Major problems with Thunderbolt display & MB Air

I'm getting kernel panics a lot more often now, but the peripherals in the display also work more often now.

I've got a case open with Apple support in the UK now. Interestingly they've not heard much over this side of the pond - I'm only the second TB issues case the engineer had heard of. I'm piecing together some test information for them, it'll probably be next week before it gets analysed.

However, whilst going through umpteen reboots and SMC resets, then looking at System Information, I did notice something fairly glaring when the FW and USB stuff wasn't connecting. The cable carries a software version, and on the Mac end that version number didn't show up when it was failing. There's technology in the cables, I wonder if they're at fault?

Failure

Success

Note the presence of 'Cable Micro Firmware Version' when it was working.

If you're having USB and/or firewire connectivity issues, I'd be interested in seeing this output from your System Information too.

@phips:

That's pretty interesting. I checked out my system information and right now and everything matches your "success" screenshot. I take it you installed both of the new (10/26/11) thunderbolt updates and you're still having problems?

When you say "failure" are you getting the dropped keys and symptoms we're getting or are you getting a more spectacular failure? Missing firmware would imply no connectivity at all I would think..

Anyway after installing both updates I haven't had any issues. I've had a few half second hiccups with my mouse but I'm not sure if that's because of the CPU-heavy work I'm doing or from the display. No keyboard issues so far.

Between the firmware updates and the Thunderbolt Software update released in the past couple days, I think Apple might have this one licked -- at least for me. I've had all USB peripherals connected to the display for a whole day and haven't seen any of the previous issues (which normally would recur very quickly).

As an aside, Apple has been really great about following through on this issue. They quickly involved people who could help, followed up regularly via phone and email, and took me seriously throughout. Great customer service.

I'm a little out of place here (Mac Mini), but while I agree with the later, I do not agree with the former. The updates basically do not work. All problems still exist, althugh now it take a little longer (after zapping PRAM 3X each and every time) to show up. Thunderbolt display went back to the Apple store yesterday who told me over the phone (TWICE) that they had a few 27" LED Cinema displays for replacement (which I discovered was possible only a few days ago); they did not have one. I lugged that 25+ pounds of hardware all the way to 5th Avenue and returned with nothing. However, they were nice enough to ship one from the online store a week from now.

Back from the Apple store, I got a phone message from Apple CustomerCare wanting to get more configuration information from me for the Engineers (again).

Advice: Get authorization to exchange the Thunderbolt display for the [plain] LED display (if you don't need Thunderbolt, which I don't).

iconmaster wrote:

Between the firmware updates and the Thunderbolt Software update released in the past couple days, I think Apple might have this one licked -- at least for me. I've had all USB peripherals connected to the display for a whole day and haven't seen any of the previous issues (which normally would recur very quickly).

As an aside, Apple has been really great about following through on this issue. They quickly involved people who could help, followed up regularly via phone and email, and took me seriously throughout. Great customer service.

After the upgrade my TBD been working well. Soon after the update I did experience an unresposive display and the mba refused to wake up - something that didn't happen before the upgrade. However, after turning off and on both devices, they have been interacting well, with my wired keyboard connected to the display. One aspect that didn't change is the TBD's usb performance, which remains very poor: it takes 3m to write a 1.5GB file to a HD connected to the TBD usb, versus 99s when connected directly to the MBA! That comes up to be about 8MB/s, almost the same write speed I get with a low performance flash usb drive.

It must be tricky to design the thunderbolt interface. Perhaps that's the reason why so few devices have been developed.

Keep trying. My main problem was that the computer refused to wake (not just the display--I could tell because I have a DVI secondary display) until unplugging the primary TBD. (There were other malfunctions as well.)

AFTER installing both TBD updates, the situation improved (after zapping the PRAM). The system would wake for, maybe, 8-10 times, and then failed again. Again, zapping the PRAM fixed it--for another 8-10 wakes.

See if your TBD consistently works; probably not.

Anyway, it's not a problem for me anymore because I got the ultimate "update": I returned the TBD to the APPLE store.

manuelfrommayaguez wrote:

After the upgrade my TBD been working well. I did have a chance to experience an unresposive display and a mba that refuse to wake up (for the first time) soon after the update, but after turning off-on both devices they have been working well. However, usb performance remains very poor: it takes 3m to write a 1.5GB file to a HD connected to the TBD usb, versus 99s when connected directly to the MBA!

@newllama - aye, correct; have all the current firmware updates for both the display and the MBA.

My major problem is firewire attached drives - they're horrendously unstable. Rarely do they attach first time, I mostly have to reboot, reset SMC, cross my fingers and face east. Sometimes the drive [a Drobo] attaches, then detaches immediately after. There's another FW drive hanging off the Drobo, and sometimes that attaches but the Drobo does not! It's maddening.

@laracroft_nyc hit the nail on the head in the post before this - "see if your TBD consistently works". I'm betting not.

Thanks! At this point the only thing that will get Apple to either fix ALL the Thunderbolt display problems (or recall all of them) is a mass "exodus" of all owners to their Apple Stores to return them for a refund OR the LED Cinema display.

We'll see. I'm an optimist, and I'm hoping for something with the case I have open. Engineer was very pleasant to deal with, and a bit of a techie too - he thoroughly understood the inner workings of TB as a technology. He was passing my debug output to the engineers in the US. Fingers crossed something gives them a clue as to what's causing the issues.

What I would say to everyone complaining of problems on this thread - you have 90 days of free support. Make sure you open a case with Apple so they know there are issues.

I totally agree and have been doing this for weeks with several senior people at Apple with no solution forthcoming.

I would like to report that since I upgraded the firmware on the macbook pro 2011 model my keyboard/camera/microphone issues have gone away.

I had problems whenever I redocked my macbook to the TB display after travelling. USB keyboard/camera and microphone where gone until I rebooted.

Since the update this week, I have been able to travel and come back and dock my laptop without any issues.

I have evey port on the back of the TB display connected... Ethernet, Firewire, USB, and TB. This product is *finally* delivering on the promise of a seemless docking station. I like it!

I think now is the time to go get a second TB display and try dual monitors. Uffta!!

lach

After installing the recent MBAir update and the TB display update, the keyboard issues I faced (slow key response, some keys magically repeat) are resolved. I have not tested yet the Firewire and USB ports with back-up hard drives. These both worked before, although the transfer speeds were disappointing.

Well, I did the two updates with my MBA and TBD and the results are: FAIL.

I still have nothing connected to the TBD, except ethernet, which is the reason I bought this combination in the first place.

It seems the problems are (also?) triggered when (cold) booting the system. It took me several reboots and power/TB cable pulls to get the combination to work again. Most of the time the TBD seemed to work but developed glitches and blacked out within a couple of seconds. It's quite frustrating. 😢