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Monitor problem...

M

mikewalt820

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 17, 2005
7
0
Long Island
hey guys and gals - this is my first post... I'm in deep doo doo with this computer... I've been using macs for about 10 years now and I've never had a problem I couldn't solve myself... 'cept this lol.. long story short a video game changed my screen resolution to one that was 'out of range' to my monitor and I could not see anything - tried force quit, restart.... screen still out of range after the gray screen with the apple... so uh I linked it up to my lappy g3 and tried to pull out pref files and let the computer reset them... replaced them if they did not make any changes after restart... then I finally hooked it up to an apple display I have(DVI) and it works.. I'm guessing because it recognized the display.... anyway, now I notice that the display pane in the system preferences application is.. *poof*, gone. I called tech support and the guy politely said he could not tell me anything without dumping 50 bucks afterwhich he would most likely just tell me to reinstall everything... :-\ not the answer I'm looking for... so I put it to you apple guru's .... what files do I need to replace to get my display pane back... and reset the prefs so my display will actually stay 'in range'?? I have 6 macs in the house, so replacement files are in no short order - I do not want to reinstall everything. at all costs I will avoid it like the plague. here's the details you'll probrably need: os x 10.3.9 5 year old G4 Dual 500mhz and I have the radeon pro graphics card.. top of the line back in those days ;) anyway - I'm desperate. post my back, email me @ mikewalt820@gmail.com and I'll kiss your shoes. thanks in advance
 
pram is reset ... was the first thing I tried... any one else? :) come on guys... there has to be some die hard mac users who know the answer! canI get a list of related files so I can replace them?
 
Duff-Man says...just because it does not show in the system preferences app does not necessarily mean the file is missing. Look in your /system/library/PreferencePanes/ folder - is there a file in here called "displays.prefpane" - if it is there, try double clicking it.....oh yeah!
 
alrighty duff... I looked, I did not find - so I replaced it with one from my laptop.. boom.. it's back... however it still starts up and after the verbose startup it goes back to it's out of range state... anyway to reset the uh.. thinggy... :) sorry brain fart... the monitor settings??
 
mikewalt820 said:
alrighty duff... I looked, I did not find - so I replaced it with one from my laptop.. boom.. it's back... however it still starts up and after the verbose startup it goes back to it's out of range state... anyway to reset the uh.. thinggy... :) sorry brain fart... the monitor settings??
Click to expand...


Try unplugging the display and starting the Mac, then when it's running and the drive has stopped, plug the display back in. That way the Mac will not sense the display when it starts up, and may reset to a standard res and refresh rate.
 
I did this once and, not knowing where the relevant preference is stored, had a heckuva time figuring out what to delete to fix it.

Here's an old hint at MacOSXHints on the subject, and unless Apple's changed where they save this info, it should still work:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2001100114532165

In summary, first try restarting while holding down the Shift key--this has worked for me in the past.

If that's no good, try deleting:
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist

...and maybe:
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.biguglynumber.plist (in your home library folder, though I don't remember having to delete this)

Alternately, I was under the impression you could get around this by first booting into OpenFirmware (command-option-o-f), then doing "reset-nvram" and "reset-all", then when it restarts immediately reset the PRAM. That might've just been to get around a glitch with the PCI graphics cards in Yikes! G4s, though, and the resolution might go back to the unesirable level once you get to the desktop.

Good luck.
 
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