External monitor issue with MacBook Pro

[donelly]

I have spent hours looking for a solution, but wasn't successful so here goes:

I have a 13" MacBook Pro (late 2011) running OS X Lion 10.7.3 -- I have a second monitor (24" NEC EA241WM) connected to the MBP via mini-dvi to vga adapter (not as mirror display, but as a second larger screen).

The NEC native resolution is 1920x1200. When I set the display resolution for the NEC to 1920x1200 (had to use SwitchResX), the aspect ratio is off and there is a large black gap on the screen to the left. When I set it to 1680x1050 and pretty much any other resolution, it looks blurry.

The monitor works fine with a pc, but is blurry as soon as the mbp is connected to it. I tried to run the MBP in clamshell mode but that didn't make a difference either.

Do I need to get a mini-dvi to dvi adapter instead? What am I missing here?

Thanks in advance.

 

[swamesp]

Me too having similar issue with mid 2010, mbp. Since today evening I could not fix the resolution in external display. It looks sharp in 1920x1200 but for some reason the display shows my screen at 1600x1200 which is blurry.

Monitor OSD shows that resoln is 1600x1200 while mbp display menu shows it as 1920x1200.

Any fix for this?

 

[lixuelai]

You can try using SwitchResX to force the resolution but other than that a mini-DisplayPort -> DVI cable/adapter should work.

 

[swamesp]

Forgot to mention that I'm currently using miniDisplay port to DVI cable.
Everything was fine till today evening, suddenly out of nowhere the display has changed to 1600x1200.

I thought of installing SwitchResX but it's only a free version for 10 days and I thought there could be a permanent solution for this before I buy the software.