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Please help me trick my MacBook Pro!

Saga

Saga

Banned
Hullo fellow enthusiasts. One of my 2.6ghz MacBook Pro's is sitting ontop of a tower acting as a database server running fully updated Leopard's Bootcamp 2.1 ala WinXP SP3 with the most up to date Intel chipset drivers off the Apple website (since the auto-updater did not want to update them).

My problem is this. I want to clamshell the hardware so I don't have the extra illumination in the room, however for some reason it is not detecting the lid is closed (power settings obviously switched to "do nothing" on lid close) and the LCD remains illuminated adding a significant amount of heat to the unit.

At this point, I might just be satisfied with the ability to turn the LCD off entirely but I cannot seem to trick it into thinking it has a secondary monitor as primary like I can in Leopard.

Suggestions, questions, comments, this should be in Software for Windows?
 
This may not be the most elegant solution but can't you just use the dimmer button and shut the backlight off completely?

I haven't bootcamped my MacBook so I apologize if this doesn't apply in Windows but I would think it should...

Good luck!
 
Jesus. That's perfect. You just did what tons of googling and multiple variants of video drivers failed to do.. and it was right in front of me the entire time, haha.

Dimming all the way turns the LCD off entirely, and taking the further step of f8 to turn off the illimunated keyboard and presto - I can keep the lid open and minimize the light from the apple since it only lights up when the lid is closed.

Thanks a million.:thumbsup:

Edit: P.S. The Microsoft fanboy in me hates to admit this, but it would have taken days to get the first suggestion out of Software for Windows, if I even got one at all.
 
My MBP still has a very very slight image even when the light is all the way down. Always wondered about that.
 
That's normal. Setting the dimmer to 0 just shuts the backlight off, not the display. It'd be better to turn the display off but I can't think of a way to do that through Windows.
 
Originally posted by: FP
My MBP still has a very very slight image even when the light is all the way down. Always wondered about that.
Click to expand...
That's not the backlight, that's external light being reflected back out.
 
Originally posted by: ViRGE
Originally posted by: FP
My MBP still has a very very slight image even when the light is all the way down. Always wondered about that.
Click to expand...
That's not the backlight, that's external light being reflected back out.
Click to expand...

Hmm. Not sure what you're seeing. I just turned off all the lights (lower level with no windows so it's DARK) and the only thing I saw was the green dot from the power adapter. Unplugged that and couldn't even tell the MBP existed. Are you sure it's off?
 
I have an older mbp with the Radeon x1600 graphics. It's been forever since I booted to windows XP, but I was able to set my TV as the primary display and then completely disable the laptop display without getting deep into the driver settings (on the advanced tab where there are two pictures of monitors that you can move around, set resolution, etc). It took me a couple of days to figure it out, man I was at a loss about how non-intuitive the process is in XP compared to OS X.

Of course at work I have a laptop with docking station and external monitor (I set that to primary) and closing the laptop lid mostly does things right. Except that sometimes goes to mirror mode when I open it back up.
 
Originally posted by: Saga
Originally posted by: ViRGE
Originally posted by: FP
My MBP still has a very very slight image even when the light is all the way down. Always wondered about that.
Click to expand...
That's not the backlight, that's external light being reflected back out.
Click to expand...

Hmm. Not sure what you're seeing. I just turned off all the lights (lower level with no windows so it's DARK) and the only thing I saw was the green dot from the power adapter. Unplugged that and couldn't even tell the MBP existed. Are you sure it's off?
Click to expand...

It is as far down as it can go.

I can see a slight ghost image of whatever was on the screen at the time. There is 0 backlight but an image can still be seen.
 
Originally posted by: FP
My MBP still has a very very slight image even when the light is all the way down. Always wondered about that.
Click to expand...

The LCD is still "on", there is just no light to make it more visible.
 
if you're in osx, you can use the keyboard shortcut of ctrl+shift+eject to turn off the display. if you want to "clamshell" it, attach an external monitor and usb mouse/keyboard and put the laptop to sleep w/ the lid closed. you can then wake the computer using the mouse/keyboard.
 
To add to vexingv's comment, you command+option+eject triggers sleep while in clamshell mode (OS X). I use this a lot as I have power settings set for an hour before sleep.

For fellow ATI x1600 mbp owners, I posted the following at macrumors forums last may:

I was able to turn off (as in disable) the monitor on my mbp by setting options in the ATI catalyst control center. I have x1600 graphics.

short version:

1. Boot camp 2.1 hosed my video drivers: 4-bit color, 640x480 resolution, unchangeable
2. ATI driver download page yielded no solution
3. Googled ATI bootcamp driver: this provided a working driver from ATI
4. downloaded and installed this driver: repaired graphics resolution, color depth
5. these drivers didn't allow much control over monitor options
6a. Downloaded catalyst control center from same web page in step 3.
6b. installation/running the control center was not successful, yields cryptic error message
6c. uninstalled control center, downloaded and installed dot NET framework from microsoft, reinstalled control center
7a. (for notebook users) go to windows' power management, select "do nothing" upon closing lid
7b. in the catalyst control center software, set my external monitor (LCD TV) as primary monitor, disabled the mbp's fixed LCD. Corrected the stupid default underscan setting to have perfect output in 1080p mode.

Now I have what amounts to clamshell mode working in windows XP, and can play windows games from my sofa with a wireless keyboard and mouse.

 
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