External Display won't go to sleep. Goes in sleep/wakeup loop

Yes, same problem here on Macbook Pro 2011 with Lion. Hook up Mini port to Thunderbolt port with DVI adaptor and yes the MBP screen goes to sleep but not the external monitor. Must be a communication problem between the adaptor and Thunderbolt? Another miss guided technology that really does not work well.

Same issue h

Here with a MacBook Pro Mid 2011 with Mountain Lion. Everyting worked smoothly until I switched to Mountain Lion. Now the external Cinema HD display never goes to sleep though the MacBook's monitor does. When the MacBook is in clamshell mode the Cinema Display goes blank, but the backlight is still on...

I'm having the same problem.

Setup:

15" MacBookPro Retina with Mountain Lion

27" Apple LED Display (Mini-Displayport version, not Thunderbolt)

27" Dell U2711 Monitor (connected via a Mini-Displayport -> Displayport cable)

When the laptop's screen goes to sleep, the Apple 27" display also sleeps but the Dell does not. The MBR seems to still be sending a signal across to the Dell because the Dell stays on and backlit but just shows black.

Very annoying. So... Now I always make sure to make my MBP go to sleep using a hot corner and then turn off the Dell. And then I always need to remember to turn the Dell back on before before authenticating back into the MBP to make sure it doesn't screw upp the position of all my windows. Eh...

I know this is very first world problemy, but it still is incredibly annoying/frustrating. : (

I'm having a similar issue.

My setup is as follows:

27" Apple LED Display (Mini-Displayport version, not Thunderbolt)

13" Mid-2011 MacBook Air, 1.8 GHz i7

OSX 10.8.2

These two items connected in clamshell mode.

The problem that occurs is that sometimes (but not consistently) the external display will not go to sleep. I'll come into the office in the morning and it is at full brightness.

If I reboot my machine, the external display will properly sleep for a few connect-disconnect cycles before this happens again.

Have you found a solution to this? I have the same problem, where the external display goes to sleep, then immediately wakes up, then goes to sleep, etc.

I'm using a MacBook Pro 2012 (non-Retina), with a HP w2408h display, connected with a mini-DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter and HDMI cable. I've tried a different cable, and had the same issue.

The other people who replied to this thread seem to be having a slightly different issue, where the display goes black but doesn't sleep. I don't know if that's related, but I'm specifically talking about the issue where the display quickly cycles between sleep and wake.

One thing I've noticed is that I'm getting a lot of this message in the console:

kernel[0]: AppleUSBMultitouchDriver::_deviceGetReport - DeviceRequest for reportID 0x0 returned with result 0xe000404f - retrying

So maybe some kind of USB activity is waking it up?

Has anyone found a solution to this problem?

I have the same external monitor as the person that originally posted this issue (the HP 2311x); however, I have the same problem (as with the mac) with my Dell Latitude e4300.

HP 'biz-support' and HP support forums offer no solutions, though there were at least two other (Windows) users that had this problem, based on old support forum threads.

Try this:

When you put your Mac to sleep, wait for the external monitor to show "no signal" or go black. Then switch the monitor off.

Then, before you wake up your Mac, switch the monitor back on, then wake up your Mac. This is clearly some sort of Apple Thunderbolt/DisplayPort problem. I have seen this problem occurring with Apple's own Thunderbolt-to-DVI adaptor as well.

There are at least 20 threads in here with similar Thunderbolt/DisplayPort problems.

Apple had sent out firmware updates in September which fixed my issue where my macbook pro 15" mid-2012 would not sleep when thunderbolt was being used for an addiional display under Mountain Lion. Since upgrading to Mavericks, the issue is back. I tried running the 3 firmward patches again (SMC, Thunderbolt, EFI), but the EFI now says:

This version of the MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update is for use with specific computer models only and will not run on this computer.

The other two say they are not supported on my system...I assume that's because they were already run...but the message is misleading...

Hopefully someone that still has support will complain and a fix will come out...

The computer sleeps fine without the display hooked up. Booted into another bare bones account and under safe mode and it won't sleep with the display attached...just after it started working correctly...bummer...

Anyone checked the sharing in system prefes/sharing to see if screen sharing is checked?

Screen Sharing is not on for me.

I have a DGM IPS-2402WDH 24" LCD Widescreen Professional Monitor connected to iMac via Thunderbolt to DVI adaptor cable. My problem (again) is twofold:

1. Sleep: If the DGM monitor is on, both screens go to sleep, but my external USB3 hard disk spins down and up all night; not good. The Console logs show constant activity all night. The disk is connected directly to USB3 port on the back of the iMac, NOT through Thunderbolt.

If I power-down the second monitor after I "Sleep" my system, all is well. Console logs show system deep sleep and no activity or disk spin up as long as the 2nd monitor is off.

2. Wake: If I turn on my 2nd monitor then within 2 seconds, hit spacebar (etc) on the iMac to wake it up, all usually goes well. Sometimes the Login screen appears then disappears, but I found if it disappears you can still type your password into the system and get to the desktop.

About one in 50 wakeups, the 2nd monitor shows noise/show. Sleeping again then waking up sometimes fixes this, sometimes you have to reboot the iMac.

There are other configurations that do not work right. Personally, I think the drivers for Thunderbolt do not understand the DGM monitor wakeup cycle and timing, and things get screwed up. During sleep if the DGM monitor is on, the iMac cannot tell if it's asleep so continues to try to wake it up or some such.

I have reported all of this to Apple extensively under 10.8.5 and Mavericks.

Sounds like some clamshell thing.

Mr. Donelson,

Pressing the power button on my HP LP2475W after selecting sleep and after the monitor indicates it was going to sleep allows my macbook pro to stay asleep. So I will use this workaround until Apple provides another fix.

Thank you!!!

It does take a while to wake from sleep, but I can live with 10 seconds while it reconnects with the external monitor on wake and figures out which monitor is in charge...it's just a shame that it was working great prior to the Mavericks upgrade...strange too...you would think the firmware updates would stick...unless they are interfacing with some OS code...anyway...

You have both the monitor and the Thunderbolt-to-DVI to interact with here.

It's a bit of a hassle, but worth it to get deep sleep.

Also, if you time the wakeup of your Mac right, just before or after turning on your 2nd monitor, then the floating palettes etc of the 2nd monitor should stay in place. If you get the timiming wrong, they will move to the main screen or to weird places, e.g. Photoshop etc