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    MacBook and Dell 2005FPW connection

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by elgato65, Apr 19, 2007.

  1. elgato65

    elgato65 Newbie

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    I am trying to connect my new MacBook to a Dell 2005FPW monitor. I am using the mini-DVI to VGA cable and use the VGA input of the monitor, but I am having trouble setting up the monitor's native 1680 x 1050 native resolution. When I selct it from the MB Display settings, the picture does not fill the screen entirely and it apperrs quite blurry, just like when you use a non-native resolution on any LCD display.

    Somoene who has a similar setup has been able to get this working right? Any help will be appreciated.
     
    elgato65, Apr 19, 2007
    #1
  2. hollownail

    hollownail Individual 11

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    Well, my first recommendation would be to dump your mini-dvi to vga and get the mini-dvi to dvi.

    Otherwise, I'm not sure. Did you do the auto-calibration on teh monitor?
     
    hollownail, Apr 19, 2007
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  3. elgato65

    elgato65 Newbie

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    Yes, I did the autocalibration thing, but it's not solving the issue.
    I am already using the DVI input to connect it to my PC, so that I do not have to unplug connectors each time I use my MacBook. That's why getting the VGA output to work correctly would be great.
     
    elgato65, Apr 19, 2007
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  4. hollownail

    hollownail Individual 11

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    Hrm.... how well does the vga from your desktop to the monitor work?

    It could be a faulty ADC chip if that also has problems.
     
    hollownail, Apr 20, 2007
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  5. cashmonee

    cashmonee Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    The VGA on a MacBook will only support up to 1600x1200. That is your problem. If you want full res you will need to use DVI.
     
    cashmonee, Apr 20, 2007
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  6. Paul

    Paul Mom! Hot Pockets! NBR Reviewer

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    Well that sucks. Why is this?
     
    Paul, Apr 20, 2007
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  7. cashmonee

    cashmonee Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    I am not sure if it is a limitation of the VGA standard or something Apple has done. Maybe someone with more knowledge would know.
     
    cashmonee, Apr 20, 2007
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  8. hollownail

    hollownail Individual 11

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    It may be a limitation of the GMA950 card. It appears that there are CRT monitors that can support a higher resolution that 1600x1200.
    It also appears the GMA 950 supports a higher resolution than 1600x1200.

    You might find an answer here: Hack the GMA950

    I would be highly surprised, and ... i dunno, insulted? if Apple intentionally capped the resolution.

    BTW, does it work okay when you boot into windows? Another thought is that it could be a limitation with OS X not having dedicated memory for video processing.
     
    hollownail, Apr 20, 2007
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  9. jujube

    jujube Notebook Deity

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    I believe hollownail makes a valid point that it could be a GMA950 limitation issue capped by Apple. Because on Intel's site it claims to be able to support up to 2048x1536 or am I reading it wrong?

    http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma950/
     
    jujube, Apr 20, 2007
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  10. Paul

    Paul Mom! Hot Pockets! NBR Reviewer

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    2058x1536=3145728 pixels.

    If the user is attempting to use the screens together (the 1280x800 Macbook and the 1680x1050 external), then the GMA is having to draw (1680x1050)+(1280x800)=1764000+1024000=2788000. But if the GMA in the Macbook is a little crippled (which is already is considering it's capped at 64MB of memory in OS X vs 224MB in Windows), then this could be causing a problem.
     
    Paul, Apr 20, 2007
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  11. cashmonee

    cashmonee Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    I doubt it is a limitation of the GMA 950 since it will should support that screen resolution using mini-DVI to DVI, it won't support it using mini-DVI to VGA.
     
    cashmonee, Apr 21, 2007
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  12. Paul

    Paul Mom! Hot Pockets! NBR Reviewer

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    Well, I doubt it's a limitation of VGA since plenty of monitors with higher res than that have VGA Inputs. It sounds like something that Apple did to cap it.
     
    Paul, Apr 21, 2007
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