Turning off Macbook Display when using External Display on Lion

1. The madness of magnets

You don't have to be old school to be concerned about the sheer madness of users feeling obliged to experiment with passing magnets over the top of their expensive Apple computers and sticking them on here, there and everywhere in a desperate effort to find a short-term workaround. The sooner this problem is fixed at source (ie within Lion), the better. On which note, pls see point 2 below.

2. A possible proper solution - Apple is listening!!

Please see a post in the following thread and reply to it as you wish. Apple has reportedly requested us to provide evidence in support of our desire to have the open lid option reinstated (eg significance of operating temperature differences, reduction in wifi reception, etc). They may then address our concerns with a software update.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3190417?start=60&tstart=0

Hi

I cut a 1/4 x 1/4 flat thin rubber magnet. They are on the back of magnetic business cars and some cheap calendars at OfficeMax. It is soft and weak.

On a early 2011 it is on the left side bottom left corner of the speaker grille on top just above the SD card slot even with the SD opening.

Mmm, if there is a factory magnet there, would you say it is ok when you have a SD card pluged in the slot. I will try a cheap on and see if I can read the data on it.

I have the same request. I hate Apple's display setting. Windows is way better. Wait for a good answer from Apple together.

agree. this is the 7th. main version of OS 10. Why can't we control the display by ourselives, just like windows?

I don't always need two display on (macbook and external), but use the isight. Wait for a good solution.

Without having the lid open my fan runs all the time! I have a 27" screen and really don't need the internal screen when at my desk. Please provide some workaround or additional controls to switch off the internal screen!

Have you tried just lowering the brightness to zero? To control heat there is always iStat. But I agree, it would be nice to have full control.😉

Lowering the brightness won't help as the screen is extended to the internal screen then which I don't want. iStat only shows statistics, it can't help to lower the temperature by fighting laws of physics ;-)

Turning the screen black isn't the same. You loses your mouse every minute by accidentally sliding to the left/right.

I now put my display under "display arrangement" to the lower left, so there is only a one pixel area to let the mouse slide through but anyway, the video memory is (ab)used and you can't close the lid because the fans start to spin like ****.

Please Apple, give us an option to control it manually!!!

I'm trying at the moment to fool the laptop into thinking it's closed even though it's open.

I can get the laptop open by around an inch before the laptop monitor shuts off. Going to see if this keep it cooler like when it's open.

Do MacBooks have different fan maps for when the computer is closed and open?

I was too using my Macbook Pro this way, having my external display on with the whole UI and my MBP with the open lid and the screen off. This really helped the computer in terms of airflow.

Now I'm stuck in clamshell mode while using my external display... Beh. Apple, come on, it's an upgrade. Users should at least have the capability of choosing how to use their external display, just like we had in SL.

Please please please give us back this feature! I updated and like most people here I also ran my macbook with the internal display turned off and an external monitor attached. Why the **** did they have to change this is beyond me.

Hi Dr Benru

As you can see, you're not alone! This bug is affecting many other people (myself included) who have been using just an external display in exactly the same way (using clamshell mode and re-opening the MBP lid for improved cooling, without the internal display re-activating).

Please help by submitting a bug report here - it's one of the best ways to get our concern as near as possible to the top of Apple's queue for fixes:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Same here. I read the article about the external displays, but this is obviously for Snow Leopard and hasn't been upadted for Lion. It is truly annoying that I cannot have my MacBook lid oped, while having display on it turned off. Apple, please, can you add some options to choose from?! I know that someone is happy with this status like this guyhttp://usingapple.com/2011/05/mac-os-lion-handles-external-monitor-better-video/, but it is really not cool!

Wow, this is a hot topic. I kown that there is no third-party software and plug-ins which can solve the problem. I kinnda have a suggestion. I hope Apple can consider our request.

We should be able to choose the display mode from the following:

1. Turn on 2 displays at the same time using one of them as extention display ( the apple preference)

2. Only external display ( whatever you open or close the lid) By saying this mode, I am not talking about SL, that's even more stupid. You close the lid to make it go to sleep and the wake it up using a keyboard or mouse. This is stupid!!! We should be able to directly turn off the orginal display!

3. Mirroring base on external display ratio but the internal resolution because no external display will have less pixels.

4. Mirroing base on internal display ratio and the internal resolution.

I think if we can chose from this 4 modes, it will satisfy most people.

Same issue here. This ranks right up there with Apple's design flaw that requires power adapter with external display. So, you can use an external display, but then you'll kill your battery life through unnecessary cycling.