Faint vertical lines on display from mini?

[munckee]

Hey everyone,

I recently bought a 2nd hand Mac Mini 1.5 Core Solo. I have it connected to my 24" Dell display via VGA (through the DVI adapter). It defaulted to 1680x1050, which looked fine, albeit a hair fuzzy. But when I increase the resolution to native for the 24" display, I get faint vertical lines all the way across the display. Looks vaguely like corduroy. Anyone have any idea what might be causing it, or how to get rid of it?

 

[ADent]

Why use VGA? Does that Dell not have a DVI port?

Analog connections can be tricky and for 24" monitors require good cabling and good analog support in the monitor.

Some LCD monitors at work never look good over VGA, while others can dial it in and look pretty good.

 

[Erwin-Br]

The VGA adapter is indeed limited to 1680x1050. A limitation of the video card. To run your native resolution, connect to your monitor with a DVI cable.

It's quite a bummer, actually, since I have the same problem. My monitor is already hooked up with DVI to my PC. Unfortunately it doesn't have a second DVI input, only VGA. (I'm already happy it *has* a second connection option, because I'd hate to keep switching cables)

--Erwin

 

[munckee]

Didn't realize that VGA was limited to those dimensions. I use the DVI port for my macbook that I use for my graphic work, etc. The lines really aren't that big of a deal, since this is just a media machine. Have to see how bad it looks for movies though. Thanks for the input guys.

 

[fhall1]

The VGA adapter is indeed limited to 1680x1050. A limitation of the video card. To run your native resolution, connect to your monitor with a DVI cable.

It's quite a bummer, actually, since I have the same problem. My monitor is already hooked up with DVI to my PC. Unfortunately it doesn't have a second DVI input, only VGA. (I'm already happy it *has* a second connection option, because I'd hate to keep switching cables)

--Erwin

It most certainly is not! I run a SOYO 24" LCD I recently bought from Officemax at 1920 x 1200 using a VGA cable and the DVI to VGA adapter on my Mini. It works and looks fine.

 

[Flynnstone]

VGA is analog.
I'd try some different cables. See if it changes , best or worse.
You can get "reflections" off of connectors. This looks like ghosting.