Macbook Pro and Thunderbolt USB problem

That's all well and good for you, but I'm stil having the same problem and more.

Now, in addition to my original problem, if my MBP(2011) goes to sleep while connected to a Thunderbolt Display, when I wake it, only the laptop wakes, and the display and any connected peripherals are as good as disconnected from the MBP. I have to disconnect and reconnect the Thunderbolt connection to get everything back.

Mountain Lion also have this same problem. So upgrading to Mountain Lion will not fix the problem.

Besides not everyone too keen to get the Mountain Lion update. It makes older (one year old) MacBooks run slow. And not everyone is excited about the 5 new features on it. I could not care less about fasebook or twitter. To me Mountain Lion is a minor and useless update.

I've had this issue for almost 6 months now. The first fix, came to let the computer start up completly, and the plug the power, wait 5 seconds, and plug the thunderbolt.

I've upgraded to mountain lion and the issue seems to be fixed, perhaps it wasn't the mountain lion, maybe just reinstalling the OS made the difference.

Yes unplugging the Monitor from the power helps a bit (Lion or Mountain Lion does not matter)

Shutting down the MB before unplugging and starting it back up after plugging also works. (most of the time)

It is the going to sleep while connected to one TB and then waking up while connected to the other TB does not work. This is when all the problems start to happen. (At least in my case)

I have updated my wife's MacBook Air we got her for X-mass in 2011. Not a very old machine at all. Thus we thought that the update to Mountain Lion would fix the problem. Nope. No such luck. The only thing different is that her MB is now running sluggish. But the USB problem remains. Thus we had to factory restore that to Lion.

I am not too keen on updating my MBP to Mountain Lion just yet. Not after the fiasco with the MacBook Air

In any event I hope Apple publishes the update soon. This is very annoying.

ayito21

How is you MB running after the update, do you see any performance problems? How old is your MB? Are you using it just for web and email or do you do something more demanding like software development?

Thanks

My problems were reported previously on this same page. I had hoped that upgrading to Mtn Lion would fix my problem, as some had suggested.

No such luck. Nothing any different for me and this TB display under Mtn Lion....same problems.

Status update.

Took a change with Mountain Lion yesterday with my MBP that I got earlier this year. So it is not that old at all.

Good news is that the Mountain Lion installation went fast and smooth. The MBP did not get any slower, no sluggishness, the MySQL still works, the development environment also works fine and it did not mess with my settings at all.

The only thing the update did mess with is the sleep. But that was cured with a quick SMC reset.

Bad news is that it also did not address the problem with Thunderbolt Display. The problem remains as it was on Lion. Thus all I got for $20 is a new notification bar thingy and a sleeker looking dock.

Apple. If you guys are reading this. We all want that update from you, Lion and Mountain Lion users. Please fix the Thunderbolt bug. We are so spoiled with Apple products working smoothly that this is just too Micro$ofty for our taste. Bad form.

Best wishes.

+1 -- I would throw the monitor out of my window if I hadn't had to take a second mortgage to buy it

Mountain Lion does something nice: It allows you to log in TBD instead of the laptop display. HOWEVER on my machine, even with nothing plugged into USB, it kernel panics every single time and restarts -- this used to be okay on Lion. So now I MUST take the crapshoot of plugging it in after I am fully booted, then plugging in USB devices, and pray that it doesn't freeze the machine.

Maybe I should throw the monitor through the Apple store glass. I'll tell the police I got the idea from their 1984 commercial and wanted to be ironic.

I have a MacBook Air (late 2011, Mountain Lion) that is connected to the TBD. The Apple USB keyboard I’m using is connected to the TBD. I’m runnig in clamshell mode, i.e. when I come into the office in the morning I attach the MagSafe connector and the Thunderbolt connector to the Air (which is usually in sleep mode), click a few times with my magic mouse and the TBD wakes up.

Starting last week (after a clean install of Mountain Lion) the keyboard was occasionally not working after I did the above. This could usually be remedied by un- and then replugging the TBD or – in some cases – after a reboot (with everything connected).

Yesterday, everything worked fine in the morning. Returning from lunch and waking the Mac from sleep the keyboard was not working (the TBD wasn’t recognized as audio output either). And I didn’t get it to work even after trying the various suggestions made on this thread. As I didn’t want to waste any more time I gave up and hoped for an update/fix.

Today I had another look around and found this thread and followed its suggestion to delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist. Now everything works fine again or at least everything I tested: keyboard and audio.

Hope this helps someone!

spirossi wrote:

Today I had another look around and found this thread and followed its suggestion to delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist. Now everything works fine again or at least everything I tested: keyboard and audio.

Hope this helps someone!

@spirossi I did this. That is I removed the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist file and so far so good. 4 days and counting. Pluggin and un plugging my MPB between different thunderbolt displayes so far no problems.

I want to see if this lasts during the next two weeks. And if so we just might have a winner!

Thank you for sharing this with us.

MBP 2012 Mac OSX 10.8

Nope. I spoke too soon. It did not help. Today the problem is back.

****, just when I thought I had won this. ;-)

Anyway, it is still working for me but I’ll keep an eye on it and report back in case it stops. Did you check if that file, /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist, reappeared? I expected it to but it never did.

OK Boys and Girls. Apple released an update for Mountain Lion in which it mentions Thunderbold fixes among other things. Let's see if this has fixed the problem. The Jurry is out for a week or two as far as I am concerned, but maybe - just maybe we got a fix with this update - no?

Will report in 2 weeks... Unless it blows up sooner of cause.

Cheers.

I wanted to provide an update on my particular situation. Having exhausted all my options with the suggestions here, I scheduled an appointment at the Genius Bar and dropped off my Thunderbolt for repair.

They replaced a circuit board and the wires that connect the TBD to my MacBook and returned the display to me. It worked for about a day, then I had the same problems all over again.

I scheduled ANOTHER appointment and visit to the Apple Store -- highly frustrated by now. When I show up, the TBD works 100% perfectly at the Apple store, and they basically tell me there is nothing they can do if they can't reproduce the problem.

I told them I'm not leaving with that TBD and that they can keep it an continue to examine it or give me another one to leave with. They held onto my TBD and did more diagnostics.

I received a phone call a day or two later confirming that they were able to reproduce my problem and that AppleCare had authorized a new TBD for me.

I picked up my new TBD a few days ago, and all is perfect.

I would highly suggest to anyone having problems to go to the Apple store, and be persistent, if you want to get your problem solved. You may also need to make a phone call to Apple Care if the Apple Store does not provide you with a solution.

Good luck, and hope that everyone has as pleasant an outcome as I did.

--Sam