Major problems with Thunderbolt display & MB Air

I have had ongoing issues with the USB not working on the Thunderbolt display when connected to my MBP 15" early 2011 model. I am always taking my Laptop with me so the issue is because I wake the MBP from sleep then plug it into my display (pretty standard I would think)

I have applied all updates etc..

However, just a few days ago I decided to ONLY plug the thunderbolt display into the MBP (Not the power cable). Bang! everything worked, USB keyboard etc.., then just plugged the power in last.

I have been doing this for about 4 days now and works everytime.

Not sure if really is a workaround but seems to be working for me.

@gommo your symptoms are very similar to what I've been experiencing. However, I use a wireless keyboard and the magic mouse and use the MBP closed, so I don't wake it first.

I will try to see if there is a way to wake it without having it powered.

@Phips - I opened a support case and they had me reset the SMC by disconnecting TB, then powering down completely and holding Shift+Ctrl+Option + Power button for about 15 seconds. I'm not sure yet if that has resolved my issues - I did it this morning so we'll see how it works when the MBP has been sleeping for a while, which is where I typically see my problems.

I agree with Phips that we need to report the issue to Apple so it gets high enough on their list to fix this.

I've tried this with my 13 MBA and it does not work. The only way I can get the MBA to connect to the display peripherals (KB, Mouse) is by restarting it. very upsetting.

I too have had massive issues with my MBA 13-inch and Thunderbolt display, compounded by the fact that I also have a Promise Pegasus R4 TB raid array.

In no particular order, the MBA failed to see the R4 unless the TB configuration is MBA > R4 > Thunderbolt Display, which is annoying since the display TB cable is so short, I need to put the R4 beside it instead of 6 feet away on a shelf. Promise confirmed this is the best configuration.

Oddly, when I first set this up, for two days it worked just fine with MBA > Display > R4, then it stopped working.

My TB Display also now has dead ports on the back with this configuration. No USB or FW. The MBA fan screams (I try to keep the MBA closed to shift all the graphics processing power to the TB display.) If I leave this setup overnight, in the morning when I type my password to make the screen saver go away, I get a beachball and have to do a hard reset of everything.

I am running 10.7.2 and I am pretty certain these issues were introduced with that update. A top of the line MBA, TB display and R4 is a pretty heavy investment and I am so far underwhelmed by the flakiness of TB's effect on the components in the chain. I am dating myself, but this all reminds me very much of SCSI back in the day, where it was a hit or miss affair if a peripheral would connect or not.

I am a business customer of Apple, and am planning to speak with my rep tomorrow to see if I can at least try and swap the monitor for a new one.

Oh, and right now I am having to reset the SMC on the MBA about ten times a day to stop the fans and get all the TB stuff playing semi-nicely.

They will swap it. But swap it for the 27" LED CINEMA DISPLAY. It works. You should be able to plug it into the end of the TB chain since it does not have a TB port.

After contacting Apple Support, they had me reset the SMC. Since then (2 days now), I've had no problems plugging in and working USB on the TB. I am doing one thing slightly different than I used to, and I'm not sure if it's what made the difference or not. While the MB is in sleep, I plug in power and TB. Then I wait. I have an external HD attached to the TB Display, and it's light is usually on while the MB is not plugged in, after plugging it in, it will flash quickly, then go back to on solid, then begin to flash slowly - this takes about 10 - 15 seconds. After it's flashing slowly (which is what it normally does once everything is connected), then I'll hit a key on the keyboard to wake up the MB.

I'm not sure yet if it was the SMC reset, or letting the MB come up slowly that is helping, but 2 days in a row and it has worked flawlessly.

Any word from anyone about fixes, replacements that work, etc? The discussion has gone cold... I returned my display a month ago, but am itching to get another one once the issues are resolved.

I think the discussion went cold because everyone returned their Thunderbolt displays. Good! (I would never get another. I exchanged for the LED Display which works perfectly.)

However, I can tell you that Apple is preparing another LION update to release in the near future.

My display seems to work well if, when connecting the MBA, I first plug the thunderbolt cable and then connect power. Reversing the order seems to cause problems - the display remains off, the MBA becomes unresposive and requires a cold boot, etc. However, I didn't do a systematic study about this so I am not 100% if things are as I describe. My natural tendency is to do TB first, power second, so for me the display normally works as advertised. This include all display ports, with the exception of USB (which works but it is slow).

I sit here in front of my replacement TB display, which turned up on Thursday.

It works flawlessly.

USB is fine, Firewire 800 is fine. I can unplug the MBA, wander away for hours, come back, plug it in and it just works. The way it was supposed to.

LaraCroft_NYC: The thing is, the TB display IS the LED display, just with Thunderbolt added. So if you're not attaching anything to the ports on the TB display, you've got yourself an LED display anyway 😉

Of course, most people I should imagine - like myself - wanted the TB display for use with a small laptop; to use it like a docking station.

If you have a TB display that's playing up - raise a support case. Go through the steps to attempt to resolve it, when nothing works insist it's swapped out (they'll probably suggest that anyway - in all fairness my support engineer in Ireland was superb).

Not true... They are not the same. The TB protocol(s) causes problems with the COMPUTER, NOT the display. Yes, the TB display and LED display themselves both work fine, but the MAC does not work well with the TB display.

I used the TB display with and without things attached and TWO Thunderbolt displays exhibited all the same problems with the operation of the Mac, and there there were many problems.

The other issue is this: If you are using the TB display with a MacBook and there are no problems now, great, but if you have ANY plans to use the TB display with any other computer (like me: a desktop Mac) now or in the future, you will have major problems with the other computer until Apple fixes it.

Phips wrote:

LaraCroft_NYC: The thing is, the TB display IS the LED display, just with Thunderbolt added. So if you're not attaching anything to the ports on the TB display, you've got yourself an LED display anyway 😉

My TB ports have stopped working, gone through the usual SMC and PRAM but no joy so it needs to go back.

I took mine back to the local Apple Store. It was 6 weeks old, but after some 'back room' discussion with management, they replaced it then and there with a new one.

The old one had failed on all counts (no live ports on the back, no ability to control brightness or volume, no ability to select audio in or out) but it did display an image, which initially had the Genius Bar folks stumped.

I have it in a chain with a Pegasus R4 RAID. Promise told me to keep the RAID between the monitor and the MBP in the chain, which so far has been reliable, but is annoying because the TBD cable is so short and I can't put the RAID anywhere except close to the monitor. And TB extension cables aren't available.

As I said before, I'm old enough to remember SCSI (and the related "SCSI Voodoo") and I was hoping that modern protocols would not require a lot of hand-waving and experimenting to get them to work. This is definitely not a case, as in the words of the late, great Steve, where "it just works."

It's now been a week, and so far no failures (that I can trace to the TBD.) And all the ports are working.

I just removed my external superdrive from my 13" macbook air and unplugged a USB drive plugged into my thunderbolt monitor to plug into that now-free USB port. I have all firmware updates and software updates. I keep hoping Apple will fix this. Maybe I'm going to have to get the monitor replaced.

@LaraCroft_NYC: Thanks for directing me over here... I had started my own thread unbeknownst that so many people were having the same problem. I don't know if that makes me feel better or worse! In any case, I noticed some interesting things.

I have a 1.8 i7 4GB 256GB MBA and it runs absolutely superb before and after connecting to my new TBD. Prior to connecting to it, it's CPU temperature is typically around 100 degrees F with 0.2% CPU utilization and fan speeds of 2K RPM. Within 5 minutes of connecting it to the TBD, the temperature increases rapidly to 170F and 6% CPU utilization. Note that I am not running anything. Once the temp goes above 170F the fans spin up to 5800 RPM which stabilizes the CPU... but it gets as hot as 207 degrees F! When it goes into sleep mode, it gets worse. Temperature hovers around 176 degrees and the fans spin at 3800 RPM to control a runaway thermal meltdown. The only thing that stops this scenario is unplugging the MBA from the TBD.

And yes, I've reset the PRAM and do have the latest firmware (both the EFI update to the Air and version 1.0 to the display).

This is nuts... 207 degrees will over time destroy the MBA!