External Monitor Res' Confusion

I have a 23" monitor that can run 1920 by 1080 natively, yet when I run my MBP in clamshell mode while connected to the monitor it cuts half of the dock off at the bottom.

It seems strange that it would offer a resolution that does not fit correctly even though it is the monitor's native resolution. If anyone has a fix/solution to this problem I would be very appreciative.

What resolution is being shown in System Preferences, Displays when the external is attached? Is it operating in "Mirror" mode or "Extended Desktop"
mode?

Also it would help if you provided more than just a generic question. How about telling us which Mac you have (model, year) and the make model of the monitor? What version of OS X?

well its showing 1920 by 1080 with a series of 1600's above. So it is the correct resolution, maybe just the wrong aspect ratio, despite the sides being in perfect ratio.

15" Macbook Pro june 2010, latest Mac OS X, Samsung 2333HD Monitor (TV tuner included)

Dan7aylor said:

I have a 23" monitor that can run 1920 by 1080 natively, yet when I run my MBP in clamshell mode while connected to the monitor it cuts half of the dock off at the bottom.

Click to expand...

This could be a long shot...but are you absolutely sure that your 23" monitors display is "centered"? Sometimes the screen geometry gets "out of wack"...and you need to adjust the vertical & horizontal geometry to get the displayed image centered.

You would do this via your monitors display setting's vs. within the Apple OS preferences.

Hope this helps,

- Nick

haha yeah it runs perfectly on my xbox 360, but thanks for the help all the same

Dan7aylor said:

haha yeah it runs perfectly on my xbox 360, but thanks for the help all the same

Click to expand...

The thing is we're not talking about your monitor working fine when it's connected to your xbox 360...we're talking about when the monitor is plugged into your Macbook Pro. Things can change when you move from device to device.

- Nick

hmm okay, well either way when the MBP is plugged in everything fits perfectly except the bottom part of the screen. Its like its being stretched vertically slightly, so Im thinking its an issue with the aspect ratio.

There is not nearly enough info to provide any really good assistance.


Is only the bottom of the screen being cut off, or is part of the menu bar also off the screen?
Is this a monitor or a TV you're using?
What is the make and model?
What are you using to attach the Mac to the monitor, e.g. what cable and port?

ive given some of that information above "15" Macbook Pro june 2010, latest Mac OS X, Samsung 2333HD Monitor (TV tuner included)" but i am using a Mini Display to VGA connect the MBP to the Monitor.
I can't tell if its being stretched or not because the section of the screen not visible is relatively small. However, half the dock is off the screen while the rest of the display seems to be in the correct position.

Sorry, I missed that in the 2nd post. I'll do some digging, but my initial guess since you're using VGA, is that pigoo has it right. It should be a matter of adjusting the horizontal size on the monitor.



Yet another Samsung.... I'm going to continue repeating this until everyone gets it.

yeah okay ill try that later thanks to the both of you.

Sorry if it has been discussed before, Im really bad at trawling forums

No, haven't seen your particular issue related to VGA connections for awhile.

But, about 99.5% of all the problems we see (at least in this forum) related to connecting to external monitors and TVs involve Samsung.

oh right haha, very strange :/

i have tried configuring the screen, but i cannot access the advanced settings because they are greyed out for some reason. I cannot for the life of my figure out how to "unlock" these settings which seems ludicrous to me.

What controls are you locked out of? What settings are you referring to? I was just on the Samsung site looking at your monitor/TV. It looks like any other Samsung with regard to making adjustments thru a front panel menu.

I have two Samsung monitors and one TV here at home and both monitors work the same way to adjust raster width, height, and various other on screen settings.

I'm not understanding what would be grayed out either. If the Positions settings are grayed out, are you sure you're using a VGA connection and not HDMI?

I'll start off "assuming" you have set the resolution at 1920x1080. If you haven't, do so now, on your Mac in System Preferences - Displays.

Below is for a VGA connection and using the 'Source' button on the remote to select the 'PC' input.

At this point the only items for this issue you should be looking at in the TV menu are:
1. If you've been playing around with a bunch of settings already, you need to head for and select 'Image Reset'
2. If that doesn't fix it, the next one is the 'Auto Adjust' setting.
3. If that doesn't do it, then you'll need to head for the 'Position' menu and adjust... first the size, then the position on screen.

There are no other Menu item settings on the monitor for this issue and my only other suggestion would be to try a different resolution.