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Issues with clamshell mode since 10.7.2 Sept update

M

mixvio

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 12, 2009
388
0
Sydney, Australia
I was hoping that 10.7.3 would finally fix it, but alas.

Since the last OS X update I've had issues using my 11" 2011 MacBook Air with an external monitor. Primarily they revolve around clamshell mode and using only an external display instead of display mirroring or extension. Prior to 10.7.2 if you closed the lid with an external display connected the screen would flash blue and the computer would output solely to the external display. You could also wake the machine from sleep if it was closed but connected to another monitor, and in the same case only the external display would output.

Since the update (and its accompanying GPU driver update) the only way I can solely use the external display is if I reboot or power on the machine with the lid closed. This is obviously a pain, especially if I'm just waking from sleep, and I'd love to figure out a way to restore previous functionality.

I have a late 2010 15" MacBook Pro and I've confirmed that with its ATI card this problem does not exist (I can get into clamshell mode by closing the screen or waking from sleep fine) but that's likely down to the different graphics card.

Any solutions? I've googled and found a variety of similar issues going back way before the September update but nothing that seems spot on.
 
not sure if maybe you've changed a setting or what not.

haven't tried it in 10.7.3 that came out last night
But 10.7.2 for me behaved in very much the way you described at first. I could even plug everything in while it was closed, then press the power button on my keyboard to resume from sleep. Never having to open the MBA at all.
 
I think you missed what my problem was. The only way to access the keyboard's power button is if the machine is open, which isn't the issue. It's outputting the screen to only the external monitor, not both.
 
yes, I guess i didnt clarify.

the external keyboard I use has a power button on it. Pressing that brings the MBA awake from sleep without any problems in 10.7.2 while in clamshell mode, allowing me to use my external monitor only
 
I didn't change anything between updating from 10.7.1 to 10.7.2, but the inability to properly use clamshell mode happened immediately afterward. I don't even think there's a specific setting that handles this in the first place, though I'd love to find it!

I have a bluetooth keyboard but have other devices plugged in via USB. Waking the laptop with these while the screen is closed doesn't do anything except wake the external monitor and turn on the laptop's backlight. After a minute or so the machine goes back to sleep.

ETA: To specify, it's the 11" 2011 MacBook Air with the 1.8 GHz i7 processor and 4 gigs of RAM.
 
Ugh, that's disheartening. I don't remember it happening prior to 10.7.2, but I could have the timeframe wrong.

I was really hoping there was a fix, it's an extremely obnoxious problem.
 
so the big difference is you're usinga bluetooth keyboard.

I wonder if there's a bug with waking from sleep while using a bluetooth keyboard.

I dont have one to test myself. And I honestly can't remember if i've ever woken the computer with the bluetooh mouse I have.
 
My mouse is USB, so I honestly don't see this making any difference. I have an Apple USB keyboard though that I will test just to eliminate all possibilities.
 
It's something related to after the machine has slept. If I reboot with the laptop screen open, I can close it and open it as many times as I like and clamshell mode kicks in as it's supposed to under Lion. The moment I sleep the machine and wake it, or attempt to wake it with the screen closed, both monitors are always active and the internal display won't turn off.
 
All right, I have an update. I went to play WoW on my Air for the first time in forever and was frowning because I wasn't able to get more than 20 FPS on even the very lowest settings — in the past I was able to pull a solid 60 under "Good," so this really ticked me off. After googling around I found a few references to people having poor GPU performance with, again, DisplayLink drivers installed even when they weren't doing anything that used them.

I was certain that I didn't have anything from DisplayLink on my computer but just to exhaust all possibilities I searched for directions on how to completely remove them and found this response from a DisplayLink employee:

http://www.displaylink.org/forum/showpost.php?p=4228&postcount=2

I'm not sure the uninstaller caused the issue, anyway if you want to manually remove the driver you must remove the /System/LibraryExtensions/DisplayLinkDriver.kext (you need to login in as root) and remove the following files: /Library/LaunchDeamons/com.displaylink.usblistener and /Library/LaunchAgents/com.displaylink.useragent.plist. In order to rebuild the kernel extension cache run the following command:
touch /System/Library/Extensions
Click to expand...

I looked in those folders and sure enough, all three of them were on my system. I deleted them and ran the terminal command, rebooted and pulled WoW up: same "Good" settings as before and suddenly I was back to 60 FPS!

On a whim I figured I would test my other issue: knowing that clamshell mode at least for me worked fine following a reboot just as long as I didn't put the machine into sleep mode, I slept it, unplugged it from power, twiddled my fingers before turning it back on and closing the screen and... much to my shock, I got the rarely-seen blue screen flash and suddenly just the external monitor was outputting. The internal one was off. I was stunned. I spent 20 minutes attempting every possible permutation I could think of but without fail clamshell mode worked as it should under Lion — I could close the lid, I could wake it from sleep, I could lift the lid and close it again, etc. It always worked.

I will report back if anything changes but in the past it never failed that the first time I put the Air to sleep, clamshell mode stopped working until I did a reboot. I'm really, really, really hopeful that this fixes the problem completely because this has been driving me crazy since last year. If the bug returns I will come back and bump this, but for anyone else who's still having problems I'd suggest using the manual uninstall instructions I linked above. I have no clue how anything from DisplayLink got on my computer (the only guess I have is perhaps AirDisplay uses their drivers to some extent?) but for me so far that seems to have totally fixed the problem.
 
The only other thing I can think of is that I decided to run the 10.7.3 combo update on top of the 10.7.3 delta install from Software Update because apparently people were having trouble with it (I didn't, but I didn't want to get sidelined with a problem later and the combo updater seemed to be the solution to the problem). But as far as I can tell the problem is gone. I've opened and closed the lid maybe fifty times now and slept it twenty and it still works.
 
mixvio said:
But as far as I can tell the problem is gone. I've opened and closed the lid maybe fifty times now and slept it twenty and it still works.
Click to expand...


Weird logic coming from years of IT experience suggests I should install those infamous DisplayLink drivers, then get rid of them ;)

… and I did. No improvement on waking from sleep but I just noticed that when I open/close the lid the displays are detected correctly. If sleep is involved at any time, it begins to se two displays at all times, regardless of the lid being closed/open.
 
Last edited:
I updated to 10.7.3 and this problem seems to still exist for me. The internal display always turns on when I wake the computer up from sleep via bluetooth keyboard/trackpad...

I did have a DisplayLink USB->VGA adapter and removed all of the drivers, restarted, and I still seem to have the issue...
 
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