Dual Screen 2nd monitor not full size help?

[boomish]

I havea Mac Pro and got 2 new monitors Samsung P2450 widescreen's. I have had dual screen setup for years as I work with Logic.
For some reason the second monitor wont go full screen ie I have black bars on the left and right of the image.
It is connected via analog as I have a gaming PC connected to the DVI ports, I've tried everything I can think of, swapping cables changing resolution etc..it's def coming out of the Mac like this. ie the bars move to the other monitor if I turn the cables round, I also tried replacing the DVi converter and the VGA cable.

Any suggestions?
I phoned Samsung but what a joke, they guy cut me off after I stated laughing as his near idiotic instruction that on a PC you can hit FN/F3 to change the display made so I can do the same with my Mac. I had to explain keyboard shortcuts are different..sigh

 

[smirk]

What happens if the VGA monitor is the only one connected?

Does the Display system preference say it's running at the correct resolution, or is it limiting you to something that would have black bars? Also, I couldn't follow what you were saying about the DVI -> VGA converter; are you sure this isn't the culprit?

 

[boomish]

What happens if the VGA monitor is the only one connected?

Does the Display system preference say it's running at the correct resolution, or is it limiting you to something that would have black bars? Also, I couldn't follow what you were saying about the DVI -> VGA converter; are you sure this isn't the culprit?

Oh disconnecting the PCDVI connection has no effect, the monitors have two inputs and I can switch to either. My old ones were the same.

No the DVI to VGA are apple ones and all pretty standard, I tried different ones and also swapping the monitors inputs but it's still the same. IE ie's not the cables, DVI to VGA convertor, or the monitor itself, so the mac is for some reason putting out a different picture on the second port of the graphics card.

Thanks for the reply tho..

 

[smirk]

Does the Display system preference show anything that could reveal what's going on with the second display?

And so you're saying if you go to the back of the computer and switch cables between the two video ports then the anomaly moves to the other display?

 

[boomish]

Does the Display system preference show anything that could reveal what's going on with the second display?

And so you're saying if you go to the back of the computer and switch cables between the two video ports then the anomaly moves to the other display?

No the display pref looks fine, same resolution on both monitors, I could run it at a lower res but thats not right having 2 different resolutions.

Yep if I swap the cables it moves to the other display, so it's def the output of the mac. I wonder if there is any other display setup software for the Mac.

I wish I had got a monitor with two dvi ports, not sure they do them tho.

Here is the card info
ATI Radeon X1900 XT:

Chipset Model: ATY,RadeonX1900
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x7249
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-A52027-202
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.202
Displays:
SyncMaster:
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Rotation: Supported
SyncMaster:
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Rotation: Supported

 

[smirk]

If you set the second display to be mirrored instead of extending the desktop, does anything change?

 

[boomish]

If you set the second display to be mirrored instead of extending the desktop, does anything change?

NO mate, same borders..

 

[smirk]

That's really strange. Maybe something is wrong with your video card. I mean, if you remove the DVI -> VGA converter and the problem persists, and you swap monitors and the problem remains on output #2, and you swap cables and the problem remains on output #2, then it sounds like something is wrong with output #2.

You didn't say how old the Mac is, but if it's under warranty I'd take it in. Otherwise maybe you can contact Customer Support of the video card manufacturer, maybe they'll have an idea.

 

[boomish]

Thanks for the quick reply Smirk yep your right, unfortunatly it's a 2006 8 Core Mac Pro so out of warranty now. I could I suppose get one of the new video cards for it, I heard you can run them in the older Mac Pro's. But for a little black bar I wonder if it's worth the extra cost..plus I am sure I got it working once!!

I shall searching thanks for the input though m8..

 

[smirk]

I guess it wouldn't hurt to pull and reseat the card, blow all the dust off of it, clean the contacts with a pencil eraser, press down on any chips on the card, and inspect the DVI ports in back to make sure everything looks clean. Kind of a long shot, but you never know. Good luck to you.