 where I can do the fullscreen app trick.  Sometimes when I wake my MBP from sleep the built-in display is turned off and it's not available from the Display Preferences, when I close the lid and open it again the built-in display is still turned off.  It's like I still have my ear-pod connected to my MBP's lid sensor, if you know what I mean.   Although I still can't tell exactly what I'm doing that's somehow "turning off" the built-in display, however when I put it to sleep again and wake it up the built-in display becomes available again.

     

    Maybe some of you can do further experiments with this and find out exactly how to turn-off the built in display while the lid is open?  This would really be useful.

  • by thekitch,

    thekitch thekitch Sep 16, 2013 5:28 AM in response to chenga.8
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 16, 2013 5:28 AM in response to chenga.8

    The nvram trick seems to have worked perfectly for me on my mid-2009 MBP 13 running 10.8.5. Thank goodness! I need all the extra performance and cooling I can get when driving a 27" external display.

  • by StevePlease,

    StevePlease StevePlease Sep 23, 2013 7:43 PM in response to thekitch
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 23, 2013 7:43 PM in response to thekitch

    Also works on my 13 inch, mid 2012 running 10.8.5 with the nvram trick. Thanks everybody!

  • by Man Bui,

    Man Bui Man Bui Oct 11, 2013 12:16 PM in response to PDzero
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 11, 2013 12:16 PM in response to PDzero

    Thanks, PDzero, for the tip. Works great with my 2012 MacBook Air (SSD drive and Mountain Lion).

     

    The reason I want to turn off the LCD while still having the lid open is it gets much better wifi reception (primary motivation) and the machine runs much cooler and quieter due to less fan action (secondary motivation). I use my MBAir in home office mode where there's always an large external display attached.  I wanted the external display to be the only active display so it gets the fullest resolution from the MBAir graphics subsystem.

     

    So, per PDzero's tip, I'd boot up or wake the Air to a login screen while the lid is down. (If powering on, you'd have to open the lid, press the power button, then close the lid back down.) So now I'm on my external display and keyboard/mouse while at the login screen, and the lid is down. At this point, the Air sees that only the external display is the active one, as you would expect. Then I'd select my user account, enter my password, and the moment right after I hit the Enter key on my password, I flip the lid open ... quickly. 

     

    Apparently, if you flip open the lid within this little window of time, the machine does not detect that the lid has been opened and therefore does not activate the LCD screen. It remains dark, the way we want it.

  • by Namarillo,

    Namarillo Namarillo Nov 26, 2013 1:38 PM in response to ehdonhon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 26, 2013 1:38 PM in response to ehdonhon

    Hi, I just tried the NVRAM trick on Mavericks but it doesn't work (in Lion and Mountain Lion it works fine for me). Anyone have an idea?

  • by dg4prez,

    dg4prez dg4prez Nov 26, 2013 1:42 PM in response to Namarillo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 26, 2013 1:42 PM in response to Namarillo

    I just use a small magnet, like a fridge magnet or something similar.  Put it on the edge of the keyboard tray near the SD card slot and it'll think the screen is closed and turn it off.

  • by Namarillo,

    Namarillo Namarillo Nov 26, 2013 2:12 PM in response to dg4prez
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 26, 2013 2:12 PM in response to dg4prez

    Edit:

     

    Sorry, I just did a typo error in the Terminal the first time.... Just fix it and now I can confirm that the NVRAM trick also works on Maverics.

  • by louisinhongkong,

    louisinhongkong louisinhongkong Dec 20, 2013 6:34 PM in response to ehdonhon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 20, 2013 6:34 PM in response to ehdonhon

    Upgrading to OSX Mavericks solved this problem for me too. And it was free.

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