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Trouble with external display (projector)

killmoms

killmoms

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 23, 2003
3,752
55
Durham, NC
Okay, this is a certifiably weird problem, so hope there's some big brains around here who've worked this one before.

I'm borrowing an Optoma EzPro 710 DLP projector from my dad's office for my movie night tonight. I have an hour and a half until people start arriving, and I'm running into the same problem now as I had a few months ago when I tried this: the PowerBook simply won't detect there being a display connected when I plug it in, and the projector (likewise) sees "No Signal." I'm using the included DVI-to-VGA adapter into a male-to-male VGA cable that comes with the projector. The projector works fine when connected to PCs with this male-to-male cable, and my Mac works perfectly when I plug a standard VGA monitor into its DVI-to-VGA adapter.

Here's the REAL rub: back before 10.3.4 (IIRC) it worked fine. Something in an OS update between 10.3.x and 10.3.4 is keeping me from using this PowerBook with this projector, and of course now I have 10.3.7, and it doesn't seem to be different. If I had my Panther CDs with me I'd install an extra copy to my external HD and see if I could get it to behave that way, but I'm home for the holidays and wasn't planning on needing an emergency install of an old version of my OS.

Any suggestions for me to try to save a night of movies, or am I gonna have to subject 15 people to the joy of "DVD on a 19-inch, 20-year-old television?"
 
OutThere

OutThere

macrumors 603
Dec 19, 2002
5,730
3
NYC
Cless said:
Okay, this is a certifiably weird problem, so hope there's some big brains around here who've worked this one before.

I'm borrowing an Optoma EzPro 710 DLP projector from my dad's office for my movie night tonight. I have an hour and a half until people start arriving, and I'm running into the same problem now as I had a few months ago when I tried this: the PowerBook simply won't detect there being a display connected when I plug it in, and the projector (likewise) sees "No Signal." I'm using the included DVI-to-VGA adapter into a male-to-male VGA cable that comes with the projector. The projector works fine when connected to PCs with this male-to-male cable, and my Mac works perfectly when I plug a standard VGA monitor into its DVI-to-VGA adapter.

Here's the REAL rub: back before 10.3.4 (IIRC) it worked fine. Something in an OS update between 10.3.x and 10.3.4 is keeping me from using this PowerBook with this projector, and of course now I have 10.3.7, and it doesn't seem to be different. If I had my Panther CDs with me I'd install an extra copy to my external HD and see if I could get it to behave that way, but I'm home for the holidays and wasn't planning on needing an emergency install of an old version of my OS.

Any suggestions for me to try to save a night of movies, or am I gonna have to subject 15 people to the joy of "DVD on a 19-inch, 20-year-old television?"
Click to expand...

I know it has been 2 hours since your post, but in case you decide to check again, here is all the advice that I can offer: Use another computer for tonight. Projectors can be very finicky about what the want to do and when, so I would put fixing it off until another time. For now, nab any other computer that you can, and use that. Otherwise, why not try plugging it in a different way. Use instead of VGA or DVI use composite or S-Video. If that doesn't work, try passing the signal through something else, maybe there is a direct connection problem. And as always, try restarting. Another thing: try making a new account on the computer and using it from there, if something on the user level got messed up that would fix it. Good luck, I've had similar problems with projector based movie nights in the past. :)
 
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