17" MacBookPro has decided to stop detecting proper resolutions on second 19" monitor

I use a 17" Macbook Pro and have a 19" Hannspree HF199H hooked up to it via DVI to VGA adapter and VGA cord.

I turned on the monitor yesterday and now my mac has decided to no longer detect it as HF199H, but as VGA DISPLAY. There are no correct resolutions to select, and I'm pretty sure it's picking up the wrong aspect ratio as well.

I tried displayConfigX...it didn't fix the problem at all.

Usually the mac would just detect the proper display and the correct resolution(1440x900). I haven't changed anything that would have caused this. In fact I'm pretty sure I haven't changed anything at all in the past day or so.

This is a setup I've had for at least a couple years with no issues, so this problem is extremely frustrating.

Any help or ideas would be awesome Thanks!

edit - Running 10.5.8 with an ATI Radion X1600.

A little more info:
I occasionally will hook up the Mac to a 32" Samsung TV using the same cable. It will no longer detect that display properly either.

You should really be using DVI to DVI and not DVI to VGA. VGA is analog whereas DVI is digital - much better results.

As to your current problem:

Reset the SMC and PRAM on your machine.

Resetting the PRAM did the trick!

I will look into a cable change.

Thanks a bunch!

Come to find this happens every time my computer awakes from sleep. So the PRAM and SMC reset has done nothing.

That shouldn't be happening. Try setting the monitor back to factory defaults if there is a menu item to do so. Also try unplugging the monitor from the AC main and let it stay off line for awhile. Changing the cables to DVI may resolve the problem and then again it may not. If you can get hold of a DVI adapter and DVI cable cheap enough, give it a try.

If all the above doesn't work, It's likely a problem with the monitor not your MBP.

I'll give it all a shot. Thanks for paying attention to this...it came out of nowhere and is pretty much killing any chance of me doing any work in photoshop.

Well, the same thing seems to still be happening when hooking up the computer to a 32" Samsung TV.
Looks like I'm well on my way to some expensive computer repair!

Well, that's certainly bad news. I would not have suspected the MBP to be at fault but if it's doing the same thing with two different monitors....

How old is your MBP? I see you're running Leopard on it and suspect it may be a 2008 model or possibly a late 2007? The reason I ask is it might not be worth spending a lot of $$ repairing it.

Yeah it's somewhere around there. Recent fooling has shown that when I mirror the displays, the Macbook takes on a 4:3 aspect ratio, conforming to the stretched 4:3 ratio of the external monitor...just in case that gives anybody more info.

I guess my MBP decided to host a computer demon party one day when I was gone.

I guess my MBP decided to host a computer demon party one day when I was gone.

Click to expand...

LOL, maybe we need an exorcism? Seriously, I just thought of something that may help. What happens to the resolution and aspect ratio when you close the cover on the MBP? In other words, operate it in clamshell mode? I'm not sure you would want to do that but as an experiment it may tell us if the graphics on the MBP is working as it should.

Whoa...following the directions you posted, the external monitor came up in it's proper resolution, detected as the proper name as well.

I opened the book back up and detected display again, to get both screens back, and voila....everything is normal.

Who knows how long it will last, and I'm not sure what it tells me about the state of my mac/external...but for now, I am the most happy of campers.

Yeah that only worked once haha. Back to the problem again.