Does the Air need to be powered to drive a TBD?

In addition to the sporadic narcolepsy episodes my 2013 11" MBA is having, it also goes right to sleep if it is connected to a TBD and then I remove the mag-safe. Is that normal? I think maybe the laptop immediately goes to sleep. If i open the lid and log back in while keeping the TB cable plugged in it will come back up when i go back to clamshell mode - but after 15-20 seconds it goes right back to sleep.

This is HUGELY annoying because i keep the air on a stand and need to unplug it to take it down so I can get to the onboard USB port.

Is this normal?

thanks

tbl said:

No worries, this is indeed normal. MacBooks only run in clamshell mode if they're plugged in. Otherwise as you experienced, they just go to sleep.

Click to expand...

i see. so is it good practice to unplug the magsafe before unplugging the tb cable?