MBP lid closed using external LCD

So I use my 24" LCD external with my mbp lid closed but there seems to be a problem.

After I'm done using the computer, how do I put it to sleep? Normally I would just shut the lid, but the lid is already closed.

So what I did was I just put it sleep manually through the taskbar at the top. But when I woke up this morning my laptop had its fan blowing and the laptop was pretty warm. Almost as if the laptop was still on all night.

Anyone else experience this? If so how do you put it to sleep?

 

Just out of curiosity, when you manually put it to sleep with the lid closed, did the white light (on the front of the MBP) begin flashing or did it remain on?

 

Hmm, I'm not sure. I guess i didn't check when I did that. I heard the fans stop when I put it to sleep manually though, so I just assumed it was asleep.

So I was surprised to find my laptop fans still on the next morning. So I'm not going to run the laptop like this again if I don't get it sort out.

 

Well if it went to sleep (light flashing) and then later on was on by itself then there's always the possibility that something is waking it up.

It could be a mouse movement, an accidental keyboard click or it could be a piece of software you have that's doing it.

 

K, thanks for the heads up. I'll keep an eye out for what's happening. Maybe a prog is doing it or someone in my family unknowingly hit a keystroke. I turned my mouse off btw.

 

i think a program is preventing it from going to sleep.

 

I would be very careful , you know hot the mac can get and the plastic screen could warp or melt , if you can get it to work when closed.

 

I was worried about that too but I was assured by at least two Apple support specialists that they're designed to operate with the lid closed when used with an external monitor and nothing should happen, but I guess we can't say that something will never happen.

Personally, I close the lid all the time when using an external monitor and never had any issues.

 

You can try unpluging the power, this should automatically put it to sleep.
A

 

lol. of course!!!as the battery will end in a few hours!!

 

Yeah I heard this very same thing as well.

Hopefully they are right. I do fear hot air being trapped between the screen and keyboard.

 

I hope you have that in writing

 

Unfortunately I didn't. But they did assure me that if anything happens due to that it would for sure be covered. They were level 2 AppleCare specialists so I think we're fine. Besides, no where does Apple warn users not to close the lid while using an external monitor.

 

If it was designed to work safely with the lid closed , why is there no way the startup and shutdown the notebook with the lid shut.

 

If apple says its ok and its under warranty then close it. I'm going to be trying that myself. Hey can a VGA cable still run 1900 x 1200 or do I need to buy a DVI?

 

What i dont understand , is on my uMacbook pro 17" there is a rubber edge on the screen, most likely to protect it, but also the mac pulls cool air though the speakers and the keyboard as there are no other air intakes.

So when you close the top there should be a pretty good seal, so how does the mac keep cool with the top shut, I don't get it

EDIT : I would love to see a grab from iSTAT of the temps after 30 mins or so.

 

You can wake it up using an external mouse and keyboard. As for shutting it down I think you can just manually shut it down. As for putting it to sleep, that is the problem that I'm facing.

Well I have the 13" MBP and I don't have a speaker grill. From what I can understand is that the back hinge part of the laptop is both an intake and exhaust.

If you look back there the entire hinge is a vent, but only half of it dispels hot air and the other part sucks in. Although this could be different with the 15"/17" models.

 

Yep, there's no way to startup the macbook with the lid closed but you can shut it down, go into Sleep mode, and wake it up from sleep with the lid closed. It works (at least for me) well and been doing it for a while (SR MBP and now a uMBP).

 

i don't suggest using this technique at all - it screws up with the battery life! ...

 

As to the original problem, if you have either a wireless keyboard or wireless mouse, or some attached USB devices, the machine will sleep before these external devices do. So the Mac nods off, then (for example) your external USB hard drive notices and says "Guess it's time for bed!" and goes into low power or sleep mode itself, which sends a "changed state" signal back to the Mac which goes "Wow, something just happened, I'd better wake up!" and does. This can become an endless loop keeping the Mac from ever successfully staying asleep, and may be the source of your issue. Apologies in advance for the anthropomorphism.

 

I would not recommend running it with the screen closed. The shape of the hinge doesn't allow proper airflow on the back vent unless the screen is open normally. My machine runs MUCH hotter when the screen is closed, or if its open back all the way that also blocks off the vent some...

 

i'm also afraid of damaging the screen with heat.

 

Ok heres an update

I tested this many times over and its not in my head.

My MBP wakes up randomly out of sleep mode. This is when I use my MBP while the lid is closed with an external monitor.

This is really disappointing as I really wanted to run my MBP in vertical stance mode. I really don't like the options Mac OSX gives me either when the lid is open.

Why is that you cannot disable the laptop monitor entirely like in windows?

Has anyone else been able to run their MBP's with the lid close and had it go to sleep without waking up randomly?

 

It shouldn't wake up randomly unless you have an app that is telling it to wake up, or an external device thats telling it to wake up.... might take some searching on your machine to find the culprit.

Does it random wake from sleep if you leave it asleep with the screen open as well?

 

From what I can remember it does not random wake from sleep when I have my laptop lid open.

I'm not sure what could be causing it to wake up with the lid closed.

 

a faulty sensor....

 

It's got to be either something faulty or an app that's the culprit. Mine doesn't wake up and I always have the lid closed.

 

Frick!

How do you think the Apple store would diagnose/fix this? I feel like it'd be hard to pinpoint.

 

If it was me, and I know this can be time consuming, I would try to eliminate the application factor before taking it to apple. I'd make a time machine backup then reinstall Leopard without anything extra and try to replicate the problem. If it happens then chances are something's faulty but if not then start adding your apps one at a time and test.

 

Hmm, that would be time consuming and would definitely suck if it didn't work.

I also have Adobe Master and that thing takes two years to install.

I guess there have been quite a few people below experiencing the same problem. Some have had their logic boards replaced and some had to do a complete reinstall.

http://forums.applenova.com/showthread.php?t=31052

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=494948

 

I dont think that was the suggestion.

Just do a full Time Machine backup, then erase your hard drive and do a barren OS install with no extra software or anything installed... nothing extra, just a plain OS install. If the problem still happens like that, it is likely hardware... but if it doesn't happen like that, its a software issue. At that point you know for sure what it is and you can decide if you want to try to reload everything, or just restore the Time Machine backup and be back where you were... and hunt down the culprit.

 

Not sure if this came up, or if your issue hasn't been resolved as I didn't read through the entire thread, but do you have a widget installed called iStat Pro? That's been known to keep the system awake in the past... not sure if newer versions are available to fix this issue.

 

Yes I do have istatpro. Maybe I'll try uninstalling it.

Thanks for the advice doh123.

 

I havent had any problems with iStat Pro, its running fine on Snow Leopard. It was iStat Menus (same people, different program) that had the incompatibility problems with Snow Leopard.