External Monitor / Mini Displayport Stopped Working on MBP!! Please Help

[scannermobs]

Hi I have a 15" unibody MBP bought in Nov '08.

Had been using the Mini Displayport > DVI adapter just fine with both HDTV and Dell monitor, BUT then all output has stopped completely!

No monitor is detected by the laptop (although the display does blink blue, as if it had detected it), tried different cables, different displays, using the Displayport firmware update, speaking to Apple, deleting the com.apple..plist files, etc

Edit: it also doesn't work in XP on Bootcamp!!!?

None have worked even a bit!.. Also read lots of forum posts of similar problems, but I can't find a solution that works!

Any help from you guys would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks

 

[scannermobs]

OK I have noticed in 'Better Battery Life' mode that the display shows up in display pref pane, along with resolution settings etc, but that it still does not work, tried switching between GPU's etc.. still nothing

Any help out there?

 

[casigh]

Same issue with MBP 13.3

I'm experiencing the same issues. Everything was working fine until it stopped working all together. Plug in the adapter, and the computer's screen goes to all blue for a couple of seconds (like it's recognizing the external monitor) but then it doesn't display anything on the external. The funny thing is that everything works fine with the mini displayport to vga adapter on the same computer and same monitor. I've checked the monitor with another computer on DVI, and it works fine. I've tried both OSX and Vista on the MPB with the DVI adapter, and I get nothing. I'm thinking it's a bad adapter, and praying that it's not a bad mini displayport. I guess that would be covered under warranty, but this thing's only a few weeks old! If you have found a solution, please pass the word on.

Thanks

 

[scannermobs]

Hi there,

Yes I found the solution to my problem. The mini displayport to dvi was broken.

Things got really confusing when I got a replacement adapter from Apple and the problem remained. This made me convinced that it was a graphics card problem. That was before I had a tech support appointment at an Apple store, which identified the real cause as being no less than two faulty adapters!

Quite shocked that not only can such a simple piece of hardware can break so easily and without reason, but also that Apple are happy to hand out broken hardware as replacements.

I'm not certain what your problem/solution is but I would highly recommend trying out all possible combinations of computer/adapter/monitor in case you happen to be in a similar situation as me.

All the best and keep rocking in the free world.

 

[geoffreak]

Apple's adapters are notably flaky.

 

[casigh]

It ended up being the adapter. Apparently Monoprice's version of the adapter has some issues as well. Back up and running for the time being.