Another issue I, and others, have come across, is that the new “unibody” MacBook Pros don’t wake up external displays after going to sleep.

I’m using a HP w19e LCD monitor attached via the mini displayport > HDMI adapter (I used it just fine on my previous MacBook) and it will usually not turn on when I wake the MBP from sleep (the laptop’s built-in display comes on just fine). Normally it’s as simple as the display staying in “no input signal = sleep” mode, but sometimes it will display brief flickering “static”, for want of a better word. Plenty of others on the Apple Support forums are seeing the same thing.

I’ve discovered a work-around which, whilst not ideal, does get the external display working again:

In “System Preferences”, go to “Desktop & Screen Saver” and set up a Hot Corner – I use the top left – to “Sleep Displays”. Then, if the external display doesn’t come on after the MacBook has been sleeping, I force the displays into Sleep again by using the Hot Corner, then wake them up after a couple of seconds by moving the mouse. This usually brings the external display back.

Other users have suggested setting the MacBook to use the 9600 graphics card (“Higher Performance” in Energy Saving preferences) or turning off the ambient light sensor. Some also suggest turning off the “Dim display before sleep” option, but turning it off hasn’t made any difference to me.

So, along with the 4Gb RAM problems, it looks like Apple have a bit of patching to do with these new laptops!