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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

azoe

Level 1

0 points

Oct 26, 2011 5:41 PM in response to bazaarone

I received a new Macbook Air firmware update today, stability with the thunderbolt display was on the list of improvements. There's also a Macbook Pro update with the same fixes. Have these helped anyone out? I haven't had any time to test yet.

Direct links to the descriptions, software update should be able to install them automatically:

Macbook Air EFI 2.2:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1448

Macbook Pro EFI 2.3:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1450

newllama

Level 1

0 points

Oct 26, 2011 6:39 PM in response to azoe

Oh sweet thanks for the firmware update notice. I've got it installed and have my fingers crossed. I plugged my keyboard back into the display and so far nothing has exploded yet.. but we've already established rebooting fixes the problem for a while; I won't be convinced until I go a week without any problems.

I'm hopeful this will fix it. If the issues come back after this update I'm returning the display asap for a cinema display.

Oct 27, 2011 3:36 AM in response to azoe

Thanks for posting news about the update here. I had to run system update twice to get both the Air update, and the Thunderbolt update to install. One reboot for each update.

Hope this works. Is there a place where they fixes are listed out in detail?

Oct 27, 2011 6:31 AM in response to Steve Garfield

Mac Mini: At first seemed like it fixed the problems, but now it's worse. System won't even sleep.

Oct 27, 2011 7:22 AM in response to LaraCroft_NYC

It didn't change anything for me, not even for a moment.

I still don't have any extension working (FaceTime camera, speakers, USB, FireWire...), juste the display...

I'm wondering if the Thunderbolt cable is the cause of this.

Oct 27, 2011 7:29 AM in response to bazaarone

Glad for the new firmware update. Just a note -- it might be worth resetting the SMC after you apply the update. Merely applying the update didn't help anything, but after applying it and resetting the SMC things seem okay -- for now. Of course we need to see if it'll last more than a few hours.

Oct 27, 2011 7:30 AM in response to Mattheo Lescaht

Not the cable. Thunderbolt is just an abomination. Apple Engineers are supposedly working on it for the last few weeks to no avail. I'm surprised that they put out updates that don't do anything.

Oct 27, 2011 7:43 AM in response to LaraCroft_NYC

Yeah, it's worring me too...

Just after the update, I did a SMC/PRAM reset without any success.

I have an appointment with a "Genious" at the Apple Store Opéra next Thursday, I hope I won't cross the whole town for nothing!

Oct 27, 2011 7:47 AM in response to Mattheo Lescaht

And as soon as it stops raining, I'm lugging this T/B display back to the Apple Store across town to exchange it for the LED display.

Phips

Level 1

5 points

Oct 27, 2011 7:59 AM in response to iconmaster

That'll be because resetting the SMC does seem to help - just the once.

I've applied the update, it did nothing. Did my usual thing to get the attached Drobo to mount - and reset the SMC. It comes back then.

I must admit, I am really, really disappointed in this display. In eight years it's the first proper disappointment with Apple stuff I've had. Sure, .0 OSX releases are riddled with problems, but they fix them pretty quickly usually.

The TB display is something else though. I bought it to use it like a docking station for my 11" Air, and it simply doesn't work. I have to wonder how they ever got out the door of Apple, because it's pretty evident they've not been tested properly.

Oct 27, 2011 8:05 AM in response to Phips

Phips: You are totally correct!

Oct 27, 2011 11:28 AM in response to Phips

Yeah, it didn't last. Had to go back to having my wireless Kensington mouse receiver connected to the Air's USB port instead of the display's.

Apple probably considers this a weird third-party edge case.. but the receiver works just great when connected to the Mac directly and worked fine when connected to the USB port in the slightly older Cinema Display.

Something about USB+Thunderbolt is still fundamentally broken.

Oct 27, 2011 11:30 AM in response to iconmaster

Yes! (Apple knows about it.)

iconmaster wrote:

Something about USB+Thunderbolt is still fundamentally broken.

Phips

Level 1

5 points

Oct 27, 2011 11:33 AM in response to LaraCroft_NYC

You heard something from Apple that confirms they know there is an issue?

Oct 27, 2011 1:42 PM in response to bazaarone

Updated MBA EFI with today's updates (using Software Update). After rebooting, ran software update again to find another update for Thunderbold Software. Applied both updates and all issues are corrected...

Hopefully this will be my last post! Fingers crossed.

Major problems with Thunderbolt display & MB Air