For quite awhile now people have been using special programs to allow the use of their Mac portables to operate with the lid closed. This is of course useful when having a secondary display hooked up and not wanting to use the smaller laptop display as well. With the (hopefully) new Mac announcements today and the (hopefully) purchase of my new iMac, Polyvector and I have been playing with the idea of also getting him a new Cinema Display for his current setup. Well, PolyVector found out today that quite a few of the Apple notebooks support a “Clamshell” mode that does allow the lid to be closed without putting the computer to sleep. Here are the simple steps:
How to use your PowerBook G4, MacBook Pro or MacBook with the display closed
1. Make sure the computer is plugged in to an outlet using the AC power adapter.
2. Connect a USB keyboard and mouse to your computer.
3. Connect the Apple video (VGA or DVI) adapter that came with your computer to the appropriate port on the external display or projector and turn the display or projector on.
4. With the computer turned on and your keyboard or mouse connected, connect the other end of the adapter to the video output port on your MacBook Pro or PowerBook G4.
5. Once your computer’s Desktop appears on the external display, close the computer’s lid.
6. Once the lid is closed, wake the computer up by either clicking your mouse button or by pressing a key on your keyboard.
Just thought I would share with those who were also interested in doing this and/or were looking into those applications that do the same thing. Enjoy!
4 Comments
Wake up! I am curious to see what you think of the new iMac design…but you aren’t even signed on to messenger so I can bother you! Wake up! ;)
Cant it be set to run while the lid is closed? Or is it always going to sleep mode when the lid is closed?
Yeah, that’s what “Clamshell” mode is… You close the lid, the Mac goes to sleep, then you simply click an external mouse or keyboard key and it wakes up.
The only difference with this is the display remains off to prevent the MacBook etc from heating up or unnecessary splitting up of video memory. The applications to allow for the laptops to do the same thing do not disable the display. That is why this article is important.