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Clamshell mode with screen up a thing of the past?

L

linkandzelda

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 8, 2010
189
0
I have just installed DP4 and have noticed something.
When I was running Snow I used to close the lid of my machine to sleep it. Then plug in the power and the screen and press a key on the keyboard. This would wake it up in clamshell mode and the main and only screen would be the external.

Then I was able to open the lid of the MBA and it would stay black. I need to do this to receive the correct amount of signal for my wifi or i get 1-0 bars.

In DP4 the waking part works fine, but the opening the lid after does not work it will display the contents of the screen making it my main desktop and the external as a second one. For now i've made the external the main display, but I would prefer if the screen was turned off, black and not in use at all.

Is this possible, does anyone know?
Thanks in advance,
Kris
 
Greetings---

Actually, I have a very similar problem.

I had cracked the screen on my Macbook some time ago and have since been using an external monitor to counteract the screen fatality (it appears cracked in the middle and is highlighted by unintelligible black and white splotches all across the display) and has worked ok until the GM OSX Lion installation.

On SL, she would go into clamshell mode when the lid was closed - then I would click my mouse and voila the external monitor would come to life, and I could open the lid on the MB and it's screen would stay asleep.

Alas, this is no more. Now, when I open the screen after entering clamshell mode - it turns back on and becomes the main display and affects the resolution of the external monitor. I could leave the lid closed of course - but I want access to the track pad and to the keyboard. I could mirror the main display unto the external monitor - but resolution specs become unbearable. 1900 x 600.

This kid on youtube posted something related - after watching this I realized that this problem may be related to a new feature that Lion has introduced - but it also appears to adversely affect my set-up which sucks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HqH-7F6m08&feature=player_embedded

Is there a work-around for this? Is there a way to fix this? Do you think that Apple will have some kind of update to fix this problem in the official OS X Lion release? :confused:

Please share your thoughts, ideas, workarounds, etc. regarding this issue...
 
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Ditto to both of your concerns. I have the same issue and haven't been able to find a workaround. I run my 15" unibody MBP on my external monitor, and my main concern is heat when the laptop is closed. Watching a 1080P video on YouTube as a test, my closed laptop was at 78°C with fans running at 5000 RPM, and when I opened the laptop it didn't take long to go down to 65°C and 3500 RPM. Games are significantly worse.

I hope Apple creates a fix for this soon. It would be nice to have a button similar to the one that deselects upside-down scrolling as the default.
 
I hope there is a workaround for this. . .

EDIT: Apparently, a program called SwitchResX will allow you to selectively 'disable' the MacBook display so that you can theoretically achieve the same 'open clamshell' mode.
 
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Same here :(
Command+F1 (decrease brightness) doesn't work either. It's either Mirroring or extended Display, but no option to output the signal solely to an external Monitor (unless of course you close the MBP's lid).
 
benj07 said:
I hope there is a workaround for this. . .

EDIT: Apparently, a program called SwitchResX will allow you to selectively 'disable' the MacBook display so that you can theoretically achieve the same 'open clamshell' mode.
Click to expand...

After some testing, it works for me.

Make sure both Screens are on. Create a Display-Set and chose to deactivate the LCD of our Macbook.

You see the blue screen for a second and the LCD of our macbook is off. But you can still control the brightness of the Apple logo.

Done nothing else.
 
ElHummer said:
After some testing, it works for me.

Make sure both Screens are on. Create a Display-Set and chose to deactivate the LCD of our Macbook.

You see the blue screen for a second and the LCD of our macbook is off. But you can still control the brightness of the Apple logo.

Done nothing else.
Click to expand...

Is this using SwitchResX?
 
Ok, SwitchResX worked for me. Only difference with my old set-up, the Apple on the back of the display is now on. Think I can live with that.

I'll try it for a few days and if all goes well I'll buy it. :)
 
I was playing around with a few games today and it appears that, in most cases where you are running a full screen game, the screen can be opened AFTER you start the game, and it will stay turned off.

I just tried this with Starcraft 2, and it seems to allow me to vent the computer while keeping only one display on (for max graphics performance).

Additionally, if you're watching a full screen video (QuickTime, etc.) it does activate the notebook display, but it stays black so that the screen doesn't distract you.
 
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