Major problems with Thunderbolt display & MB Air

I also did the latest updates to my MBA 11", and didn't seem to have much luck with it resolving my issues (no USB devices on the TB display working, including camera and speakers until a reboot/unplug TB).

This morning after returning to work I connected the MagSafe power cable first, then the TB cable. Traditionally, when docking a Mac portable, I was trained to plug in video, keyboard/mouse, and then power.

Everything worked, the computer woke from sleep gracefully, all the USB devices work, and my Bluetooth keyboard and mouse woke up as the should after being "asleep" for the weekend. I'll see if this continues to resolve the problems I've been having and report back to the group.

-Ryan

After you've applied the latest firmware and Thunderbolt Software updates, you may be helped by applying one final SMC reset. Hope the remaining issues can get sorted out.

MBAIR + Thunderbolt display

I have also applied both updates, 2 days I was happy, today the flickering started again.

After the updates, my MBA + TB seems to be doing two essential things consistently: waking-up from sleep (although with several seconds of delay, and worse than with the previous LED) and key strokes are registering well.

For those who may be interested, I also tested the transfer rate between two external hard drives that I attached to the TB ports: one to the Firewire 800 I/O (Western Digital) and another to the thunderbolt I/O (LaCie 1TB). I transfered some large folders between them and found the transfer speed to be approx. 30 MBps. The LaCie reports to deliver 180 MBps on the box, but my test was with another external hard drive, not the computer itself. I also tested moving a few large files directly from the MBAir (through the TB) to the LaCie thunderbolt ext. hard drive, and those transfer speeds were between 130-170 MBps. [disclaimer: my tests are not meant to be scientific]

I also did some transfers before the update, but between a USB external hard drive and the Firewire one I mentioned above (both through the TB), so not really comparable. But it did feel painfully slow at the time.

I'd like to report a solution I found for myself...

Friday returned the Thunderbolt display to the 5th Avenue Apple store. Took one hour to return and learn that they did not have the LED Cinema display in exchange as they promised they did on the phone--twice. Came back and called my Apple online salesman and ordered the LED Cinema display over the phone. It shipped 10/31 (yesterday) from China and arrived at my door here in NYC early today.

At first, the keyboard brightness buttons didn't work (they affected the secondary display, which they should'nt have), but zapping the PRAM fixed it and everything has been working absolutely perfectly all day.

Forget Thunderbolt until they work out all the bugs.

There was a Thunderbolt update for the MBA this evening, so I applied it.

Brilliant, it's even more knackered now than it was before. Can't get USB or FW to appear, at all - despite reboot, SMC reset, PRAM reset and power cycle of the display itself.

I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion this thing is rubbish.

I'm currently using my TB display with MBA 13" and MBP 15". I did have a few instances of screen going black prior to latest updates. When the black screen issue would occur, attached devices and ethernet continued to work (as I was able to ssh in and monitor file transfers and connections and reboot to clear issue). So far so good with attached devices (mostly Pegasus R6 and FW 800 drives). I use Bluetooth keyboard, mouse and trackpad. Not using USB with any frequency. So far quite happy with display and flexibility it's added to MBA. Sorry to hear some of you are still having trouble.

The latest updates (10/26) for MBP EFI firmware and TB software seem to have fixed the problems for me. I have gone several days now with no black screens and no usb keyboard dropouts. FYI I am running a Macbook Pro 13 early 2011 with all the latest software and the new TB display (obviously).

Do You have OSX Lion installed on MBP?

yes, sorry I should have been clearer: OS X Lion (10.7.2) see screenshot...

I'll also note my 13" MBA with Lion and the TB Display have been behaving much better since last night's update. I've been using my keyboard plugged into the monitor, and have not yet seen a dropped character. This may finally have done the trick.

Ok, thanks. I have the same MBP but with i5 and Snow Leopard 10.6.8. With SL there wasn't the last Thunderbolt software update and the keyboard issues are present.

This week I will upgrade to Lion and I will install the last update.

I hope resolve it.

The Apple Store just exchanged my Thunderbolt Display. The new one worked flawlessly with my Macbook Air 13" mid-2011 in the store and so far hasn't had any problems at home either. I'll post in a couple of days whether I have any problems or not.

The guy who helped me suggested NOT installing the TBD firmware update ("if it isn't broke, don't fix it"). I don't plan to try it unless I have issues with it.

Hi, I want to share a problem I have with the Thunderbolt Display and my MacBook Air 13. I do not experience what it is describred here (black screen, USB problem with external keyboard as I use Bluetooth keyboard and mouse), but I do experience white noise coming from the Thunderbolt Display speakers. The static noise can easily be hear from 3 feet away in a quiet room.

• Anytime a media is playing, there is white noise in the background
• Anytime a media has spot playing, white noise can be hear for 30 seconds until it stops
• Initializing a FaceTime call has for effect of hearing the white noise even if no sound are exchance and both microphones are on mute.
• Unplugging any USB wires or Ethernet from the Display (leaving only the Thunderbolt wire to the MBA) has no effect.
• Plugging the Display to another power outlet has no effect
• Unplugging the power wire to the MacBook Air (and leaving the MBA on battery) has no effect
• Plugging the MBA on its own power source has no effect
• Plugging external USB speakers to the Display (and selecting as the Output source) = no white noise can be hear from the USB speakers or from the ones of the Display (meaning that I doubt the white noise is transferred from the Thunderbolt port to the Display)
• Selecting the Input source "USB Display" while Output source is "External USB Speakers" and not the "USB Display" has for effect of initializing the white noise from the speakers. It stops 30 seconds later. It's the only way I did find to start the noise without playing any media.
• Only way of not having any white noise is to have the Output to "Other USB Speakers" and Input to "Internal Microphone" from the MBA. So essentially cutting out any input and ouput sound sources from the Display.

I wish to know if any other person is experiencing this particular problem?

BTW: All EFI Firmware (2.2) and Thunderbolt Software Update 1.1 and Thunderbolt Display Firmware Update 1.0 have been installed. I did exchange the Thunderbolt Display 3 times, I have the exact same issue with three of them. So the problem is with ALL the Display OR with my Thunderbolt port of the MBA or the MBA in general.

I installed both of the most recent updates, have used the MBA and display for about a week - and - no issues - for me all of the problems with wake, unrecognized speakers and mike, etc. appear fixed.