Mac Pro to Samsung HDTV - "Mode not supported"???

Alright, so I have just received my new Mac Pro in the mail yesterday and wanted to hook it up to my television - a 1080p Samsung (Samsung LN-T4671F) HDTV. I am using a DVI-to-VGA cable. I feel I should probably explain the entire situation so that it's all clear.

The first time I started the computer after plugging it into the TV, the Apple logo with the Loading, spinning thing (not the multicolored wheel) showed in beautiful 1920x1080. After loading, the screen jumped to a lower resolution for a second and then went black, finally giving me a "Mode not supported" error. Thinking it was just a little hiccup, I restarted the computer and after the Apple logo screen, it showed me a screen on how to put batteries in my mouse (or something along those lines, I didn't really look), and then it had me set up my wireless keyboard. After this, it showed me the WELCOME video and allowed me to log on to my computer and start using it.

After about 15 minutes, I was going through the system prefs and came across display. Thinking maybe I should lower the resolution to better see text, I clicked on a lower resolution around 1600xsomething. The screen went black and gave me the "Mode not supported" error again. I thought I could just wait a few seconds and if I didn't confirm the resolution, it would go back...but it never did. After trying to restart my computer a number of times and receiving the error message each time, I booted in Safe Mode, which I am in right now.

I went into the sys prefs and made sure the resolution was set to 1920x1080, which it already was, and restarted the computer. Error again. I went into the settings of my TV and went to PC and had it auto correct the resolution to the input. Error again. I have been running in Safe Boot since - no sound is annoying - and enjoying the display in full 1920x1080 (1080p)...so the set obviously supports it (and the manual says it does too).

My video card is an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT. What's most annoying is that it's pretty obvious that the display supports this resolution and yet won't allow it to work outside of Safe Boot mode.

Please help User uploaded file

Mac Pro 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 2GB 800 MHz RAM, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Aug 5, 2008 1:14 PM

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7 replies

Aug 5, 2008 3:19 PM in response to direwolf8

I'm confused about what exactly this program allows me to do. I went through the various menus but did not see anything that would obviously fix it - I'm sure i'm just missing something here. I have already set the resolution to 1920x1080, why would I need this program to set it to this also?

The computer knows that the monitor is present, as it refers to the monitor by default as SAMSUNG.

Sep 12, 2008 5:32 AM in response to ontheplains

Had the same problem with an AOC 1080p TV, trying to connect to it using VGA cable.

Ivan's earlier post clued me in to solution:
- Plug in the TV, get the "Mode not supported" message on the TV
- Open the Display Preferences, you should see the display preferences for the laptop "Color LCD" monitor. Click the "Gather Displays" button - this should bring the display preferences for the TV behind the laptop preferences window. Switch to the TV's display preferences window.
- In the TV's display preferences window, switch refresh rate down to 59.9 Hertz (your TV may need different refresh rate, but on mine I only get options for 59.9 or 60).
That did it for me!

Sep 29, 2008 5:42 PM in response to ontheplains

FOUND OUT THEP ROBLEM SO FREAKING HAPPY. OKay guys the problem is that the resolution that the computer is setting for the tv is too high. i have a samsung 7 series 40 inches and on a imac. okay so goto your display pref pane. then click on gather displays. and VIOLA! change your samsungs resolution. BEAUTIFUL SO FREAKING happy. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the resolution for my tv is set to 1600X1200. not fully hd, but still looks sexy and its better then having no pc input. ENOJYYY!

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Mac Pro to Samsung HDTV - "Mode not supported"???

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