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External display, No primary!

A

artwaserver

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 3, 2012
10
0
London
Okay, About 30 minutes ago my iMac 27" screen stopped working, I tried various things to get it back and ended up ringing apple, I have to take it into the shop on Monday, ALTHOUGH... I have an external screen pluuged into the thunderbolt, when I load the mac up it displays a grey secondary screen, I can't see the primary which is where the log on screen is, therefore I can't log in.. I need to be able to log in to be able to switch the secondary screen to primary!!

Does anyone know away of choosing your login without seeing the screen.. is it possible to activate the tabbing option? Please help! Can't believe this has happened to the iMac.. Its only a month old! :(
 
Is there more than one user account on that iMac?
And what Mac OS X version do you have?

It is possible to enable MIRROR DISPLAYS via just keyboard commands.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Is there more than one user account on that iMac?
And what Mac OS X version do you have?

It is possible to enable MIRROR DISPLAYS via just keyboard commands.
Click to expand...

Hi, Yes.. There are 2 accounts, Myself and my dad's but Mine is the first account,... Please could you inform me of those all so lovely keyboard shortcuts? :D
 
artwaserver said:
Hi, Yes.. There are 2 accounts, Myself and my dad's but Mine is the first account,... Please could you inform me of those all so lovely keyboard shortcuts? :D
Click to expand...

As I only have Mac OS X 10.6 to test, and if you have Lion, it might differ.

1. When the Mac has started up, select your user account via pressing the first letter of your user account, then press ENTER, then enter your password and press ENTER again.
Give Mac OS X time to login.
2. If you use your F1 to F12 keys for brightness, Play/Pause and volume and all that standard *****:
  • press CTRL+Fn+2
  • press the ARROW DOWN key five times
  • press ENTER (to open System Preferences)
  • as System Preferences opens with the search field active, enter DISP (for Displays)
  • press ARROW DOWN once
  • press ENTER
  • press TAB once
  • press the RIGHT ARROW key once (in 10.6 that will automatically select and open the Arrangement tab)
  • press TAB once
  • press SPACEBAR once.

Now you should have a mirrored display.

System Preferences > Displays >> Arrangement >>> Mirror Displays (but know, that the display with the lowest resolution determines the maximum resolution used on both, thus one display will have a lower than native resolution, except when both displays have the same native resolution)
MR_mirrordisplays.png
 
Sir, I bow down to you!

THANK YOU! SO SO SO MUCH!!! :-D

You have no idea how happy I am right now! hahaaa!!!!!!!! :D

Genius! *****
 
artwaserver said:
Sir, I bow down to you!

THANK YOU! SO SO SO MUCH!!! :-D

You have no idea how happy I am right now! hahaaa!!!!!!!! :D

Genius! *****
Click to expand...

****, that worked? I was just talking out of my arse and hoping to send you to the command prompt without noticing it. Maybe next time. Don't forget to FORMAT C:\ once you are booted into the correct OS.
 
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