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bazaarone Author

Level 1

0 points

Major problems with Thunderbolt display & MB Air

Since I received my Thunderbolt display yesterday and hooked it up to my 2011 MB Air, I've had nothing but problems.

Software update is fully up to date, including the TB Display firmware.

I'm experiencing three major issues:

1. About half the time when I connect the display, my connected USB devices are non-functional. Unplugging and reconnecting the devices does not fix it.

2. Also, about half the time when I disconnect the display, the MB Air does not reconfigure the monitor layout. Putting it to sleep and/or disconnecting / reconnecting monitors does not fix this. I have to hard restart my laptop.

3. When connected through the TB Display, my Mac will infrequently not recognize key up events from my USB keyboard, causing keys to repeat until I hit them again. For an idea of frequency, it has happened 4 times so far thus far while writing this post.

Also a couple of minor niggles:

1. The default color calibration is WAY different from the MB Air's screen. It's most obvious with yellows which have a severe green tint on the TB display. For example, note windows in Mail appear very slightly orange on my MB Air (as expected given the color value), while on the TB display it is florescent yellow with a slight greenish tint.

2. The sound is a lot poorer than I had hoped. I wasn't expecting anything really amazing, but with the "built in subwoofer" I expected noticeably better bass than my MB Air's built in speakers provide.

The minor issues can either be minimized (with color calibration and equalizer) or ignored, but the major issues make this display completely unusable for me. Is this just a defective unit, or are these widespread issues?

Thanks in advance for any help.

PS. Total instances of keys getting stuck while writing this post: ~9. Seems to only be space and delete that get stuck so far.

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Sep 21, 2011 8:19 PM

438 replies

Feb 27, 2012 12:33 PM in response to urbicande

Yes, exactly :-)

That´s what I had expected over the long 4 months of having the first TBD...

And now it´s really true with the second TBD.

I gave a feedback to the apple manager who started the changing-action of my TBD: wrote him he/Apple should contact the dozens of frustrated TBD-owners I found in such Apple-forums like these to gave them the possibilty to get a new TBD.

Without any reaction from him till now...

Fred

rcdeck

Level 1

4 points

Feb 28, 2012 5:42 AM in response to bazaarone

I was thinking it may be the display, however, I had my coworker plug his MBP in and every time it works like a charm. My MBP, i have to plug in, unplug, and then plug back in again to get it to recognize any usb components. I guess that narrows it down to something on my machine...

rcdeck

Level 1

4 points

Feb 28, 2012 6:18 AM in response to bazaarone

So i think I just resolved my problem. I had an application called SteerMouse installed to assist with windows based mice. I uninstalled that application restarted my machine and my USB ports are working every time without a problem. I am wondering if these issues are stemming from an application people have installed?

Worth a try?

applecan

Level 1

0 points

Feb 28, 2012 7:15 AM in response to rcdeck

My first TBD had USB connection problems/wakeup problems. I exchanged it for a new TBD, which has worked flawlessly so far (several months now) with both a MacBook Pro and a MacBook Air. Both computers have Steermouse installed, but the problem with the TBD was present even before Steermouse was installed, and the problem has disappeared with the exchange of TBD (I still have Steermouse on both computers). So I am not sure that Steermouse is the cause of the problem (at least in my case, it did not appear to be).

Mar 1, 2012 12:25 PM in response to applecan

I'm having the USB disconnect issue with a MacBookPro 15" Late-2011. I don't have steermouse installed; have never heard of it, in fact.

I get more than just USB disconnects. Sometimes the display ethernet doesn't connect. Sometimes one connects and not the other! I usually have to reboot and power-cycle the display. Very annoying! My firmware is totally up-to-date, as is my OS software.

Mar 4, 2012 6:19 AM in response to bazaarone

I experienced the same issue with the Thunderbolt display not coming back on, after reconnecting the Thunderbolt cable to my 2011 15" MacBook Pro.

It turns out that it was because I was using gfxcardstatus, to automatically switch to integrated graphics, both while running on battery power and the power supply.

A soon as I connected the cable back, and changed the settings from integrated mode to dedicated graphics mode, the display came back on.

The thunderbolt display needs the dedicated graphics chip to turn on, when used with my MacBook Pro. I cannot switch the graphics chip to integrated mode from dedicated graphics mode, once it is connected to the display.

I had turned off automatic graphics switching in the energy saver settings. This is because dynamic switching interferes a virtual machine's display rendering process, if you're using VMware Fusion 4.1.1.

Here are the relevant machine configuration details:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,2

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 2.3 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 8 MB

Memory: 8 GB

Boot ROM Version: MBP81.0047.B27

SMC Version (system): 1.69f3

Thunderbolt Display:

Vendor Name: Apple, Inc.

Device Name: Thunderbolt Display

Vendor ID: 0x1

Device ID: 0x8002

Device Revision: 0x1

UID: 0x00010001001BD210

Firmware Version: 22.2

Port:

Status: Connected

Link Status: 2

Port Micro Firmware Version: 0.0.21

Cable Micro Firmware Version: 0.1.18

Port:

Status: No devices connected

Link Status: 7

Super Port Micro Firmware Version: 0.0.21

Mar 4, 2012 10:06 AM in response to bazaarone

I picked up the Cool Master gaming lap top fan from Amazon and it has made a huge difference keeping the heat down on my 11" MBA (2011, i7 1.8, 4GB, 256GB SSD) + Thunderbolt Display. I can safely play World of Warcraft or edit presentations for work and school.

Akview

Level 1

19 points

Mar 5, 2012 9:42 AM in response to bazaarone

Here is a copy of reply to other discussion on TB display:

Late2011 MBP 15" Thunderbolt Display27", two external GoFlexHD's one on firewire other on USB on Display. Loosing connection for USB wired Apple extended keyboard through Thunderbolt display intermittently, was loosing mouse till I connected directly to laptop. (Finding it might have something to do with power demands of USB because of time machine drawing during back up). Thunderbolt USB seems to be only connection problem. Most often problem is coming out of sleep but have experience it just surfing net. Could just use lap top USB for keyboard and possibly solve problem but that would compromise reason to have Thunderbolt Display to begin with.

Is this a Thunderbolt display problem with USB unable to handle demands of HDs, Keyboard, and possible mouse?

Could this be a needed update on firmware, software, or possible hardware issue with Thunderbolt Display?

All is good after a restart but that's no permanent solution.

Mar 7, 2012 1:36 AM in response to urbicande

Status report: second TBD since 20.Feb.2012: everything (USB & ethernet ports at TBD-back) is fine :-)))

bazaarone Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 7, 2012 9:27 AM in response to bazaarone

OP here with a quick update:

I've been through 3 TB displays and 2 MBAs, had a full OSX meltdown (necessitating restoring from Time Machine) and spent hours with support over the past ~6 months. I have never made it more than a day without some kind of significant problem with the setup. Bizarrely, the specific problems manifested differently with each display or system - dropping USB completely, dropping keystrokes, failure to detect the display, etc.

On March 2 I installed the v2.4 MacBook Air firmware update, and depite having no specific mention of fixes for Thunderbolt, I'm happy to report that I've been problem free ever since (5 days and counting).

Now I just have to hope this remains permanently fixed, and doesn't break again with the next firmware or OS update.

Akview

Level 1

19 points

Mar 7, 2012 12:29 PM in response to bazaarone

Update:

Consider myself lucky. Have not lost my keyboard in days and mouse which I kept direct to MPB with extended keyboard and GoFlex HDs to display are working.

Maybe unrelated but have experience what appears to be a dimming of the display as if it is going to go to sleep and comes back up 100%. This has happen a few times although not stopping my work it is still concerning me.

Have not contacted apple support recently on these issues. Have had one update since last time I contacted them although have experience keyboard loss issues since update. Holding on to see if issue continues or not. I dread having to replace display and certainly want to avoid lap top replacement nightmare. Still believe it is related to USB in display unable to handle demands of Keyboard and HD on time machine at same time.

Mar 17, 2012 5:09 PM in response to Akview

Add me to the list of problems with a Thunderbolt Display on my MacBook Air (2011, Core i7).

Upon waking from sleep, my G-Drive Mini has disconnected, and I get an error message about improperly disconnecting a drive. The drive is connected via Firewire 800 to the Thunderbolt Display.

I think I've only had the problem since the OS X 10.7.3 update, but really can't recall exactly. I do know it wasn't happening before with this same drive and display, but it is now. It very well could have started with a different software (or firmware) update, or none at all.

bazaarone Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 17, 2012 8:34 PM in response to bazaarone

Final update from me before I unsubscribe from this thread.

It was a painful 6 months, but I've now made it 2 weeks without a single problem. It appears that installing the latest MB Air firmware (v2.4) is what finally fixed things for me (despite no mention of Thunderbolt in the release notes).

Hope other people are successful in resolving their issues. This set up is great when it works, but the early adopter penalty was ridiculously high for this display.

Mar 24, 2012 12:08 PM in response to bazaarone

When I first purchased the display, it would not work then randomly detected and was fine for sometime. I used it within both osx and windows 7 via bootcamp without issue. I went away for a few weeks and when i returned it would randomly detect within mac then shutoff after a minute or so, rinse and repeat. When i tired in bootcamp it would sometimes detect at boot then shutoff after a minute or so. I gave up after a nights trouble shooting and when i tried again in the morning the display would not detect at all.

I've tried disabling auto adjust brightness, altered the power settings to disable the shutdown of hdd and displays, reseting the pram and vram numerous times, resetting the smc, installing and trying the different modes using gfx card status, updating firmware and all software, reinstalling osx.

I am very frustated at this point and any assistance would be appreciated.

sugor

Level 1

0 points

Mar 26, 2012 7:57 AM in response to bazaarone

i have those same issues that bazaarone mentioned. Especially keyboard issues are very disturbing so that i had to plug keyboard to macbook pro's own usb port to write this text on Win7 64bit. Fortunately, while running OSX Lion, the keyboard keypress abnormalities disappear. However the system has to be restarted for display ports to be recognized for both OSes.

Major problems with Thunderbolt display & MB Air