external monitor setup questions

Hi there,

I have a macbook pro and can't get my external monitor setup the way I want.
I use my macbook in the lounge on its own quite a bit, no problem. When I want to use it for Pro Tools I go into my studio, plug in my keyboard, mouse, PT interface etc and a 19 inch LCD monitor.
I want when this happens for the 19" to become the main monitor, the laptop is off to the side, closed, or nearly closed.

When I plug in the 19" it becomes a 2nd screen, off to the right of the main window. It'll run at 1280 x 1024, the correct screen res but I don't want it to be a 2nd monitor.
If I select the "mirror" option, it becomes a copy of the main screen, what I want, however it doesn't fill the screen. The screen res is still set to 1280 x 1024 but it has black at the top and bottom as it appears to have an issue with the macbook screen being wide screen and it "mirroring" a widescreen res.
I want it to be the mian screen and fill the whole screen correctly, giving me the extra height of the 19" that I like for wokring in Pro Tools.

I'm sure the first time I plugged the thing in it worked fine (I was wrong once before though, in 1984 I think), how come I can't get it sorted now?

Any ideas?

Cheers,

Simon

Is it set to have the monitor as the main screen when attached? I also have a laptop connected to a monitor, and disconnect it every once in a while. When I plug it back in, it always reverts to the regular settings and makes the big display the main one.

Under system Prefs there's a display page. In there there's an arrangement (all of this done plugged into the monitor). Theres a little tab representing the userbar on the top of the monitors. Drag and drop this onto the larger lcd monitor square (there should be two side by side, you can also drag the boxes to set where your mouse moves from one monitor to the other). Also, you should get two system prefs windows open in each screen, the MB and the monitor. You can then adjust each screens resolution seperate from one another.

PS make sure that display mirroring is turned off, too, or else the monitor will just mirror the screen of the MB, so the resolution will be the same, not filling the whole monitor.

Hope that helped.

Thanks mikepugs, I have played with that arrangement page where you can move the two little screens around. I didn't realise however that you could grab the little tab at the top, I'll try that tonight.

Cheers,

Simon

Did indeed work exactly as described, thanks everyone.

External monitor resolution

Hi there,
I have to use a display with my laptop. Since this pb only goes to 1024 x 768 and the HP w1907 monitor goes to 1440 x 900 is there a way to override the laptop screen setup? It will be no problem if I have to use only the external display as main working screen.
Thanks.

alvaro said:

Hi there,
I have to use a display with my laptop. Since this pb only goes to 1024 x 768 and the HP w1907 monitor goes to 1440 x 900 is there a way to override the laptop screen setup? It will be no problem if I have to use only the external display as main working screen.
Thanks.

Click to expand...

There are three ways to do it:

1. Mirroring: both screens show the same thing. In this case, the lower-resolution display determines the resolution for both. This is not what you want.

2. External only: You plug in the external display, close the laptop, and then plug in a mouse and keyboard and wake up the computer. The internal display stays off.

3. Extended desktop: Each screen shows a separate image at its standard resolution. You set the "primary" display (the one that holds the menu bar) as described above. This gives you the most total space.

@ technologist
thanks, I will go for option 2. and 3. Also I just have found this: 'is very important to use mini dvi to dvi cable, if not, // mini dvi to vga // it will display as analog and use minimal resolutions. In other forum, I found that indeed a powerbook g4 12" can handle a 30" cinema display. So I'll be fine ... Thanks a lot.

Hi ,
Hope someone can help me , I have a strange problem.I have a macbook 13 inch and use a mini dvi to vga adapter on an external hp w1907 monitor , if I use a cheap vga cable the mac recognizes the monitor and runs at 1440x900 but ghosts.I went out and bought an expensive low loss cable ,now the mac does not recognize the monitor and runs at a lower resolution
I can disconnect the cheap cable and get the mac to stay at 1440 res by hot swopping with the better cable.The cables have the same pins etc
Thanks