mini display port issues

Hi, I recently purchased a minidisplay port converter to dvi and I tried plugging it in and all that happens is blue screen flashing. This is how it is hooked up

Minidisplay port converter >> dvi cable >> dell monitor

So i'm not sure what is failing here my logic board / or either cables
Also. I do not see the "Arrangement" tab under System Preferences >> Display

Note: I have a macbook pro 7,1 and I'm not sure if it supports mirroring / extended screens

 

Your Mac supports mirroring and outputting to an external display so that shouldn't be the issue. Under the System Preferences and Display, select the Detect Displays option. It will force your Mac to look for the external display. After that, if it still doesn't recognize your display, I would start with the simplest solution (i.e. the mini DP adapter) and work backwards.

Did you buy the mini DP adapter online or is it an official Apple model? Many people have had a countless number of issues when buying cheap (and I mean cheap, not inexpensive) mini DP cables online. A large portion of them seem to either work for a while and fail or not work at all. I had a cheap mini DP to HDMI adapter fail on me after 3 months of solid usage. I spent the money for a more expensive, better built mini DP to HDMI cable and it has been doing fine for ~7 months now.

 

>.> its an official apple one I bought online x.x

Also I'm prolly gonna head over to the apple store and see if they can test it

I just tried what you said but it didn't really do much at all. because its just blinking alot.

And I have a feeling my dvi cable is dead for some reason

 

I have the same problem as well. I upgraded to Lion, and experience the same problem of OSX not detecting any external display. It was good with Snow Leopard. This happened to my iMac, and MBP. The screen only blinks blue, and that's it. Nothing else happens. I tried various ways to detect the external display, and it is not detected.

 

I would also like to point out that I am still using snow leopard. I'll update after the visit to the apple store tomorrow afternoon

 

A shoddy DVI cable would cause issues too. They might have one in the Apple Store so you can test it out.

JLagoon, have you tried performing a clean install of Lion instead of just upgrading?

 

Is the apple mini display port apple os x restricted? or can it run on windows 7?

 

When you go into Display Properties, hit the "Gather Windows" button if its not grayed out. If its seeing the extra monitor, then the settings for it are being displayed on that monitor... if the default way its trying to run that monitor will not work, then the monitor will not show up. Hitting gather Windows should pull the config window for that extra monitor over to the main screen so you can try to adjust the settings for it.

 

Ah, I forgot about the Gather Windows option. Good call.

Apple's official cables are just cables. They don't have a chip in them that restricts their usage to OS X. They will work under Windows just fine. Hell, they will even work with non-Apple hardware.

 

Just wanted to make sure thanks for the verification.

:3 I walked into apple today and they replaced it for me no questions asked
Starting to love their service

Also I have confirmed it was the old mini display port adapter that was the issue

 

Good to hear that it is working out fine with you.

I haven't tried performing a clean install of Lion. I haven't gotten the time to do it, but will keep it in mind. It is quite strange though. There are users that have performed clean install, and they still cannot connect to an external monitor.

 

I don't know if this works for you or even applies to you but I had a similar issue with my Macbook which has an Nvidia GT 330 I think dedicated and then some Intel Graphics for Integrated. Basically I was using my Mini Display Port to HDMI and it wouldn't work, but then I realized that I was on my integrated card because I use gfxCardStatus which is a free ware ap to control which GPU I'm on and have currently running.

Once I made this observation and then switched to Dedicated my MiniDisplay started working, which completely makes sense .

 

That is easily overlooked. Yes on dual GPU machines, only the actual GPU and not the integrated one can run the external port. Normally this isn't an issue because it switches itself, but it is a problem if you force the integrated on.

 

Hi Darkloki:

I tried to remove gfxcardstatus, and use it with the Nvidia card only. It didn't make any difference. This is the case (not involving gfxcardstatus) with my iMac early 2009 as well. It's odd; only a blue screen flicker, and that's it. No external display is listed or detected.

 

You think it's the cord? I paid 12 dollars for my Mini-Display to HDMI cord and it works fine, I bought mine off of Ebay though because I didn't want an adapter and just a thru and thru cord.