problem hooking up my macbook aluminum to a dell screen

N

natatos

macrumors regular

Original poster

• Dec 23, 2008

• #1

I'm new to here so I'll probably do something wrong but I have everything hooked up but i got the adapter to display things on my moms dell screen and make things bigger so i could see more then just 13" but it's square shaped so when i have the display good it is in widescreen witch i hate but the furthest out one that isn't widescreen is too zoomed in so how can i adjust it so that the wide screen is gone the orignal display is 1280x 1024 i think any help would be great thanks 🙂

 

1

156457

macrumors 6502

• Dec 23, 2008

• #2

natatos said:

I'm new to here so I'll probably do something wrong but I have everything hooked up but i got the adapter to display things on my moms dell screen and make things bigger so i could see more then just 13" but it's square shaped so when i have the display good it is in widescreen witch i hate but the furthest out one that isn't widescreen is too zoomed in so how can i adjust it so that the wide screen is gone any help would be thank full 🙂

Click to expand...

Go to System prefs >> Displays >> look for the dell monitor and set the res to the highest number you see.

 

N

natatos

macrumors regular

Original poster

• Dec 23, 2008

• #3

Nick. said:

Go to System prefs >> Displays >> look for the dell monitor and set the res to the highest number you see.

Click to expand...

i tried that what happens is that it makes the widescreen bars on the screen

 

1

156457

macrumors 6502

• Dec 23, 2008

• #4

natatos said:

i tried that what happens is that it makes the widescreen bars on the screen

Click to expand...

take a picture and screenshot of the settings. choose a res which makes it 'not' wide screen. push the auto button on your monitor or something.

 

kgarner

macrumors 68000

• Dec 23, 2008

• #5

Are you mirroring your laptop display onto the monitor? That's what it sounds like to me. Set the monitor to span the desktop onto the monitor, that way you get two displays.

 

N

natatos

macrumors regular

Original poster

• Dec 23, 2008

• #6

kgarner said:

Are you mirroring your laptop display onto the monitor? That's what it sounds like to me. Set the monitor to span the desktop onto the monitor, that way you get two displays.

Click to expand...

no i have it mirrored

 

1

156457

macrumors 6502

• Dec 24, 2008

• #7

natatos said:

no i have it mirrored

Click to expand...

Well then take it off mirrored and set the dell as your primary display (I think you can do this by dragging the white bar on the little preview onto the other monitor.