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Q: 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

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Q: Major problems with Thunderbolt display & MB Air

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  • by David Elkington,

    David Elkington David Elkington Apr 19, 2012 5:51 AM in response to Erik Johnson3
    Level 1 (80 points)
    Apr 19, 2012 5:51 AM in response to Erik Johnson3

    I will have to see if it maintains its present status, as it did work for a couple of hours the first time and then stopped. It has been running for 4 hours now fine.

     

    Another thing into the mix however is that I just updated the OS (the one we can't talk about) the the release that was released recently, (but I can't be specific.)

  • by Erik Johnson3,

    Erik Johnson3 Erik Johnson3 Apr 19, 2012 5:55 AM in response to David Elkington
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 19, 2012 5:55 AM in response to David Elkington

    Ahhh, got it.  Knowing that you are using [the operating system version that shall not be mentioned] will be of value when I visit with the Genius Bar this afternoon as I can contrast my experience with Lion.  I am running:

     

    System Version:          Mac OS X 10.7.3 (11D50b)

    Kernel Version:          Darwin 11.3.0

  • by Readman_HE,

    Readman_HE Readman_HE Apr 19, 2012 9:19 AM in response to David Elkington
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 19, 2012 9:19 AM in response to David Elkington

    Is you new display stiill working fine? Have you applied all update of Lion?

    I thought that there is a relationship between new update and this problem.

    i wrote this  https://discussions.apple.com/message/18136467#18136467 maybe you may take a look.

    How did you tell Genius Bar to exchange a new display? They always just replace the logicl board on my display.

  • by Readman_HE,

    Readman_HE Readman_HE Apr 19, 2012 9:21 AM in response to Erik Johnson3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 19, 2012 9:21 AM in response to Erik Johnson3

    Hey,

    please take a look for https://discussions.apple.com/message/18136467#18136467 .

    I am still confused that, if the new update is the problem, how did people have this problem in Dec, 2011? You may also talk a look in old topic in this fourm.

     

    Thank you

  • by David Elkington,

    David Elkington David Elkington Apr 19, 2012 9:26 AM in response to Readman_HE
    Level 1 (80 points)
    Apr 19, 2012 9:26 AM in response to Readman_HE

    Hi.  I am not using Lion, I am using that OS that shall remain Nameless, a bit like Lion on top of a large hill.  I bought my display online from the apple store.  I always do this as they just replace items and I can't be bothered to pack my screens / computers up and take them to the store.

     

    I had the new display next day, and they are coming to pick up the old one on Monday, so I have two at the moment

     

    Yes, the display is still working nicely

  • by Readman_HE,

    Readman_HE Readman_HE Apr 19, 2012 9:46 AM in response to David Elkington
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 19, 2012 9:46 AM in response to David Elkington

    How did you let Apple come to your home and pick up old things?

    The nearest Apple Store is about 25 miles from my home. If there is a way that they can come to my home and exchange the display. that would be very helpful

  • by David Elkington,

    David Elkington David Elkington Apr 19, 2012 10:17 AM in response to Readman_HE
    Level 1 (80 points)
    Apr 19, 2012 10:17 AM in response to Readman_HE

    They send a courier with a 2 hour timeslot.  I am in the UK....

  • by Akview,

    Akview Akview Apr 19, 2012 10:40 AM in response to David Elkington
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 19, 2012 10:40 AM in response to David Elkington

    So, is the conclusion that it is a hardware problem and if my USB's are not fully functioning as designed I have to ask Apple to replace the display.  Hmmmmm?

     

    Using: late2011 MBP 15" with 27" Apple Display, Lion and resolved to connecting keyboard and mouse directly to MBP in clam shell to avoid having to reconnect to recognize keyboard or mouse.  Even with this I occasionally have to reconnect recognition of mouse or keyboard.

  • by David Elkington,

    David Elkington David Elkington Apr 19, 2012 10:53 AM in response to Akview
    Level 1 (80 points)
    Apr 19, 2012 10:53 AM in response to Akview

    I think Hardware, I just plugged my MBA back into the old display and it does not work...

  • by Readman_HE,

    Readman_HE Readman_HE Apr 19, 2012 12:39 PM in response to David Elkington
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 19, 2012 12:39 PM in response to David Elkington

    Uhm. i think it is a Hardware problem as well

    If so, can i replace to Cinema 27' display, in this case? Anyone have trid replacement before?

    Or refund?

  • by Erik Johnson3,

    Erik Johnson3 Erik Johnson3 Apr 19, 2012 5:29 PM in response to Erik Johnson3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 19, 2012 5:29 PM in response to Erik Johnson3

    Hi folks.  Here's the result of the somewhat lengthy, but successful, troubleshooting process we used at the Genius Bar this afternoon:

     

    Both the TB Display and my MacBook Air passed diagnostics.  The technician then connected his system to my TB Display and everything was working fine.  So, he then performed an SMC (System Management Controller) reset on my MacBook Air and, magically, everything on the MacBook Air *AND* the TB Display started working properly again.  I now have the TB Display back home and everything is working like a champ, no problems, driving three USB devices (including my keyboard) off the TB Display USB ports. 

     

    So, it appears that there may be some kind of problem with the way that the Thunderbolt Display or connection works with some of the controllers on the attached computer.  By performing an SMC reset, it appears to have cleaned up whatever bugaboo was in the MacBook which allowed the display to start functioning again.

     

    Here's a KB article on performing an SMC reset:

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

     

    I can't state that I know all of the implications of performing an SMC reset, but it seemed to have absolutely no impact on my system (other than fixing the TB Display problem).  So, I'm guessing that it is a pretty benign action.  And, he only performed the SMC reset one time in order to rectify the problem.

     

    Final verdict: I am home with the very same display and MacBook Air and everything is working beautifully right now.  I'll report back if things go sideways again, and the SMC reset procedure doesn't work a second time.

     

    Give it a shot and see what happens.  Hope this helps.

     

    Good luck,

     

    Erik

  • by David Elkington,

    David Elkington David Elkington Apr 19, 2012 5:35 PM in response to Erik Johnson3
    Level 1 (80 points)
    Apr 19, 2012 5:35 PM in response to Erik Johnson3

    I did an SMC reset before I called support, it did not help in my case.

  • by Readman_HE,

    Readman_HE Readman_HE Apr 19, 2012 5:45 PM in response to Erik Johnson3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 19, 2012 5:45 PM in response to Erik Johnson3

    I did an SMC reset before, i did help my case as well.

    It may looks like everything work fine for a while, but the problem will appear after some opeations

  • by Readman_HE,

    Readman_HE Readman_HE Apr 19, 2012 5:54 PM in response to David Elkington
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 19, 2012 5:54 PM in response to David Elkington

    I found something very interesting.

    When this problem occur in Windows, I force the output of audio through the Display Audio. It gave the erroe message like "The device are busy. or being used by another program". I am thinking that, the problem is the driver can not release the display for another process (like kernel) use. It can explains that, why sometimes the display may works fine

  • by Phips,

    Phips Phips Apr 20, 2012 12:37 AM in response to Erik Johnson3
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Apr 20, 2012 12:37 AM in response to Erik Johnson3

    Erik Johnson3 wrote:

     

    By performing an SMC reset, it appears to have cleaned up whatever bugaboo was in the MacBook which allowed the display to start functioning again.

     

     

    Yes, that used to clear mine for all of a day (or less, sometimes). I fear you'll have the old problems back again real soon Erik. I hope you don't, but I'm betting you will.

     

    Something was, is, very wrong with the early TB displays - or possibly with the firmware update that came out for them. I still haven't applied the firmware update to my replacement, and it still works just fine like that.

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