Turning off Macbook Display when using External Display on Lion

u learn amazing stuff on this board! but isn't that pretty close to the harddrive? i have an older MBP, and it would be. But perhaps that's not a problem these days...

In case of the magnet I use I think it would be no problem for the HDD because its very weak.

But on the 2010 MBP there is no problem like you can see on the picture because the HDD is placed far away of the magnet switch.

Another fact is, that the macbook-own magnets would damage the HDD also if my little weak magnet would do it.

Btw: there is one of the lid "close-holding" magnets next to the HDD.. 🙂

Btw: there is one of the lid "close-holding" magnets next to the HDD..

Uh, that magnet is on the other side of the machine from the drive... but I am oldschool and used to use floppies, and so super paranoid.

Lady Engineer wrote:

I cut a 1/4 x 1/4 flat thin rubber magnet...etc

Apple, are you seeing this? People are finding this Lion functionality so problematic that they are experimenting with magnets and risking data corruption. Please get a grip on this problem before your product becomes a laughing stock. How long before you start seeing solutions involving sticking plasters and gaffer tape?

Here the magnet sweet spot on an Early 2009 MacBook Pro.

I also used the old feature of the Mac Bookpro waking when the external monitor was attached. I never uset the laptop when at my desk always my large monitor. PLEASE undo this!!!! I like so many ohters want this to performe like it did in Snow Leapord.

This is such an amazing oversight by Apple. I am near ready to get rid of my Macbook Pro. This is absolutely required functionality for business users doing presentations. Its fairly typical during presentations to connect the laptop to an external projector and then shut down the laptop screen so that you can use the full resolution of the projector (importants for things like software demo etc where maximizing screen space really helps).

With current Macbook setup all I can do for presentations is enable mirroring which means that the max resolution I can display with on a projector with my 13.3 is 1280x800!!

APPLE have you lost it????

This is such an amazing oversight by Apple. I am near ready to get rid of my Macbook Pro. This is absolutely required functionality for business users doing presentations. Its fairly typical during presentations to connect the laptop to an external projector and then shut down the laptop screen so that you can use the full resolution of the projector (importants for things like software demo etc where maximizing screen space really helps).

With current Macbook setup all I can do for presentations is enable mirroring which means that the max resolution I can display with on a projector with my 13.3 is 1280x800!!

APPLE have you lost it????

Respectfully speaking, above is total crap. I just did a preso in keynote/lion yesterday and all went perfectly. First, u don't need mirroring and in keynote, you set up the laptop to display the speaker notes/timer/etc. The external projector can project to a resolution supported by the projector. Some projectors don't support high res, some do. If you don't want to see what's on the laptop, you can just dim the display...it won't harm anything. Second, if you need to show something mirrored, don't use the app in fullscreen and everything works just as it did in SL. Well, good luck with your rantings. 🙂

Lol. About 10 minutes after writing my comment I figured out that you can make the external display primary which allows you to use the full resolution of the external display (without mirroring enabled ofcourse). So I sort of take back what I had said. I dont mind that the Macbook screen stays on when the external display is primary. Yes you can simply dim the screen all the way to shut it down. However ideally there should be an option to turn off the macbook display altogether in such a configuration. Reason being that by simply dimming the screen you are not freeing up the video card RAM completely and your card+processor is still working double time to render on both displays.

That said, I dont care about that much. Presentations are not a power hog anyways and if I really want to do something truly extensive i'll put the laptop in clamshell mode and connect an external keyboard.

So comment taken back (95% of it atleast!) :-)

For anyone wondering what to do (if it was not already clear from the abundant posts on this thread). To use your external display to its full capacity with the macbook pro lid open:

1. Connect the External display

2. Make the External display the primary display. You can do this through Display preferences by dragging the menu bar from one display to another. But an easier way is to use the keyboard shortcut. Cmd+F1 . Works like a charm.

3. Dim the macbook display to shut the screen off if it irritates you.

Switching back and forth primary displays between external screen and macbook is extremely easy with the keyboard shortcut. I would have been rather unpleased if I had to go to display preferences everytime!

Presentation problem solved... 🙂

I'm not sure if this was posted alread, but a very safe way to apply the trick is.... using a paperclip to test everything:

- move a paperclip along the edges of your screen to find all the magnets

- test with the paperclip how strong the magnets pull the paperclip

- test with your fridge magnet how strong that one pulls the paperclip: if it's weaker than the screen's magnets, then your very safe!

- estimate where your screen's magnets "touch" the body of the laptop

- try each of these spots with your fridge magnet to see if anything happens.

This way there is practically no risk that you put too strong a magnet too close to a fragile part of your computer. Unless you're super clumsy, of course.

The sweet spot on my macbook air (i7) is directly right to the return key (about 2 cm away from the right usb port).

I'm so happy that now I do not have to buy SwitchResX, just to get back functionality that existed in Snow Leopard. (My other problem is getting Fortran syntax colouring back in XCode 4, which exists in XCode 3, but that is a bit off topic.)

Here is where to place the magnets for the Macbook Air 2011 running lion.

Here are the image examples:

MBA is powered on

MBA is now asleep

Just place the magnet right next to the "Enter/ Return" key

(Note: I used a small piece of paper under the magnet to protect from scratching my MBA)

I also made a video:

I had to re-up the video since screenflow 3.0 is having problems with exporting directly to YT

this is how my macbook looks right now 😟

Jonathan UK wrote:

How long before you start seeing solutions involving sticking plasters and gaffer tape?

Ooh go on, please tell me that's either red sticking plaster or red gaffer tape 🙂

the thing is that you cannot use facetime anymore, neither the macbooks webcam.

is sad ...