You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

ejkitchen Author

Level 1

12 points

Macbook Pro and Thunderbolt USB problem

I have read a few threads regarding problems with the Thunderbolt displays and Macbook Airs. None of the suggestions in there work for me including doing an SMC Reset.

Here is my problem. I have a brand new Macbook Pro 17", 2.5Ghz Core i7, 8gb ram, 750Gb HD etc., new Thunderbolt display. Running OS X Lion 10.7.3.

In the back of my display I have plugged in a USB mouse from Logitech, an Apple full size keyboard and my wired ethernet connection. The monitor and peripherals stay at work and I take the Macbook Pro home every night. If I do not follow a certain sequence every morning, my computer freezes. I put the power connector in first, open the lid, wait for the screen on the laptop to show the login prompt, login and then and only then can I plug in my Thunderbolt connector. Once I do this, my second screen lights up and my mouse, keyboard and ethernet connection works. But if I plug in the Thunderbolt first before power up or if I plug it in before logging in, then I have a high probabilty that the USB hub on the back of the monitor will stop working altogether. Then I have to move my mouse and keyboard over to the laptop and everything works great (my ethernet keeps working fine though). My mouse scroll for whatever reason goes into high gear and starts scrolling much faster and I have to slow it down.

Now, this works 90% of the time. But there are days, like today, where this process does not work. And when it doesn't, either I have to move the USB devices over or like today, the machine freezes and no longer responds to any input. It appears to still be working as the screen updates but I can never regain control of it via any keyboard or mouse.

My co-worker has the exact same setup and exact same problem. We also have 10 Thunderbolt displays here (all new) and same problem with ANY I choose. So this is not a hardware issue. Something is wrong with the driver code for some device. And my co-worker has an Apple mouse so that's not the issue either. If this can help Apple with debugging, here is another interesting tid bit. 3 weeks ago, I had a non Thunderbolt display. And for 6 months with an older laptop, I had issues with it's USB hub. Same kind of problem. Some days, the USB hub in the monitor would work and others it would go dead until a reboot was performed.

I think a driver needs some fixing somewhere.

Thanks,

EJK

Posted on Apr 24, 2012 7:03 AM

Top-ranking reply

barme

Level 1

0 points

Posted on Apr 25, 2012 6:19 AM

I have been facing a similar problem that was solved by deactivating Airport and disconnecting and reconnecting the thunderbolt cable on the MacBook Pro.

View in context

173 replies

Jul 16, 2013 7:11 PM in response to MichaloM

Seems to be good here now, been almost a week and the problem hasn't occurred yet - I did also unplug it and leave it unplugged for a day.

nspindel

Level 1

0 points

Jul 26, 2013 5:08 AM in response to ejkitchen

Ok, I thought all you people were nuts for suggesting that adding the extension cable onto the Apple keyboard would sort this problem out. I've been having the issue with the Thunderbolt Display not seeing the keyboard for quite some time. Put the extension cable on, and haven't had the problem since. It's been over a month. I'm scratching my head over this one, but I can't argue the fact that it works. Convenient that the extension cable comes included with the keyboard. Nice work figuring that one out!

Aug 2, 2013 6:42 AM in response to nspindel

New (less than a month) MacBook Air (2013) and Thunderbolt Display setup with wireless Magic Mouse and Apple USB keyboard (with numpad), here. Was seeing the same issue of the keyboard not responding when I would connect the Air after being away overnight.

After reading this thread I said "why not" and tried the USB extension cable. It looks like it fixed the problem for me too.

This seems like it doesn't make sense until you think about how a USB device wakes up from low power mode ... resistance. It looks like either the keyboard or display don't have enough resistance on the connection; adding the USB extension cable adds enough resistance to get it to respond every time.

It might just be the combination of the display and the keyboard both being borderline, or a bad batch of one or the other. Either way, glad its working properlly now. 🙂

iGodric

Level 1

8 points

Sep 3, 2013 1:12 AM in response to rps_maine

I have a new Thunderbolt Display from 2013 and an Wacom Intuos 5, the wacom tablet won't work on the Thunderbolt Display USB hub when using the wireless kit. The normal USB cable worked fine. On my MacBook Pro it worked instantly with cable or the wifi kit.

Then tried the extension cable from apple, now everything works. Even if I put the extension cable and the receiver under the table, so the distance to the receiver can't be the problem. Tried it with other USB extensions, which are shorter, but that didn't work. Only cables that are long enough worked, so it could really be the resistance.

It would be cool to have a shorter cable, but that is just asthetics 😉.

Sep 10, 2013 7:54 AM in response to ejkitchen

I have 2 Thunderbolt Displays connected on a 2013 Macbook 15 Retina. On the back of display 1 I have apple keyboard and wacom intuous5 connected.

The problem of the TD not recognizing my usb devices has happened to me for the last 8 months on and off and I could never figure out what made it happen, and fixing it was usually a disconnect - reconnect or reboot, but just this morning it wouldn't recognize my keyboard or wacom despite multiple reboots, disconnecting - reconnecting, switching display order, swapping keyboards etc. I even added the usb extension to no avail. What did work was something I thought I should share because this is such a weird problem.

1. Unplug power/charge cable and TD all in one cable (one with lightning bolt) from macbook.

2. wait for macbook display to refresh to single display.

3. plug in TD all in one cable (one with lightning bolt) first and wait for all displays to refresh.

4. plug in power/charge cable to macbook.

Everything was immediately recognized after step 3. It all seems to be some voodoo and I have no idea why that worked but it sure beat calling into apple for an hour or lugging everything to apple store, which I was about to do.

Sep 10, 2013 8:04 AM in response to zachary.hall

I'm still having the issue. I have a self-servicing account with Apple, so I've been replacing the all-in-one cable (the internal thunderbolt/power cable, part #922-9941) and the issue seems to go away at that point.

I've got about 70 displays here, and currently running about 10% of them with this issue. too many.

Sep 10, 2013 8:05 AM in response to zachary.hall

I too have dual 27" t-bolt displays and a 15" retina, after replacing the internal cables on the t-bolt displays, the issue hasn't been back. might want to just take them in for service.

Sep 10, 2013 9:36 AM in response to ejkitchen

wow, and yet another one. user complaining that they can't get their email, go upstairs to look and i find that they have no ethernet, no anything (running through display ethernet) - i disconnect the display to re-connect it, and the computer basically shut off/wouldn't wake, had to force it off and on. once it restarted, i had enet again, but keyboard wasn't working. had to unplug and re-connect the USB keyboard too. i've got another cable in stock.... might have to replace it. 70 new cables? seriously?

weelo78

Level 1

0 points

Oct 13, 2013 9:18 AM in response to MichaloM

MichaloM, you just saved (spared?) a lot of my nerves! THANKS A LOT FOR THIS TRICK!

I've been looking for a solution from day 1 with my at-that-time-new mid-2012 MBP and mid-2012 TBD and this is 1.5 year ago!!!

I was getting really angry because if you pay so much for good stuff and it ends up not working as it should, this really drives me nuts... What's the use of a TBD with its function as a hub if it doesn't work?

Now I find this trick really strange, but the main thing is that it works! THANKS again for sharing!

Kindest regards,

Weelo

Nov 14, 2013 1:16 PM in response to ejkitchen

LOL. I took my Thunderbolt Display (TBD) to the Apple store, thinking it would act the same as it did at the office. Of course, everything seemed to be working at the time, guy totally gave me attitude. I get back to the office, same flaky behavior as before. Here's my setup:

TBD, bought early '13

15" Mackbook Pro (MBP) Retina 10.1, bought early '13

2TB Thunerbolt HD for Time Machine b/u, Apple purchased 6' Thunderbolt (TB) cable

Apple USB Keyboard, with extension, plugged into TBD

3d Connectexion USB Travel Mouse, plugged into TBD

Apple Wireless Mouse, straight to MBP

When everything's working, it's working sweetly. Getting to that point is sometimes annoying. I sometimes find power cycling the TBD before plugging MBP in does the trick. The USB extension between keyboard and TBD fixed the keyboard issue, and has helped others (what's up with that?).

The external Tunderbold HD is sometimes recognized.

The 3D USB mouse is sometimes recognized.

Ethernet, conencted through TBD, takes a while but eventually wakes on it's own.

Yes, everything will work first time if plugged directly into the MBP, but I bought the TBD to be my display/docking station. The whole point is one power and TB cable is all you need for connectivity and you're off to the races. When will Apple admit there's an issue and fix it?

MichaloM

Level 1

5 points

Nov 14, 2013 11:02 PM in response to magik_bus

Hey, you should definitely go to Apple and don't take "no" for an answer.

Except for the famous keyboard issue, my TBD is working smoothly. I have

- Ethernet

- Belkin 7 port USB HUB (usually with some flash drive plugged in)

- iPhone

- Superdrive

connected all the time and they all work perfectly.

I had an external HDD connected (it was Icy Box Docking Station to be precise) and it worked great as well. No sudden HDD behaviour like ejections or the drive not being recognized. I bought a bigger drive since and connected it to Time Capsule to share via the home network.

Nevertheless I would advise you to go to Apple and make them run some diagnostics at least. It's not normal for a ($1000) display to "sometimes work". I had a $300 Dell display previously and it worked flawlessly.

PS. The thing with Apple keyboard not working is... embarassing honestly. I would imagine Apple had done something already. Don't know if they did - they didn't admit anything, so I'm keeping my extension cable for now:)

Jan 8, 2014 2:18 PM in response to zachary.hall

I really have to thank you for this. The USB ports stopped working. I called Apple Care and they told me to bring it to the Genius Bar at Apple Store. This didn't sound appealing so I found this thread and your suggestion. Call it voodoo but it works. Amazing...

Jan 9, 2014 2:55 PM in response to impossibletopickausernameonhere

I'm in the same boat... Two brand new TB displays and exactly the same problem.

The whole point of buying them is so I don't have to fiddle about with cables the whole time. I think next time I might buy DELL!

Jan 31, 2014 4:19 AM in response to ejkitchen

I had the exact same issue with my setup: an MBP Retina mid 201, a Thunderbolt monitor, and a wired Apple keyboard. A few days ago, my keyboard which was connected through the TB stopped working completely a couple of days after introducing a HP wireless mouse. I tried to use the keyboard on two PC computers, and it did NOT work. So, I thought it was the keyboard that was having isssues. I started researching on this issue, and stumbled upon this post. And, one of the gentleman here suggested using a powered USB hub. I wanted to get a powered one, but the only shop that was open 7AM was Walmart only carried an USB-powered Targus 4-port USB 2.0 Hub. And, BAM! That did the trick. None of the tricks (i.e. different boot up sequences) worked for me. But, using the USB hub fixed it!

So, get yourself a USB hub or (maybe) even a USB extension cord, if you are having this issue. Perhaps, Apple will fix this dumb issue.

Jan 31, 2014 4:21 AM in response to ejkitchen

I have a MBP retina with Mountain Lion and have this issue. The only way to solve this issue was to use a USB hub to connect the Apple keyboard and the Thunderbold monitor.

Macbook Pro and Thunderbolt USB problem