Not waking up with external display in closed clamshell mode.

Hello all!
I have the newest Macbook (late 2009), and have had it docked in a BookArc using an external display, keyboard and mouse. Everything has been working perfectly since I got it a couple months ago. I've traveled with the Macbook and redocked it at home a few times. This morning, I woke the computer and the display lit up as usual. A moment later, the display went black, said no signal and the power light went yellow (it's blue when operating). I hit the keyboard and clicked the mouse to wake it again to no avail. Took the Macbook out of the stand, opened the display and it works perfectly. Checked my energy saver settings, fine. Closed the clamshell, redocked, wont wake/start the external display. Took it out of the dock again, everything is fine, rebooted. Docked again, no wakey. I'm using it now as a normal laptop typing this. Any ideas as to suddenly why it wont wake/work with the external display? Thanks!

Last week I bought an Acer X223W 22 inch display for my MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009) – Model A1342 Polycarbonate Unibody and an Apple Keyboard MB110LL/A - Also using a Apple wireless Magic Mouse but not a BookArc. ( Just leaving on the desk next to the Acer display )
I've found that you have to have the MacBook connected to the AC Power Supply to keep the MacBook awake when trying to use an external display. It's kinda a pain sometimes, I usually boot up my MacBook before connecting the Display and Keyboard then once I'm logged in......
and Once everything is loaded I plug in the Keyboard first then The Display adapter cable, Close the MacBook up then Click/Move the Magic Mouse ( System Preferences settings - Bluetooth ( Advanced: Allow Bluetooth Devices To Wake This Computer - checked ) Energy Saver AC and Battery set to 3 hours ( All other settings Unchecked )
Sometimes takes a few clicks before the Desktop appears on the external display, Now once its on I can open the MacBook ( just enough to help keep it running cooler ) and unplug the AC Adapter unless it needs charging.

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Can no longer use an external display in closed clamshell mode

Hi,
I have this weird problem that just started couple days ago.
I own a MacBook Pro Early 2011 since March.
It's always hooked up to an external display and the MacBook Pro's LCD is turned off (closed clamshell mode).
Lately, if the MacBook Pro's LCD is turned off, the external display won't show anything.
But as soon as I open the lid, the external display will then mirror the MacBook Pro LCD.
If I close back the lid, the external display will get blank.
I also tried to change the display settings with no luck.
In other words, I can no longer use my external display with the MacBook Pro in closed clamshell mode.
I'm wondering if someone experienced this problem before. Thanks for help.

Hello sebastieng
Open both, your MBP connected to the external screen. Open Preferences click here on "Displays" and then make the external Window to the main window by dragging the bar (line?) on top of the laptop window to the external window, which makes the second window the main window.
If this does not help you may read this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3131
Hope this helps
marek

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This worked for me until today. Now the display just goes off on my external monitor if I close the lid of my macbook. It doesnt re-appear as it says in the article. MacOS X 10.7.5

Congratulations on taking one more step in becoming more self sufficient in tech stuff.
But I have to wonder why you spent so much on a Retina display only to have it cooking uselessly there.

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No matter how much I punch the keyboard nothing happens.
By the way, when I am running in closed lid mode I have disabled mirror.

Think I found a solution.
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Congratulations on taking one more step in becoming more self sufficient in tech stuff.
But I have to wonder why you spent so much on a Retina display only to have it cooking uselessly there.

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Macbook Pro 2.8 GHz Intel i7, 16GB DDR3 RAM, OS X 10.9.3
So, I am running a macbook pro with an external HD display through the HDMI out on the computer, and the comptuer itself running in closed clamshell mode. Sometimes when the display sleeps I can not wake it up again, to the extent that I have to unplug everything and do a hard reset of my macbook. If music is playing it begins to skip. The display attempts to turn back on but then the screen goes blank. This seems to only happen when the display sleeps, not the computer itself.
I was just wondering if a) Anyone else was having this problem and b) if Apple were aware of it?
I have done my research and I use closed clamshell mode properly (Restart my comptuer when plugging in to the monitor, sleep before disconnecting etc.) and so far I have not lost any data, however I am concerned that having to manually restart my computer 3-4 times a week may at some point severely affect a document I am working on, particularly with Apple's latest software such as Mavericks and Logic X seemingly being so volatile at the moment.
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Hello bambambam8am,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
What troubleshooting have you done so far? Have you reset the SMC and PRAM? If not, follow the articles below for instructions:
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
About NVRAM and PRAM
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
Take care,
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Hello,
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Just a quick update... I was on the phone with Apple Support on Saturday morning and I thought we were making progress. The basic idea behind the proposed solution was that there was some "Preferences" that were causing the problem. We started over with a clean Preferences folder and tried connecting up the external monitor. At first, this approach was showing progress. The suggestion was to copy over my original Preferences (I had made a backup copy) just a few at a time until we figured out which ones caused the problem. The problem with this approach is that immediately after I got off the phone, the internet started not to work again. So, even with a clean Preferences folder, the internet would quit working after connecting up the external monitor.
So, I'm back to the drawing board. I have since restored my Preferences folder and I don't have my external monitor and internet working at the same time. BTW, I also upgraded to 10.5.3 and it didn't help.
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Thanks,
I now know how to turn on and off mirrioring with command/F1 (didn't know that yet), but would you know how I can use my external display in mirror mode with the laptop display completely turned off, not dimmed till black, but off?
Before lion I was able to do this by shutting the laptop screen which would put the machine into sleep mode and then by clicking the mouse or hitting a key on the keyboard it would wake it. Once the external display came on then I would open the laptop and the laptop display would remain off while using the external display. Hope that makes sense. Any suggestions?

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Hello, mimmosan.
Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.
Here are a couple troubleshooting steps that I would recommend.
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
About NVRAM and PRAM
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
Cheers,
Jason H..

Display black leaving clamshell mode in sleep

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I am having a similar problem.
For a while, opening the laptop without the power cable would work, but now that solution doesn't work all the time.
I have my MacBook running in clamshell mode with a firewire HD, DVD Burner and iPod dock plugged in. I am also using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse (Apple). I always eject the Firewire drives and unplug ipods. Then I sleep, and undue the USB connector, monitor (DVI) then power.
Frequently, when I open up the MB later, as you described, the display stays off. I can often push the power button followed by the "S" key to sleep it, but waking it up again doesn't restart the display.
In my Console.app log (system.log) I sometimes find this:
"kernel[0]: display: Not usable"
For whatever that is worth. It is very frustrating because a restart is the only thing that seems to work, and that sometimes causes data-loss as not everything is saved. Arrgh.
Unfortunately, I don't have an answer.

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And i "meet the criteria" for closed clamshell -
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Is it safe to use the MBP in closed clamshell mode?

I've connected my MBP to my LCD TV and started to use it as my desktop.
I'm deactivating the main display of the MBP by putting it into sleep mode and moving my mouse, so it wakes the computer up and shows image only in the TV, keeping the main display turned off.
I'm constantly monitoring the temperatures of the MBP with iStat Menus. It seems that the temperature is always the same, no matter if the main display lid is open or closed.
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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3131
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1778
Is it really safe to use the MBP with the display lid closed?
If I decide to run a heavy load application (like a game) and the MBP starts to get warm, would it damage the display, because it is too close to the body of the MBP?

Yes it's perfectly safe and designed to be used that way, 90% of the time this one's used in a similar configuration. The only time the fans come on 100% is when I watch Flash-based items from YouTube or similar. I've never run it for any extended length of time with the fans at maximum I must admit but as long as the air flow is good there shouldn't be any problem.

Not waking up with external display in closed clamshell mode.

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