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MacBook won't connect to external monitor?

MacOG728893

MacOG728893

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 10, 2010
1,715
114
Orange County CA
Details:
- White MacBook Unibody [2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 250GB HDD]
- Samsung 24" Monitor [SyncMaster 2433BW]
- Mini Display Port to DVI adapter

I have searched the internet and tried all possible solutions to no avail.
My monitor jut blinks a blue LED indicating it is searching for a computer.
Detecting monitors on the Mac does nothing and I cannot seem to get this working no matter what I try.

The only thing that worked once was what this:

1. Turn off your laptop, hold Shift + Control + Option and then Power (Note: it doesn't look like anything is happening but it is, ie.) you won't see anything and Mac will not start)
2. Laptop should still be off, then hit Command + Option + R + Power. Still holding these down when you see the Apple logo appear, press down P. You should hear the Apple chime twice and then you can let go.
3. Shut down your laptop, make sure it's pugged into A/C and your external monitor is connected. Press Power + Shift at the same time, which should start you off in Safe Mode and you should see your external display come on also.
4. Now you can restart your machine normally and it should all work for you

If anyone has a suggestion that would fix this permanently, that would be great!
 
D

Detrius

macrumors 68000
Sep 10, 2008
1,623
19
Apex, NC
Some of those directions are flawed/wrong.

The first set of directions is the SMC reset, and it's accurate.

The second is supposed to be the PRAM reset, but as described, it's flat wrong. The only time you should hold keys down when you're pressing the power button is to do an SMC reset. Otherwise, it's undefined what happens when keys are pressed before the chime. In general, keys should be pressed when you hear the chime. Command-Option-P-R is the PRAM reset, but if the Apple logo has already come up, it's too late. On newer machines, Command-R gets you into internet recovery, so these directions (I just tried them) will get you into internet recovery.

The third is only flawed in that it's telling you to press the shift key when you press the power button, as according to Apple, behavior is undefined for any keys pressed before the chime. Otherwise, this will boot your computer in safe mode. This doesn't exactly apply to your situation, except that it will keep your graphics drivers from loading once.


The PRAM reset can potentially fix some graphics issues, so it's worth a shot. Issues should not return after a PRAM reset. If they do, you have something else going on, like bad RAM, a bad graphics card, or a bad logic board.
 
S

Sonhascome

macrumors 6502
Feb 18, 2010
272
0
Maryland
Detrius said:
Some of those directions are flawed/wrong.

The first set of directions is the SMC reset, and it's accurate.

The second is supposed to be the PRAM reset, but as described, it's flat wrong. The only time you should hold keys down when you're pressing the power button is to do an SMC reset. Otherwise, it's undefined what happens when keys are pressed before the chime. In general, keys should be pressed when you hear the chime. Command-Option-P-R is the PRAM reset, but if the Apple logo has already come up, it's too late. On newer machines, Command-R gets you into internet recovery, so these directions (I just tried them) will get you into internet recovery.

The third is only flawed in that it's telling you to press the shift key when you press the power button, as according to Apple, behavior is undefined for any keys pressed before the chime. Otherwise, this will boot your computer in safe mode. This doesn't exactly apply to your situation, except that it will keep your graphics drivers from loading once.


The PRAM reset can potentially fix some graphics issues, so it's worth a shot. Issues should not return after a PRAM reset. If they do, you have something else going on, like bad RAM, a bad graphics card, or a bad logic board.
Click to expand...

Yes, what that guy said. Any time you are having trouble with a mac always try a smc reset and pram reset that will solve a lot of your problems
 
MacOG728893

MacOG728893

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 10, 2010
1,715
114
Orange County CA
Detrius said:
The PRAM reset can potentially fix some graphics issues, so it's worth a shot. Issues should not return after a PRAM reset. If they do, you have something else going on, like bad RAM, a bad graphics card, or a bad logic board.
Click to expand...

Thank you, will try and in the morning and report back!
 
dontwalkhand

dontwalkhand

macrumors 603
Jul 5, 2007
6,374
2,863
Phoenix, AZ
Try "Detect Displays" in System Preferences as well, that might just be what it needed to activate the monitor....Also check the video source on the monitor itself, I've made that mistake before where the monitor was set to the wrong source (VGA instead of DVI) ;)
 
MacOG728893

MacOG728893

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 10, 2010
1,715
114
Orange County CA
dontwalkhand said:
Try "Detect Displays" in System Preferences as well, that might just be what it needed to activate the monitor....Also check the video source on the monitor itself, I've made that mistake before where the monitor was set to the wrong source (VGA instead of DVI) ;)
Click to expand...

I've tried everything to no avail, it use to work just fine :(
 
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