bazaarone

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 Erik Johnson3,

    Erik Johnson3 Erik Johnson3 Apr 23, 2012 7:12 AM in response to Erik Johnson3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 23, 2012 7:12 AM in response to Erik Johnson3

    Hi folks,

     

    Here's my promised status report.

     

    After performing the SMC reset, I've been working without any problems for three days now, and everything seems to be running "more smoothly", whatever that means.  Boots take less time; there is no delay in getting a keyboard response from the TB display (previously, it would take maybe 15 seconds for the TB display to regonize the full-size keyboard plugged into the USB port on the back of the display).  So, everything is running exactly as I would expect from the display connected to the laptop.  I suspect that some hardware register was buggered up and it was adversely affecting how the display was being handled via Thunderbolt.  The SMC reset seems to have remedied that issue.  Now, let's see how long it lasts (and if another SMC reset is required in the future)...

     

    As an aside, we also discovered that the keyboard I was originally using appears to have been suffering from an intermittent failure of some kind as, during the troubleshooting process, another keyboard proved more reliable.  I exchanged the faulty keyboard at the Genius Bar (stil under warranty), and the new one has been performing flawlessly since.

     

    That's it.  If I experience this problem again, I'll be back to document the issue.  Good luck, all!

  • by thomastam,

    thomastam thomastam May 7, 2012 10:12 AM in response to Erik Johnson3
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 7, 2012 10:12 AM in response to Erik Johnson3

    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.

  • by zpjet,

    zpjet zpjet May 9, 2012 8:40 AM in response to bazaarone
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 9, 2012 8:40 AM in response to bazaarone

    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.

  • by urbicande,

    urbicande urbicande May 9, 2012 8:50 AM in response to zpjet
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 9, 2012 8:50 AM in response to zpjet

    A simple restart actually solves that problem too...

  • by zpjet,

    zpjet zpjet May 9, 2012 8:58 AM in response to urbicande
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 9, 2012 8:58 AM in response to urbicande

    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.

  • by waa,

    waa waa May 9, 2012 9:15 AM in response to urbicande
    Level 1 (10 points)
    May 9, 2012 9:15 AM in response to urbicande

    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.

  • by urbicande,

    urbicande urbicande May 9, 2012 9:16 AM in response to zpjet
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 9, 2012 9:16 AM in response to zpjet

    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...

  • by zpjet,

    zpjet zpjet May 9, 2012 9:20 AM in response to bazaarone
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 9, 2012 9:20 AM in response to bazaarone

    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

  • by thomastam,

    thomastam thomastam May 10, 2012 2:59 AM in response to zpjet
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 10, 2012 2:59 AM in response to zpjet

    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!

  • by thomastam,

    thomastam thomastam May 10, 2012 3:12 AM in response to waa
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 10, 2012 3:12 AM in response to waa

    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/message/18341823?ac_cid=142432#18341823

     

    Hope Apple will provide fix soon.

     

    And I got

     

     

    ???

     

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

  • by zpjet,

    zpjet zpjet May 13, 2012 5:23 AM in response to thomastam
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 13, 2012 5:23 AM in response to thomastam

    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

  • by lonestarry,

    lonestarry lonestarry May 14, 2012 7:31 AM in response to bazaarone
    Level 1 (115 points)
    May 14, 2012 7:31 AM in response to bazaarone

    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.

  • by RobSimons,

    RobSimons RobSimons May 17, 2012 7:44 AM in response to bazaarone
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 17, 2012 7:44 AM in response to bazaarone

    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.

  • by David Deitrick,

    David Deitrick David Deitrick May 20, 2012 6:22 AM in response to RobSimons
    Level 1 (15 points)
    May 20, 2012 6:22 AM in response to RobSimons

    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.

  • by zpjet,

    zpjet zpjet May 21, 2012 11:42 PM in response to thomastam
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 21, 2012 11:42 PM in response to thomastam

    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).

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