Major problems with Thunderbolt display & MB Air

Thanks Erik for your sharing. I tried the SMC reset but the problem still persist. It works for awhile but back to slow respond after some operations.

Can Apple take a serious look on this problem? My MBA works just fine on its own or connecting to any display other than Apple Thunderbolt display.

OK I also have these problems. I wonder if some one of you tried this trobleshooting step:

Restart to Cmd-R repair mode.

When I do, then the display is recognised immediatelly and otherwise works fine. This leads to a conclusion that it's not a hardware fault, and hopefully it will get fixed with a patch.

A simple restart actually solves that problem too...

ouch... I normally restart my Air only when doing major updates. restart isn't even workaround... which is pressing CMD-2 to detect displays.

The idea of restarting to Recovery Mode is to confirm that it's system (software) issue.

Yes - a restart solves the problem for me as well.

My problems (all reported to AAPL months ago) are:

1. Random USB trouble - lost key strokes and a jerky mouse

2. Display sound clips out randomly - sounds like a bad cell phone call

3. Display ethernet randomly disappears

4. Daisy chained displays, upon connection, take a random order

I performed all of the trouble shooting steps with tier 2 support months ago, and I've not heard back. I haven't pressed the issue since I've stopped using everything from the display other than Thunderbolt, i.e. I'm using it like a non-thunderbolt display except for connection to a thunderbolt external drive.

I haven't pursued a true solution further as it seems there is none. Although, I may call and check status whereas they'll tell me nothing new. At which point, I may post a 1-star review. I think at this point our only solution is to post bad reviews. The fact that the display currently has around 4-stars is unbelievable.

Indeed, restarting isn't a workaround and actually an annoyance. That's the point we are all making here. This problem has been around for months and Apple has failed to fix it until now...

OK I'm going to recap. This is how an external display with a Mac laptop normally behaves in Lion.

1. When a screen is plugged, displays flash blue (after a few seconds) and then extends the desktop to the second screen.
2. When th screen is unplugged, laptop display flashes blue shortly and then windows are gathered on the screen.
3. When laptop lid is closed, displays again flash blue and menubar moves to the external screen.
4. When laptop lid is opened, blue flash and manubar moves back (if it wasn't set up to stay there; at least the laptop screen switches on).
5. If you go to System Information > Hardware > Graphic/Displays, you can see that TBD appears and disappears after refreshing the page (Cmd-R).

Now, restart to Recovery Mode and try plugging and unplugging the display and closing/opening the lid.

In my case, everything worked fine. But as soon as I restarted back to normal OS, I had the same problems as people in this thread:

1. After plugging display, I can use USB and other devices, but display stays black. I had to detect the screen (Cmd-2) or put to sleep/wake or restart to get it detected.
2. After unplugging, the system "thinks" the display is still connected. I can still move windows to the area of the display, and Arrangement is still there in System Preferences > Displays. "Gather windows" also shows two displays.
3. Closing and opening lid doesn't work, computer either keeps the laptop's backlight on, or goes to sleep.
4. System Information shows that TBD is not connected when it is, and that it still is when it's already not.

So I can get the combo working right in either Recovery Mode or with a SMC reset which, unfortunately, won't work for long. Hopefully it really means only software issue and will be addressed shortly.

One more observation: have somebody noticed that Thunderbolt plug is getting warmer? I know it has active elements but I hope it's not getting fried by some sw issue 😟

I found that you can enjoy longer stability if display is unplug for awhile (say 15 sec) and plug it back before the SMC reset. This is just my observation. Hope this help!

hi waa, I try to write the following

It doesn't work well with my macbook air. See the following thread.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3339966?answerId=18341823022#18341823022&ac_cid=142432#18341823

Hope Apple will provide fix soon.

And I got

Some words in your review cannot be published. Please revise your review. (please limit to 300 words)

???

What's wrong with my comment and that may explain why it is still 4 Stars!!! 😠

well there's a lot of people who don't do often re-connect (mini) and it affects only certain people (i tried to replicate the issue in the shop I bought my display and couldn't with the same Air).

if you don't have our problems (or problems with being too glossy) then you automatically give five starts because it is gorgeous display.

I hope these problems will get sorted out soon by a firmware update and we can enjoy it fully. after all it is an amazing technology in our hands.

just look over to the Dark Side: it's been more than a year since Apple introduced Thunderbolt and it eventually made its way to Windows world...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5829/a-first-look-at-thunderbolt-on-windows-with-m sis-z77agd80

I too suffer from this issue.

I performed and SMC reset and so far it seems to be recognizing my keyboard through the display now. Hopefully it lasts.

Just to add my experience, MacBook Air 13" (latest model) with 27" Thunderbolt display. Ethernet, FireWire Drives (two), Apple wired USB keyboard, iPhone and USB drive all connected. After several months of no problems, I've just recently started having intermittent disconnects of all USB and Firewire devices (I didn't check the Ethernet, though). I can disconnect the Thunderbolt and reconnect and everything is fine. But it's definitely a problem. Happens about once a day. I will continue to research the details of when it happens.

I get the problem with random USB drive disconnects on both MBA & MBP without the thunderbolt drive. Perhaps the disconnects aren't related to the hub on the monitor at all.

I've just installed a clean system (10.7.3) and updated to the latest one (10.7.4) and so far so good, reinstalled MSO and ACS6, looks like it's still working. But soon I will have to install a few bits which may cause it. My main suspects, as they are quite deep in system, are:

• FileVault
• VMWare Fusion
• Undercover
• Firmware password

I came to a conclusion to reinstall after my Air was working fine with TBD in Recovery Mode. And because there are so many happy campers (and I couldn't replicate the issue in the shop either), it might really be a software issue.

I will keep you guys posted (really).

Interesting, my Air/TBD combo works fine after installing fresh system... anyone else tried that? I do still have to install a bunch of things which may break it, mentioned above.