Thunderbolt Display USB ports screwey?

Have you tried to reset the TB display? Unplug from the wall. Wait at least 30s then connect your MBP to display. Plug display back into wall, power up MBP and see what happens. This process can reset the settings. Also, are you running V1.2 firmware on display?. If that does not work remove all items connected to USB port except the keyboard and see what happens. I've had issues with external drives casuing boot up issues. It is also possible that at startup the keyboard is drawing mor amps than the USB port can provide (not sure why this would start doing all of a sudden).

You probably have the latest TB firmware however if you click on the Apple logo at top left of screen, then software update it will scan your system and if your TB display needs updating it will let you know.

Was anyone able to find anything out? I too am having this issue.

After I left you a message here, I found another forum post (link below) that looks similar to this problem and a few people over there indicated that Apple had to replace their display or they were able to work around it using another Thunderbolt cable.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1372018

exact same issue here. In fact I know several people with the same issue. Only fix I have heard of is return it to Apple for a new one.

I have a small office and have bought at least 7 displays, 4 thunderbolt and 3 display port.

We also have about 10 apple usb keyboards and we are a 100% apple environment (macbooks etc).

I have never seen such a dodgy combination than macbook retinas mixed with apple displays and apple usb keyboards. Every single day when we come into the office, at least one of us has to waste 10 minutes unplugging and re-plugging our usb keyboard in just to get it to detect.

At my house, this is the same, no matter whether it is thunderbolt or display port, or which usb keyboard we try. We try different usb ports (both on the macbook retina itself and the display port usb ports), which would indicate that the display is fine and there's a problem with the usb device or the macbooks, but when you unplug the display and just hook the keyboard directly up to the macbook, it works without fail every single time.

I am 1000% convinced that this is not a 'bad batch' of hardware we have bought, as they were all bought at different times from different apple stores. It's a problem with all Apple displays that gets triggered somehow. Other usb devices all seem to detect and work just fine (probably because they aren't apple devices). If we daisy chain other devices into the keyboard, they decrease the chances of the keyboard working, which *may* indicate power problems.

We have consistently updated the displays and all system software. We are developers and not new to hardware, computers, apple operating systems, etc.

It's infuriating, because the displays are fantastic once they work. And we all prefer the apple keyboards to any other. I am convinced the blame lies completely with Apple on this, and it's such a basic problem that costs us money every single day because of poor quality control.

The weird illusion that people have that Apple produce high quality products that 'just work' is just plain wrong. They are fantastic when they work, but you have to make sure they do and there's a 50/50 chance you've bought a dud with anything they release.

RESOLVED: Adding an Apple USB extension resolved this for me. This was mentioned in a previous post. The caveat is that I cannot use the USB keyboard to wake the my MBP w/thunderbolt only the bluetooth mouse.

Assuming the reason is it tipped me over the line for spending enough money to get this feature... 😉 j/k

@ghotiing -- So glad you figured this out and indicated it was "resolved." Almost as glad as if you had actually shared the solution with the rest of us who are struggling with this.

Seriously @Jeff Strobel, adding an apple USB extension cable is what resolved this for me, not sure if you are just trolling or thought I was kidding, but everything worked for me when I added an apple USB extension between my TBD and USB keyboard with caveat that it still won't wake it up, but bluetooth mouse does that

Thanks @ghotiing. The difference between your reply to me and your previous message is the word "cable." An extension is typically a piece of software, and for the life of me I couldn't find any Apple USB extension software in my searches. My apologies for the misunderstanding. Nobody in this support area is just trolling. We're all dealing with a defective piece of expensive Apple hardware.

No worries, apologies for not being clear and agreed. I was annoyed enough I actually tried this. Fallacy of sunk cost I guess.

I've been having the exact same issues with my Thunderbolt display and my Mac Air. This solution has been working for me, hopefully it will for you as well:

I put a power strip with an on/off switch between the Thunderbolt display and the outlet. Before I leave my office, I power down the Mac Air, disconnect it from the Thurnderbolt and then power down the display via the power strip.

When I come back in the morning, I hook the Mac Air up to the Thunderbolt, both items still powered down. I turn on the power to the display and then power up the computer.

Everything works, keyboards, usb devices, external hard drives ,etc. I've yet to have the same problems from before.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, greycatlost. We brought the monitor back to Apple and exchanged it for a new one. They acknowledged the issue, and it apparently is a hardware problem in Thunderbolt monitors. They have no fix for it. The new monitor does the same thing (they said it probably would). Updating to Mavericks made no difference as well.