Macbook pro second monitor PLEASE HELP!!

Hey there

Ok ive been messing with this for the last 3 hours and im starting to go absolutely insane.

Im running a Macbook pro and have an Acer x193hq monitor as my dual monitor setup. Everything was working sweet for months, but now for some reason i went to plug it in this morning and its not displaying at all.

Ive tried changing every resolution setting possible. Its ment to be able to go up to 1360x768 but when i try to use that resolution i just get a black screen with a message saying there is no signal. I can drag my mouse / windows etc across but of course the monitor is not displaying anything.

When i switch down to 1280x1024 it displays an image but is stretched heaps. Any resolutions below that also display no picture.

Ive tried everything i can think of. Ive cleared my display preferences, done a PRAM restart, Reset my monitor etc yet nothing seems to work. I find it odd that it was working perfectly for close to a year, but now it dosnt seem to work at all.

Searching the intyernet for solutions has got me nowhere, so if any one has any suggestions PLEASE help me out. This is becoming extremely frustrating.

Thanks
Scott

Try an SMC reset.

Wow thanks! Thats seems to have worked, the size and aspect ratio looks like it has returned to what it should be.

Only problem now, is that it looks like the quality is quite low. The text / icons seems to look very inconsistent but the desktop background still looks crisp. Any ideas as to what might be causing this?

Thanks!

Not sure: Maybe attach a screenshot so we can take a look.

Also, head back in and check to make sure the resolution is set properly.

Now whats even more odd, is when i take the screen shot, it looks perfectly fine in the screen shot but still looks wrong on screen.

This is certainly confusing..

That would indicate it's not a setting on the computer and it's time to check the settings on the monitor in that case.

edit: A screen shot probably took a shot of your primary screen, not the secondary. Try the command shift 4 screen shot and move it over to the secondary to take a snapshot. I'm assuming you're using extended mode vs mirrored also.

My guess would still be a monitor setting though.

Are you using the native resolution of the monitor? If not, I've seen these types of issues before.

Yup as far as im aware, im using the monitors native resolution. The size and shape is as it should be, where as when i drop the resolution down, all the other ones look odd and out of shape.

And yes when i took the screen shot i used Cmd+Shift+4 and made sure i was grabbing the second monitor.

I have reset the monitor settings to auto and it still dosnt seem to be working correctly.

Another thing that i find odd is that my resolution on the computer is at 1360x768 (native resolution) but when i open the information screen on my monitor its saying 1280x1024