Thunderbolt Display will not wake up after sleep!!!!!!

Hello TAF;

My problem was previously fixed with a firmware update using Mountain Lion. Then Mavericks was released and the problem came back yet it is much worse. I have tried resetting the NVRAM and that works for about two sleep cycles then I'm back to unplugging my TB from my MBP and opening the lid and the TB starts back up again. My concern is my back up drive is being disconnected incorrectly when the MBP sleeps and I get the error message.

I'm afraid that it's going to kill my back up drive and wear out mu TB jack on my MBP from unplugging it 2+ a day.

Voltage fluctuations can cause this problem. If votage drops below some threshold, the TB display appears to be protecting itself from electronic damage by tripping into some "safe" mode that can only be reset by unplugging and replugging the power cord.

Voltage fluctuations may be coming from outside your home (a power company issue, as it was in my case), but can also be from within your home. Our issue was visible -- we noticed dimming and flickering of our lights and called the power company. The power company was going to install a voltage logging device, but they quickly found a loose connection in our transformer and that fixed everything (the light flickering and the TB display wakeup problem).

Just because you don't notice flickering and other devices don't have trouble doesn't mean your voltage is steady. Drops can be more subtle than that and the TB display seems to be particularly sensitive. Do you have an electric heater, iron, toaster or other high-draw appliance on the same circuit? Are you using a cheap power strip (as a hpridham noted in an earlier post)? Is your display plugged into a wall outlet controlled by a dimmer?

I'd recommend you have your power company confirm it's not an issue with the power coming into your home. It should be free, unless you want them to do it after hours. If it's not outside your home, then consult an electrician who can likely provide a device that will log the line voltage on the outlet you are using for a few days. Unfortunately, that isn't likely free.

Some problems could be very dangerous (a slight short that's arcing somewhere in your walls). Your TB display may be telling you something important.

If it was a power issue why would the problem stop after the firmware update in ML and then return after Mavericks update. I have done nothing to the power situation. It's not a power issue. I have a dedicated circuit to my office equipment and the enrire system is on an APC power conditioner and surge protection that conditions the power to my entire system before it comes to the equipment.

Yup, I agree, Sky King. I said power issues can cause this behavior. I'm highly skeptical that there's a single cause. And, since it's so elusive, it's likely some fiendish combination of factors that are even difficult for Apple to model in any deterministic fashion.

It's also worth pointing out that the behavior you are seeing is different than what I experienced. You describe being able to get the display to wake up by removing and then replugging the Thunderbolt cable between the Powerbook and the display.

When my TB display would fail to wake up, the only resolution was to unplug it from the wall, wait 10-30 seconds and then plug it back in. When it powered up, it would wake up just fine and work for some random amount of time (depending on when the next power dip came along). Disconnecting/reconnecting cables had no effect, nor did completely cycling the Powerbook off and back on or opening/closing the lid.

I've struggled with this problem for a while and was following this thread. I think I found a solution:

I think the problem is somehow due to the hard-drive going to sleep, which disconnects the monitor, rather than the screen going to sleep. I'm not sure what the technical difference is between "computer sleep" and "display sleep", but I turned "computer sleep" up to two hours (Under System Preferences > Energy Saver > Power Adapter) and unclicked "Put hard disks to sleep when possible." I haven't had any trouble since.

I'll repost this on other similar threads and see if this is helpful for anyone else.

Well... I just unplugged the energy cord from the TB, waited for 1 min and plugged it again. Nothing happend BUT I opened and closed the lid of the MBP and TB came to life!!!!! So far it´s working for me and just in case I just went to Screensavers and set it up for staring after 1 hour. This bc I noticed the problem starts when the computer runs the screensaver.

I'm in the same boat. I've got a late 2013 iMac 27" with Mavericks. I've tired everything reset SMC, etc. disabled sleep, cleared out the sleep cache, etc. nothing seems to work. I've two ASUS 23" connected via HDMI -> Thunderbolt and when the system goes to sleep, and attempt to wake it up, either the system goes to all black screens or the primary iMac monitor turns on and one of the two ASUS monitors turn on but, the system is non-responsive. The only way to get the systme back is a hard shutdown via power button, reboot and everything comes backup without issue. There have been other times when unplugging one of the thunderbolt cables reinitilizing everything but, that is unacceptable to me.

At this point, I'm using the "command, option, eject" to power off the monitors when I'm away from the computer. I've also disable sleep, and hard drive sleep. Tested this configuration last night, and the system was responsive this morning to waking up the monitors. I'm going to continue to test for the next few days and see if this method proves to be realible.

Question, has anyone tired a DVI -> Thunderbolt connection and have had better results? Been thinking about purchasing DVI -> Thunderbolt and see if this fixes the issue, and maybe, this is a HDMI issue only. Know Apple monitors the boards, but figured I'd throw my name in the hat with everyone else. Hope Apple will investigate, and find a solution. However, my research tells me this has been an on-going issue with Thunderbolt for sometime.

well, my test didn't work. still having issues with the monitors waking up when connected to thunderbolt display. However, tired a different approach to this situation. Now when I put the power off the monitors via 'shift control eject; I turn off the 2 ASUS monitors via the power switch, too. Let the computer sit for about 5 hours today and then hit the keyboard and the login screen came up and then proceeded to power on the other two monitors. System didn't lockup, go to black screen, etc. strange observation. Wonder if the issue is a thunderbolt firmware, or OSX related issue.

So I'm back to thinking it's power and only power that's causing this problem.

The issue seemed to go away during a period of time when I stopped using my Microsoft Kinect which I normally have plugged into the same outlet. I'm using it for a project and I took a month off. When I started work again the issue came back. Note, I at the time the Kinect was not attached to my computer's USB port, only plugged in to the same outlet as my computer and display. Currently the Kinect is again unplugged and there is no issue.

Developing...

I have same problem with an Acer display connected to Mac MIni mid 2011 using DVI -> Thunderbolt adapter.

The problem appeared when upgraded to Maverick, never before with Lion. Any time the system goes to sleep the display doesn't wake up.

Thank you for this comment! I have a new retina macbook pro and a dell U2713HM 27" (with a displayport connection). When I connected the macbook pro to the dell via a mini displayport -> displayport cable, the dell would immediately go into power save mode, though the macbook could see the display and believed the two were connected successfully. It connected fine over mini displayport -> dvi and mini displayport -> hdmi, though then I only got 1080p resolution instead of the full 2560x1440.

The fix for me, inspired by your comment, was to unplug my monitor from the surge protector and plug it directly into the wall. Success! The two still connect correctly without sleep issues even though I've now plugged the monitor back into the surge protector again. Thank you so much!

I have the same issue where the Thunderbolt does not wake up the computer (running Mavericks) wakes up. It's annoying.

Thunderbolt Bus:

Vendor Name: Apple Inc.

Device Name: MacBook Pro

UID: 0x0001000A1CF31F40

Firmware Version: 25.1

Domain UUID: 7492A282-3C04-9D59-90FA-71E186E99B4B

Port:

Status: Device connected

Link Status: 0x2

Receptacle: 1

Port Micro Firmware Version: 2.1.3

Cable Firmware Version: 0.1.18

Cable Serial Number: C4M331300E9DNWFAW

Thunderbolt Display:

Vendor Name: Apple Inc.

Device Name: Thunderbolt Display

Vendor ID: 0x1

Device ID: 0x8002

Device Revision: 0x1

UID: 0x00010001009B2710

Route String: 1

Firmware Version: 26.2

Port (Upstream):

Status: Device connected

Link Status: 0x2

Port Micro Firmware Version: 2.0.7

Cable Firmware Version: 0.1.18

Cable Serial Number: C4M331300E9DNWFAW

Port:

Status: No device connected

Link Status: 0x7

Port Micro Firmware Version: 2.0.7

Read my earlier post. I'm 100% convinced it's the power going into the display that's the issue (though Apple really should make it less touchy). Try a new power bar, wall socket, anything. Your problem sounds very similar to what I was experiencing. To fix it I plug the display into a new powerbar (the old one was from the dollar store) AND I moved my Kinect over to a different wall socket. You likely don't have a Kinect but you may have a cheap powerbar or some gadget plugged into the same socket that's messing with the current flow(?) (I'm not an electrision).

I thought that I'd post that I solved my issue by accident. I changed the background image in both my laptop and thunderbolt display and after that the Thunderbolt now wakes up. I can't see why it made a difference but it's working now and I hope it stays that way.

i have been having the same problem for months... just got of the phone with a senior advisor for apple support how said that they are aware of the problem and they suggest that you have the keyboard connected to the laptop not the display via a usb cable... so far it has worked for me... i have a usb keyboard that previously was connected to the display... ( i also have a bluetooth mouse and trackpad) i am curious if this helps anybody else out there...

ps i changed my desktop image before speaking with apple and it didnt help me...