I am still trying to figure out how to be able to predict what result I'm going to get when going from external display (30") to laptop, shared, etc. Every time I think I've got a handle on it, then it does something bizarre again.
So now I've figured out that I can run it in clamshell with external only... leaving it that way once its booted I can wake it by hitting a key on my external keyboard most of the time. Where I'm having trouble is going back and forth.
Yesterday I accidentally ended up with it using both displays so just went with it and somewhat liked it... but not for all the time. Last night when I was done, I put it to sleep and closed the lid. This morning, when I started up again I only had external display... so again I went with it. I'm flexible.
So this afternoon I tried an experiment. I have this display control icon in my menu bar... not sure where it came from. I opened my MBP lid and tried to get it to turn that display back on. Using the menu bar tool, I did a detect displays and sure enough the laptop display came on... then disappeared. I tried it a few times with similar results and discovered that the display was actually on... just had the brightness turned all the way to zero. So using the preference accessed from the menu bar Display tool I turned it back up. Tried this a few times and it always does the same thing. When I do a detect displays, it sees them both and turns on the laptop display, then immediately sets the brightness to zero. I'm going to guess that this is a feature and there is no way to tell it not to do this.
This whole display handling is my biggest problem with the MBP...otherwise I love it. I really want to be able to predict what is going to happen when I do something with my displays.
So now I've figured out that I can run it in clamshell with external only... leaving it that way once its booted I can wake it by hitting a key on my external keyboard most of the time. Where I'm having trouble is going back and forth.
Yesterday I accidentally ended up with it using both displays so just went with it and somewhat liked it... but not for all the time. Last night when I was done, I put it to sleep and closed the lid. This morning, when I started up again I only had external display... so again I went with it. I'm flexible.
So this afternoon I tried an experiment. I have this display control icon in my menu bar... not sure where it came from. I opened my MBP lid and tried to get it to turn that display back on. Using the menu bar tool, I did a detect displays and sure enough the laptop display came on... then disappeared. I tried it a few times with similar results and discovered that the display was actually on... just had the brightness turned all the way to zero. So using the preference accessed from the menu bar Display tool I turned it back up. Tried this a few times and it always does the same thing. When I do a detect displays, it sees them both and turns on the laptop display, then immediately sets the brightness to zero. I'm going to guess that this is a feature and there is no way to tell it not to do this.
This whole display handling is my biggest problem with the MBP...otherwise I love it. I really want to be able to predict what is going to happen when I do something with my displays.