Major problems with Thunderbolt display & MB Air

I thought the keystroke issues had resolved themselves, but they hadn't. Still losing a significant number of keystrokes/modifier keys on a brand new wired Apple Keyboard (with Launchpad button) when connected to the Thunderbolt Display.

Connecting it to the USB port on the MacBook Air solves the problem. Something's screwy with USB over Thunderbolt.

Let me add to the chorus, although my problems are not quite as bad. I have a MBP 13" (with OSX 10.7.1 and all TB updates), apple extended usb keyboard and iphone plugged into the monitor, and i use a magic trackpad.

I experience the following:

1. When waking from sleep, the keyboard will often be totally unresponsive. Usually unplugging and replugging it into the display will restore it to working
2. Three times I have had the screen go completely black. It can be restored by putting the computer to sleep via the keyboard and re-waking it after a minute or two, or by shutting it down and restarting.

Hello again,

I am in Snow Leopard 10.6.8. MacbookPro 17 2011, TB Display all patches applied.

My problems are all releated to traveling with my laptop then returning to my TB Display and connecting.

USB, CAMERA, SOUND, MICOPHONE on the TB display are all gone and never come back until I reboot.

ethernet, firewire return on reconnect.

thx

Lach

Quick addition to the troubleshooting that might help. I have a keyboard with an integrated mouse (the keyboard and mouse only use one USB connection). Whenever my keyboard connection has gone out, which is about 2 times a day, the onboard mouse always continues to function.

I just got back from the Apple store with my replacement display.

Out of the box, it didn't recognize any USB, and it indicated it wanted the firmware update. However, the firmware update software wouldn't detect the monitor. I rebooted, the fimrware update found and updated the display, and I'm now typing this post from my new display with my keyboard plugged in on USB.

I've seen no dropped characters, I can fly on the keys and nothing is being missed.

I didn't think it would help, but the hardware replacement did work for me.

Sigh, I spoke too soon. Keystrokes being dropped, just not as frequently.

The only problem that I seem to have had is the mouse disappears for a little bit, and it seems the wireless keyboard hangs for a few seconds, but never enough to become annoying (even though it is annoying). My bigger problem was that if my MBA was unplugged from a power source it would just instantaneously shutoff. I would restart it, it would run for 2 to 5 minutes, then shutoff again. I did an SMC reset and seems to be working ok. I will go to a local coffee shop and test it out though.

I seem to have issues only with recognition of the USB hub, after working on my MacBook Pro without the Thunderbolt Display then sleeping it, reconnecting to the display and waking. When I do that, the display + audio, video, ethernet and firewire disk all connect and work immediately, but all USB connected devices - Mac wired keyboard and mouse, iPhone and a software dongle - are dead.

I can fix the issue either by restarting the Mac, or by unplugging and replugging the Thunderbolt connector. Either way, everything including USB then works fine. Curiously, my iPhone is getting no power from the display's USB port on wake from sleep, but power turns on as soon as I unplug the display from the MacBook.

Once it's got the USB connection, everything works fine and I haven't seen any of the issues referred to on this thread.

In the "no USB" state, Software Update reported I'm completely up to date, however after unplugging and replugging it's now offering me the Thunderbolt Display Firmware update 1.0. I'll report if that fixes the USB problem.

Update: Apple actually swapped out both the Thunderbolt Display and my MacBook Air (so that the engineers could have a look, by all accounts this is unusual).

So, brand-new Thunderbolt Display and 13" MacBook Air, all updates applied. Everything worked fine for a few hours, then the same issues started to recur.

Yep - similar problems with USB/FW drives attached to my display.

11" i7 MB Air, drobo hanging off FW800 on the display, Apple DVD drive on the USB. Every now and then none of the ports on the display work.

Funnily enough, it was ok before I did the firmware update last week. Can't get the MBA to see anything attached to the display right now.

Unfortunately it looks like Apple never learned (fixed) from their mistakes. The 27" Cinema Display line has similar USB issues and it has never been fixed and those have been out for over a year. Here is a very long thread discussing sound dropping off because the internal USB hub fails. I've had mine repaired and replaced multiple times in an attempt to resolve this but I finally gave up and just live with disconnecting/reconnecting after waking from sleep if I want to use the USB audio. Normally I leave it set to audio over the Display Port connection so the USB issue doesn't matter much anymore. I don't use the back USB ports at all.

I REALLY hope they can fix this issue and port the fix to the CD. When the TB display first came out I was tempted to get one and sell off the CD but since it has the same issues (and more it seems), that is no longer an option.

Just did an SMC reset on the Air which has, at least, brought all the ports on the TB display back. Not sure how long it'll last, but one can try.

• Shutdown
• Unplug TB
• Hold shift-ctrl-alt-power
• Let go of all four keys
• Turn on the Air
• Log in
• Let it 'settle' for just a few seconds
• Plug TB back in - everything is working

I also have the problem with USB ports. Especially with the wired keyboard.

The first "tap" is empty. It seems that it serves to awaken the keyboard. As if the keyboard to go on standby. All this with the macbook pro 13" 2011 (with thunderbolt) in clamshell mode.

Now I'm noticing that using the macbook not in clamshell mode but with the extension monitor it would seem that the various problems have disappeared.

Let's keep up to date.