External monitor connection

Question

External monitor connection

I have a 1.5 GHz 15" PB and a Samsung 245BW monitor. The monitor has a 19 pin DVI port and a RGB port. I can connect the monitor to my mac via the RGB port and RGB cable to the RGB to DIV Apple adapter, and then to my Mac, and it works fine. When I try to connect the monitor DVI port through the DVI cable directly to the DVI port on the Mac; the two do not recognize each other.
Does anyone have an explanation of why I cannot use the DIV setup? It would be very much appreciated.

PowerBook G4, 1.5GHz, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 24" monitor

Posted on Mar 9, 2008 7:05 AM

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Answer 1

philo2

Level 1

85 points

Mar 9, 2008 12:54 PM in response to Benjamin Zabriskie

Welcome Benjamin
I had a similar problem with my Acer display, found a solution in this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6327832#6327832¨
Download and install SwitchResX, launch it from SystemPreferences duplicate the active setting a few times and try with different vertical scan rates, after reboot you can access the fitting Refresh Rates in SystemPrefs-Displays.
For my display a refresh rate of 62Hz is fine, odd enough that with a rate of 60Hz provided by the system and specified on the display it won't be found or gets lost after a few seconds.
B.t.w. once set, the rate remains also after uninstalling SwitchRes, so you don't really have to buy it, I heard some rumors, that "ApplicationEnhancer" installed with SwitchRes causes problems with Leopard, be aware of that.
I had two issues where the DVI-port of my Display failed, it had to be replaced, the third time it was the DVI-outlet of my Alu-Powerbook that passed away, it is in repair at the moment. Nevertheless the VGA connection was never affected, so DVI seems to be a bit tricky, I hope this is not the problem in your case.
Good Luck P

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