Comments on: Disable the Internal Screen on a MacBook Pro or Air in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

By: George

George — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 02:50:09 +0000

It works, but try putting it to sleep, and then come out of sleep. Doesn’t work any more. You need to restart AGAIN!

By: tom

tom — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:40:43 +0000

Got it! First do the command trick and then reboot. While the internal screen is grey, apple logo showing, close the lid. Activate the external screen with external mouse or bluetooth keyboard. I’m running os x 10.8.2 mid 2007 MBP.

By: Ervan

Ervan — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 12:03:51 +0000

Not working on mac os x 10.8.2…

By: fax brox

fax brox — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 19:43:32 +0000

Amazing! a $2500 macbook pro and a $1000 apple display, and can’t choose to disable the built in monitor.
This trick is no longer working for me on ML 10.8.2. Not even doing the sudo nvram once againg after the update.

By: fax brox

fax brox — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:11:47 +0000

Didn’t work with ML 10.8.2… Actually, I close the macbook pro and the thunderbolt display continues on… doesn’t go to sleep mode. What can I do?

By: Os

Os — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 04:58:03 +0000

ML 10.8.2 includes a firmware update so you have to open terminal and enter “sudo nvram boot-args=”iog=0×0″ once again.

By: Fabiano Coelho

Fabiano Coelho — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 17:26:31 +0000

Stopped working with Mountain Lion 10.8.2
Any suggestions?

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 13:41:12 +0000

Marco’s protocol works perfectly for me. Thanks a lot!

By: Marco

Marco — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 22:15:19 +0000

I found out what the “sudo nvram boot-args=”iog=0×0″ command actually does: it prevents the screen from turning back on once you re-open it. It means that after you type the command in and reboot (with the lid open) both screen will be still on. After the reboot is done, close the lid and wake up the computer with an external keyboard/mouse. This will wake up the main screen. Now you can open the laptop lid, and the internal monitor won’t turn back on. (At least that’s what happened for me on a macbook air)

By: Vaclav Fous

Vaclav Fous — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:24:57 +0000

Hey Man, thanks to you again!
(it worked with Lion one year ago and now with Mountain Lion also)

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 16:10:20 +0000

My late 2011 13″ MBP [MD314LL/A- OSX10.7.4 Lion] was unresponsive to the sudo nvram=”iiog=0×0″ trick and the flat junk mail magnet, however I used a .5″x.125″ round craft magnet (very weak, but stronger than the flat junk mail version) over the headphone port and the display dimmed immediately. Don’t be alarmed when you remove the magnet, however my MBP took about 40 sec to flash blue and turn off the external then return to dual monitors functional. As a side note, external is a Dell U2412M

Thanks OSX Daily for the info and help.

Best,

Ben

By: Reclaiming Clamshell Mode Under Lion (and maybe Mountain Lion, too) | Misha's Journal of Random

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 21:42:47 +0000

[...] quick Google search pointed me to an OSXDaily post, which eventually pointed me to an Apple Discussions thread, regarding this issue. Turns out, [...]

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:06:53 +0000

No because it still uses the graphics card to drive more pixels than you want to show. If you’re playing games for example, you want the graphics card to drive one display only. Also effects like expose will be more intensive with more desktop space.

By: Doc Holliday

Doc Holliday — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 14:21:08 +0000

The above works with Mountain Lion, too.

By: Doc Holliday

Doc Holliday — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 14:17:55 +0000

I have been using a MBP 13.3″, purchased in June 2011, for about a year with an external monitor (20″ or 32″ HDTV) only w/10.7.x

Here’s how:

Attach monitor to computer: I use Rocketfish DVI-D or HDMI Thunderbolt adapters.

Make sure your Mac is plugged into to external power. (WON’T WORK WITH YOUR MBP ON BATTERY).

Start your MBP w/display open.

It boots normally, to the gray/password screen*

Close MBP

At this point, everything transfers to appear on ext. monitor/TV.

Your mouse (the only mouse I’ve ever used is a Magic Mouse bluetooth device, I just got a bluetooth trackpad and it works fine, too) and your keyboard (I’ve used both a Apple extended USB keyboard and the Apple bluetooth keyboard) will not work normally at this point.

In a few moments, the screen will go entirely blue.

Momentarily it will return you to your normal screen.

After your screen returns, you can use your bluetooth/USB devices normally.

If you sleep your Mac, when it wakes up, you will get the PW screen, you don’t have to go through the whole return.

The ONLY time I’ve had problems with is when I didn’t plug my MBP into external power.

If it doesn’t work, the first thin you should do is make sure your MBP is attached to external power.

*If you don’t use a password to protect your Mac, I’d strongly suggest using one. And FileVaulting your Mac. For security reasons and so that ‘Find My iPhone” will work, but the scum who stole your MBP can’t get to the data and you can still wipe it remotely.