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mac mini display

adamcarvell

adamcarvell

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 15, 2013
349
31
warwickshire england
turned on my mac mini today noticed a half in ch black border on the right hand side and at the top can't figure out how to make the desktop fit the screen any idea's please ?.
[doublepost=1490632776][/doublepost]monitor is acer g277hu
 
the dock sits at the bottom of the screen no border yet the two sides and top theres is a 5mm black border anyone know how i can stretch this out to the edge of the monitor please ?. or is this normal and I've only just noticed ?.
 
adamcarvell said:
the dock sits at the bottom of the screen no border yet the two sides and top theres is a 5mm black border anyone know how i can stretch this out to the edge of the monitor please ?. or is this normal and I've only just noticed ?.
Click to expand...

Perhaps a picture would help. How long have you had this monitor/mini setup? Which mini? Which OS X version?
 
Which video connection are you using on the display?
Any change when you restart your mini, or if you try different settings in the Displays pref pane?
Have you tried changing internal settings on the display?

5mm would be approximately the width of the edge bezel, which is black except for the silver bottom edge.
Are you expecting the picture to extend to the extreme edge of the display - with no black border at all?

Yes, a picture of your screen would settle this pretty quickly, I think.
 
the mini is the late 2012 one reading stuff on various sites i think the black bars at the side are normal in on OS X Sierra
[doublepost=1491842893][/doublepost]
IMG_0998.JPG

[doublepost=1491842947][/doublepost]anyway of stretching it to the edge of the screen using the DisplayPort connection btw.
 
adamcarvell said:
the mini is the late 2012 one reading stuff on various sites i think the black bars at the side are normal in on OS X Sierra
Click to expand...

Ok, just to be absolutely certain here -- when you move the mouse pointer all the way to the side, does it stop before it enters the black bar, or does it continue until it reaches the edge of the screen?
 
adamcarvell said:
it stops before it enters the black bars.
Click to expand...

Cool! Ok, next question on my list: I've gone ahead and pulled down the manual for the g277hu. It looks like the monitor provides a very convenient on-screen-menu option that tells you what it thinks the resolution that the computer is sending actually is. If you press the MENU key, then navigate down to the circle with an "i" icon, it should bring up a screen with info such as the current screen resolution, and which port is being used. Could you check and see what it says?
 
If I compare to on-line pix of your monitor, the sides appear pretty close to the edge of the active display area. The bottom does not... Your dock sits within the black area at the bottom of the screen (why does your dock show off the screen? - or is that part of the background image, so dock is normally within that black part of the image? (?) )

Can you move the cursor to the bottom edge of the screen (into the black area next to the dock?)

Your Acer G277HU has a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1440.
What does your Displays pane show? (click on Scaled, rather than Default for Display)
What is the hardware name of your display that your Mac detects, as it shows in the top bar of your Displays pane?

jpietrzak8 has a great question, too. Specifically, how is your display connected to your mini?
 
Last edited:
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DeltaMac said:
jpietrzak8 has a great question, too. Specifically, how is your display connected to your mini?
Click to expand...

And, more specifically, are you using an HDMI connection to the monitor? I just did a quick browse through Google for "Acer monitor resolution", and several people were complaining about either their monitor or their computer trying to deal with "overscan" mode and coming up with a similar display.

BTW, "overscan" is an old mechanism used by televisions to force an incoming video to cover the entire screen, by increasing the image size beyond the physical capacity of the screen. In short, the edges of the image get cut off. So computers (and some monitors) will compensate for this by decreasing the image size; but if overscan isn't currently in effect, that'll have the opposite issue, and the image won't fill the entire screen.

The key is normally to turn off "overscan" on the monitor, if that is possible. Failing that, turn of "underscan" on the computer (which is probably the solution here, as the image is too small, not too big). (Or, I suppose, avoid the issue completely by not using an HDMI connection. DVI or DisplayPort should not have this issue, hopefully.)
 
jpietrzak8 said:
Cool! Ok, next question on my list: I've gone ahead and pulled down the manual for the g277hu. It looks like the monitor provides a very convenient on-screen-menu option that tells you what it thinks the resolution that the computer is sending actually is. If you press the MENU key, then navigate down to the circle with an "i" icon, it should bring up a screen with info such as the current screen resolution, and which port is being used. Could you check and see what it says?
Click to expand...
Im at work atm but tried it before its dp as the input as im using display poet cable and gives me the max resolution
[doublepost=1491899954][/doublepost]
adamcarvell said:
Im at work atm but tried it before its dp as the input as im using display poet cable and gives me the max resolution
Click to expand...
2560 x 1440
[doublepost=1491900091][/doublepost]When i return home where is the option to overscan or underscan ?.
 
An "underscan" option should appear in the "Display" panel of "System Preferences". But, only if the Mac believes that it is hooked up to a TV; otherwise, it'll just pass the raw data.

However, I've stumbled across a worrisome post on Reddit about the g77hu, so now I must ask: have you ever confirmed that your monitor has pixels running right up to the bezel? It might have been designed with that black space at the edges. Here's the full quote:

So I recently purchased one of these 'Zero Frame' monitors, a 27" G277HU Yes, not a bang-up-to-date 4/5K display, but it matches the maximum 2560x1440 resolution supported by my macbook pro, so exactly what I needed. What I don't get is this zero-frame thing? Yes the bezel is 'hairline' thin, but the image stops about 6mm from the edge! The marketing states how useful this thin bezel is for multi-monitor setups, but it seems thetre is pretty much as much black space as there would be if the monitor had a bezel! Every image I can see of this range has this black zone around the image. Does anyone else have any experience of these things? Can you confirm if I'm just going slightly potty?

EDIT: just to be clear I'm not seeking tech support with this post, I'm discussing the product specs and marketing

EDIT 2: Since the original post I have pretty much confirmed that the black border is built into the product, there are no pixels in this region.​

https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/comments/3oq29j/acer_zero_frame_monitors_xpost_rhardware/

EDIT: I've stumbled across a SlashGear review of the h277hu (which seems similar to the g277hu), and they also show the black border on their machine. :( I think it may be built-in to the monitor. Here's a picture with the border:

acer-h277hu-usb-c-monitor-review-9-1280x720.jpg


https://www.slashgear.com/acer-h277hu-usb-c-monitor-review-your-macbooks-best-friend-27441953/
 
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Yes, marketing for that display uses the term "zero-frame".
So, the hard bezel - that frame or enclosure that wraps around edge of most other displays - does not exist.
However, the active area of the display does not extend to the hardware edge.
Nothing wrong with the display, but it simply is not an edge-to-edge display, despite Acer's marketing, which makes it seem more than it might appear in real life...
 
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Please come back to the keyboard adamcarvell! There is still one thing bothering me about your monitor. :confused:

When jpietrzak8 inquired about the behavior of your cursor at the edge of the screen you said...
adamcarvell said:
it stops before it enters the black bars.
Click to expand...


But I did not see an answer to DeltaMac's similar question...
DeltaMac said:
...Can you move the cursor to the bottom edge of the screen (into the black area next to the dock?)...
Click to expand...

The bottom of the screen looks weird. If that is not part of your wallpaper then I am mighty curious about a couple of details. Can your cursor move throughout the dock and its icons? I expect that it can move freely through that area. Can the cursor travel left and right of the dock into those two adjacent dark zones? o_O
 
Celerondon said:
Please come back to the keyboard adamcarvell! There is still one thing bothering me about your monitor. :confused:

When jpietrzak8 inquired about the behavior of your cursor at the edge of the screen you said...



But I did not see an answer to DeltaMac's similar question...


The bottom of the screen looks weird. If that is not part of your wallpaper then I am mighty curious about a couple of details. Can your cursor move throughout the dock and its icons? I expect that it can move freely through that area. Can the cursor travel left and right of the dock into those two adjacent dark zones? o_O
Click to expand...
i can move the cursor into the area next to the dock both sides right unto the 5mm back area on left and right hands of the screen
 
Good...
Your background that you choose to use is a little odd, but that's a personal choice, I suppose - like using a picture of a your cat... :D

So, your display appears to be working properly: you don't get full use of the possible space, because the display is not designed to do that. It's nothing that you can fix, other than replacing that display with one that is truly "edge-to-edge"
I haven't seen a desktop display that has that, but then I may have missed that one.
 
DeltaMac said:
Good...
Your background that you choose to use is a little odd, but that's a personal choice, I suppose - like using a picture of a your cat... :D

So, your display appears to be working properly: you don't get full use of the possible space, because the display is not designed to do that. It's nothing that you can fix, other than replacing that display with one that is truly "edge-to-edge"
I haven't seen a desktop display that has that, but then I may have missed that one.
Click to expand...
the background is the OS X sierra one lol.
 
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