Use laptop Macs in lid closed mode for quieter operation

Sep 26, '07 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

It might sound odd to some, but I like to work in complete silence. My MacBook is quiet, but there's still a blowing sound from the hard disk and fan, something that seems to be magnified in my small office.

Recently I got a mini DVI adapter to run an external monitor, and found that Apple considers it OK to run MacBooks with the lid closed, so that the external display becomes the primary (only) display. Instructions on what to do can be found in this support document. According to the article, PowerBooks, MacBooks and MacBook Pros are all OK to run with the lid closed.

With the lid closed, the notebook is much quieter, simply because the screen seems to stop the noise from reaching your ears. In fact, it really is "whisper" quiet.

Needless to say, for this to work, you'll need not only an external display plus the mini DVI adapter, but also an external keyboard and mouse.

Comments (14)


Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070924133437390