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Do you have to use a power cable when connecting to an external display?
- Thread starter Hieveryone
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Nope, but you'll run your battery down faster than if you were justing running the internal display.
I'm not able to get my MBPr awake from sleep until I plug in the cable. I have full battery.
If you want to close the lid and only run off the external display, that is called clamshell mode.
And yes, for that to happen, you must be plugged into a power source.
I should mention, in my experience 'clamshell mode' has a fairly detrimental effect on the cooling abilities of the MacBook - it definitely seems to run a fair bit hotter in my experience like this, which may damage the screen and other components.