Disappointed by the clamshell mode

[Bob Coxner]

OP, do you close the lid of your MBA before plugging it to the power, monitor, etc.? If so, unfortunately, the high temps and high fan speed is normal. At least, for the time being. The last EFI updates seems to have messed up the SMC, which causes the problem you're experiencing. I suggest plugging everything except the power (assuming the lid is closed) and then wake it up by opening the lid. Once the MBA is running, plug the power and close the lid. It's an annoying workaround, but at least the temp and fan won't go crazy.

I suggest sending feedback to Apple here about this issue:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookair.html

I use smcFanControl and it doesn't seem to matter when I plug the power in. Fan speed is the same either way and I don't have a problem in clamshell (except with a cover on).

 

[ZirkMan]

OP, do you close the lid of your MBA before plugging it to the power, monitor, etc.? If so, unfortunately, the high temps and high fan speed is normal. At least, for the time being. The last EFI updates seems to have messed up the SMC, which causes the problem you're experiencing. I suggest plugging everything except the power (assuming the lid is closed) and then wake it up by opening the lid. Once the MBA is running, plug the power and close the lid. It's an annoying workaround, but at least the temp and fan won't go crazy.

I suggest sending feedback to Apple here about this issue:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookair.html

As I have already stated I have tried it second time and the problem vanished. I do not know what happened the first time. So no need to complain after all.
Just the old windows PC approach of how to fix a broken car worked - Get off the car and then back on the car again

 

[MattZani]

I use mine plugged into a 1920x1080 monitor via a 5.1 amp most days and can't hear the fan even when watching youtube videos, although I rarely use flash.

As soon as I open Aperture the fans kick in though

 

[Tide]

You can use the Keyboard Shortcuts section in the Keyboard Preferences Pane to set it to whatever keystroke you like. It's called "Move focus to next window in application" and it's in the "Keyboard and Text Input" section.

That works if you only have 2 windows of the same app open. If you have multiple then it cycles through all of them and does not go back and forth between 2 windows. Using the witch app helps in this regard.

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I'm using a MBA 11 1.8 with a 27" Thunderbolt display.

My fan speeds up to unbearable sound levels at times but I have not figured out the root cause. I use iStat to monitor cpu usage and temps and can not figure out what's causing it. It will get hot with 1% cpu usage at times. I have a feeling it's the video processor even though it does it when I'm not using flash or any video. The pictures screensaver definitely fires it up so I don't use it.

My big disappointment with the clamshell mode though is just getting it to enter clamshell mode. Pretty much any time I disconnect to take my MBA somewhere and then reconnect it will not enter clamshell mode without doing a re-start which really sucks to me.

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[Tinmania]

It is the key to the left of the 1 (one) key on your keyboard. It also has the tilde ( ~ ) character on it. The original character isn't a comma, it's an apostrophe.

Technically it's a grave mark. The apostrophe is to the the left of the return key.



Michael