Problems getting external monitor to display

[iso]

I have an external monitor for my mac book pro that I would use as my primary monitor when sitting at my desk. To use it I would simple plug the DVI cable into the side, wait for the external to display, shut the laptop lid which would put the laptop to sleep, re-awaken the lap top by moving an external mouse, and then the external monitor would display nicely at the proper resolution of ~1680x1050. I would then usually re-open my laptop monitor to allow better venting, but this was not necessary to making things work.

For some reason this morning I am no longer able to get the above steps to work. Leopard is up to date and no changes have been made since yesterday when everything was working. I don't know if there is a better way to perform this task, if there is please let me know.

Right now if I close the laptop lid and re-awaken it, it will wake up on the external monitor in a low resolution, then in about 5 seconds it will go back to sleep.

Any advice?

Thanks.

 

[Fezzasus]

Why do you close your laptop? just plug the display in while the laptop is on and open and it will sort itself out.

Alternatively, if it doesn't find the correct resolution (It should) go to system preferences, displays and tick 'show displays in menu bar'.

Now whenever you attach your monitor, drag the box down and select 'detect displays'

 

[shoulin333]

download Insomniax ( http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/22211 )


this way it wont go to sleep when you close it in the first place

 

[iso]

Why do you close your laptop? just plug the display in while the laptop is on and open and it will sort itself out.

Alternatively, if it doesn't find the correct resolution (It should) go to system preferences, displays and tick 'show displays in menu bar'.

Now whenever you attach your monitor, drag the box down and select 'detect displays'

Closing the monitor was the only way to get the resolution to work. I would be able to see that high resolution in the list. but nothing would happen if I selected it. Closing the laptop seemed to be a way for it to refresh the displays. I should also add that I was using the Clone Displays option, seeing as I only wanted to use the external monitor. If I turn this option off the resolution issue goes away if I drag the command bar to the external monitor, but now I have the laptop acting as a secondary display. Since it's location is in a spot that is not easy to view it would be nice if it could be disabled like before, but this solution is better than the issue I was having this morning.

download Insomniax ( http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/22211 )

Having it go to sleep was what I needed to refresh the displays. The issue now is that it doesn't re-awaken more like an insomniac that has overdosed on the sleeping pills.

 

[shoulin333]

Having it go to sleep was what I needed to refresh the displays. The issue now is that it doesn't re-awaken more like an insomniac that has overdosed on the sleeping pills.

nonsense,... there is something wrong with your laptop if the resolutions dont automatically adjust to native... i had a SR MBP before this blackbook, it worked

 

[iso]

A friend of mine has the same laptop model and he has to do the exact same steps to get the proper resolution.

We bought ours about a month apart, so maybe this is a new "feature".

 

[Alucardx03]

It's funny that you should post this. I literally had the exact same problem this weekend.

Let me start by asking this; do you have a windows partition in bootcamp? When I couldn't get my MBP to display in the correct resolution (or for the MBP to even stay on while shutting the screen), I called Apple and the tech suggested deleting the windows Bootcamp partition. I did this and lo and behold, it worked perfectly. He explained that it was a problem with Bootcamp and that it was rare, but problematic.

Hope this helps.

 

[iso]

I do have a windows partition, but unfortunately I have to keep it and have had it for quite a while. I did however create a Kubuntu parallels virtual os yesterday, although it doesn't reside within it's own partition. I will get rid of it and see if that helps.

Thanks.

 

[AndyK]

Searching = win.

 

[iso]

Unfortunately, insomniax doesn't help this problem at all. It keeps the monitor on if I close the lid... One of the issues I was having was that after closing the lid sometimes it was difficult to get the laptop monitor to display again, so I guess it helps that.

What I found today was that none of the display settings were saved, so this morning I am having to go through the same steps as yesterday to get things to display properly.

The biggest pain in the ass is leopard being unable to detect the resolution of the external monitor all the time. So I have to fiddle with it until I can get it.

I did remove the Parallel Kubuntu OS yesterday which didn't seem to do anything.

Go Apple!