Trouble w/ MBP & external displays

[wmmk]

Hi everyone,
The other night, I got home from a 10.5 hour shift at work, tripped over a cord, and dropped my MBP. The LCD was broken. I got a very reasonable quote from powerbookmedic and will be able to ship the mac this weekend and get it back within a few days.

Anyhow, I bought an iPhone this morning and would like to start using it as soon as possible. I was thinking that I'd just use my MBP with and external display and activate my iPhone using that. However, on the external display, the aqua desktop background shows up but I don't see my mouse, the login box, or the top menu bar. FWIW, a Mac Genius verified that my logic board is OK. To make things even odder, a small corner of the laptop's built-in LCD is functional and I can see the mouse icon and menu bar on that. Is there any way to solve this issue? I suppose that maybe my external DVI connection got messed up, but I don't really ever use an external display and would rather not pay to get that function fixed.

Finally, I should also mention that I was able to back up all of my data (including system files and apps) onto an external firewire drive. Would there be any way to connect my external to my family's Mac Mini and sync the data from that onto my iPhone?

Thanks much,
wmmk

 

[nufanec]

It's meant to do that. if you plug in an external monitor it can do one of two things - give you a second desktop (default and what you are seeing now), or mirror your built in display. You will need to turn on display monitoring to use the external display the way you want to. Obviously this might be tricky seeing as the display is cracked...

 

[Hydroxs]

try putting it to sleep and waking it up with in clamshell mode

 

[alphaod]

Try this:
Shutdown-->Plug in keyboard and mouse-->Connect to monitor-->Start with screen shut.

That should display everything.

Also how did you trip over the cord and cause the computer to fall...

 

[kingcrowing]

Ouch man, that sucks! I'd also try it with it shut, its probably your best bet

 

[a4abt]

boot your MBP with the external monitor connected

wait until it finishes booting up (~2 minutes to be sure!)

close the MBP lid

with a mouse or keyboard connected, click on the mouse ot hit a keyboard key

the external monitor should be your main display! you can now open the MBP lid and work in clamshell mode.

 

[CaptainChunk]

Also how did you trip over the cord and cause the computer to fall...

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing because the MagSafe connector pops out with relatively little force.

 

[gr8bob]

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing because the MagSafe connector pops out with relatively little force.

MagSafe doesn't perform as hyped up as it was supposed to be..

 

[wmmk]

thanks for the replies! the cord I tripped over was actually that of my camera charged. I'll try letting it start, closing it, and waking with an external keyboard.

 

[UltraNEO*]

Perhaps they should introduce "magsafe" sockets on everything!!
Mmm... Mag-Safe DVI port, Mag-Safe USB!!

 

[CaptainChunk]

MagSafe doesn't perform as hyped up as it was supposed to be..

MagSafe has saved my butt at least a dozen times... In either case, it's light years ahead of what we used to have on PowerBooks: a funny plug that bends if you look at it the wrong way.