Previous Gen MBP's DVI output issues solved

With the new gen MBP's coming out (more specifically the 17") the refurbished previous gen MBP prices have come down considerably in price, Which has led me to buy one! I have learned much this past week about the little nuances of the MBP's video output (DVI OUT, not the new gen mini display port) and I thought I would share my findings in the hopes that it might help anyone troubleshooting the same issues:

The following was troubleshot with the help of Apple's tech support:

1. When Mirroring your MBP with an External Display that has a lesser native resolution, more specifically the refresh rate, the MBP will only display (ON BOTH LAPTOP AND EXTERNAL DISPLAY) that lesser refresh rate. My MBP is the 17" previous gen native 1920 x 1200 and when I would hook it up to my Samsung 22" native 1680 x 1050 @ 60hz it would look great on the Samsung but look slightly blurry on the MBP's display. However, when taking mirroring off (dual mon mode), for some reason the 8600M GT is able to accommodate both monitors with their respective native resolutions and refresh rates.

2. Clamshell Mode!!! this was driving me nuts!!! I kept doing the following: plugging in the external display getting an image, closing the MBP and when trying to wake it up with an external mouse and/or keyboard it would display itself on the external monitor briefly then immediately go back to sleep...after troubleshooting with apple we found that THE MBP MUST BE RECEIVING EXTERNAL POWER FOR THIS TO WORK AND NOT RUNNING OFF BATTERY POWER. Also found that the external mouse and/or keyboard CAN be Bluetooth and does not need to be hardwired to wake the MBP in clamshell mode!

Feel free to comment or bash and try discredit anything I have said, but at the very least I hope I prevented a headache or two.

My only comments are both 1 and 2 in your post are clearly documented in Apple's knowledge base. A little research on your part could have saved you some headaches and time. No disparity toward you, however. Been there, done that myself.

Regards.

yeh i knew that too.
well everything except for the bluetooth part since i have a usb keyboard/mouse

btw you can run off battery power using an external monitor if you leave it open.
didnt figure that one out for a few months haha.

cables?

I also have the early 2008 mbpro (15"). Wanting to hook up to my tv for movie play and for a larger screen when doing video editing. My tv is a few yrs old and doesn't have hdmi input or vga input - only dvi hdtv input. So that's why I'm going this route to connect.
Anyways, through my research I'm trying to establish if a DVI-D cable will be compatible with the DVI out port on the mbpro. I say this because the dvi to vga cable that comes with, has a DVI-I connection. Slightly different pin setup. So, does anyone know if this is true and if it will be effective?? Can I use a DVI-D (dual link) cable with my mbpro?

I do appreciate the info as to mirror mode affecting the display on laptop if my tv has lesser resolution (which it does). I'll keep that in mind.

hi i just joined the site and saw you had a early 2008 MBP im finally gonna get a mac laptop but not sure which,do you think its worth getting the early 2008 macbook pro ''15'' brand new at a good price, or getting the latest albeit referbished alluminium MBP?

First of all, welcome.

I'm far from an experienced Mac user (only had my mbp since July 08). But, depending on the specs of the 2 mbpros I would say go for the best bang for your buck. I don't know what you will use it for, but mine is mostly personal use (basic web-browsing, email). I do however dabble in the occasional video editing using iMovie and Final Cut Express 4.0. I didn't have the $$$ to max out the HD, processor, memory, etc. but I've never experienced any lag or problems running those programs with what I have.

Just doing a quick Google search I came across this article (with links at the bottom to more articles) on your very question.

Hope I could be of some help.