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Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter not working under Vista (Boot Camp).

Hi there,

I'm facing a very serious issue with MacBook Pro Unibody running MS Vista under Boot Camp: using the Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter to hook a projector is 95% impossible because the only resolution available is 640x480 or sometimes 800x600. No solution came from the adaptor firmware update, still same behavior: connecting the external projector/monitor toggles 640x480 resolution with no more choices available. Just 5% of attempts on selected projectors gave me access to the complete resolutions list.

This is having a serious impact on my job where I do need both Mac&Windows running natively and with external display capabilities, please I'm looking for some feedback from users facing the same problem or someone who had an official answer on this issue from Apple. Do avoid posting about using modded display drivers please: I know they exist but the adaptor should be working with original ones.

I can understand Apple does not support MS Vista issues but this seems to be a hardware/driver one.

I'd like to point out I'm using a clean Vista installation with Apple drivers (from the Leopard DVD) and I've run Vista (same version, same gfx drivers etc) under Boot Camp on my previous MPB (with integrated DVI output+adapter) on hundreds of different projectors with never a single problem.

Any feedback is really appreciated.
L.

MacBook Pro Unibody, Mac OS X (10.5.6), Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter

Posted on Apr 11, 2009 9:14 AM

144 replies

Jun 11, 2009 10:41 AM in response to unidesk_ch

Hi,

Unfortunately no change in behavior if using the generic Super VGA drivers.

Thanks.

Jun 11, 2009 12:23 PM in response to thelazydesigner

Any update from Apple regarding this issue? Seems to be a number of people are looking at this post so I have to imagine many people are seeing this issue. It would be nice to see a response from Apple.

Jun 11, 2009 1:23 PM in response to unidesk_ch

It's incredible but still no official answer from Apple.
I've been in contact with some people in Apple Italy and still no feedback from them. I believe the issue is now pretty clear and repeatable, whether caused by the VGA adapter or the Nvidia graphics driver, it's a problem with Vista running under BootCamp and VGA connection usually made by long cable or through video switches/amplifiers (that's why it's normally working with monitors or projectors connected with short/1:1 cables). When Vista does not recognize the device name/brand and goes for "Generic Display" it only give us 640x480.
I have a strong suspect it could have something to do with a wrong DRM protection handling... but it's just an idea.

Workarounds seem to be using a windows virtual machine under Mac with Parallels or VMWare (in this case video signal is carried under MacOS and working) or try installing Windows XP instead of Vista under Boot Camp.

Please post any other proven and repeatable solution here if any.

Thanks..and good luck to Heofz for the thesis...

Jun 11, 2009 2:14 PM in response to thelazydesigner

Thanks for the update and I will see what I can get out of any Apple folks in the US. Hopefully I can just point them to this post and not have to explain everything.

Heofz my best suggestion is to use a portable projector as that works if you have to boot directly to Vista. Otherwise Fusion or Parallels will work as "thelazydesigner" mentioned. I have had to resort to using a portable projector for our employees that have a new unibody Mac if they want to do a presentation with Vista (XP not an option right now, getting to be one though if this isn't fixed soon). Very sad considering we have a nice ceiling mounted projector in each of our conference rooms. It doesn't seem like Apple or Nvidia will have a fix for this within a week.

Heofz

Level 1

0 points

Jun 11, 2009 2:49 PM in response to thelazydesigner

Thanks for trying and for the advice guys, i think i'm going to have to borrow my friend's dell laptop or something. My problem is I've made a program in .NET that is quite CPU/GFX intensive, so running in a virtual machine is out of the question really.

It seems really annoying how apple like to advertise that people who buy a new mac can run windows and boot camp without any disclaimers about the fundamental issues that occur as a result, and as soon as you find a problem that is apple's fault that has nothing to do with the windows software, apple just looks the other way. Its very irresponsible, and I find it despicable that apple do not issue some sort of official warning on their site that windows users are likely to suffer at the hands of their bad design. Also I still get random hard freezing when running windows, though I think that's a GPU throttling issue, since installing the new nvidia drivers I haven't seen it yet, so fingers crossed.

Anyways, might look into that hiring/borrowing of a portable projector idea too. Will let you guys know how I get on with my thesis 😉

Cheers

Jun 11, 2009 6:35 PM in response to Heofz

Good luck with whatever you do and couldn't agree more with you regarding your comments about Apple and Windows issues.

I did open a ticket with Apple support tonight regarding this issue. Didn't get very far though and plan on taking it up again tomorrow. One tech was trying to blame the cable or video switch. I will let everyone know how this progresses.

Take care.

Jun 12, 2009 2:46 AM in response to thelazydesigner

Hey,

The virtualization method is going alright for me these days. I posted a way to enhance earlier. But still I think thats not the best way to solve this problem.

Regarding the cable discussion: I didn't make the same observations. I tried hooking it up to several projectors, some worked some didn't.

Also we have a Toshiba TV here at work, to which I connected my mb directly and it didn't work execpt the 640x480 resolution...

Anyway I thought its quite ironic that apple released an update for osx a few days ago concerning problems connecting to projectors and monitors.

Cheers

Heofz

Level 1

0 points

Jun 12, 2009 4:25 AM in response to vistabook

vistabook wrote:
Anyway I thought its quite ironic that apple released an update for osx a few days ago concerning problems connecting to projectors and monitors.

Do you have a link to this? I've been searching and can't find any info on it anywhere.

Jun 12, 2009 5:45 AM in response to Heofz

Hi,

it seems the update is rather old but my mac just installed it 4 days ago. why I don't know. On the support page it is said the update is from march 2009.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3492

Anyway it won't "cure" our vista problem.

cheers

Jun 12, 2009 11:06 AM in response to vistabook

Tried upgrading one of our new MacBook Pro's to Vista SP2 and still no luck. I was expecting it to work but funnier things have happened so figured I would at least try. Haven't gotten any further with Apple support. Stay tuned....

Jun 12, 2009 12:16 PM in response to thelazydesigner

Update to my previous post, I meant "wasn't" not "was" expecting Vista SP2 to help.

Somewhat good news. Just got off the phone with Leo, an Apple Product Specialist, and he mentioned that this is a known issue and it is being worked on within Apple's Engineering team. Unfortunately there was no information as to when a fix may be released but I was happy to at least hear it is in the queue.

Best thing I think we can do at this point is keep an eye out for any update from Apple and then post it to this discussion.

Heofz

Level 1

0 points

Jun 12, 2009 2:29 PM in response to vistabook

vistabook wrote:
Anyway it won't "cure" our vista problem.

But isn't a firmware update done on the hardware level? Like, the update happens after a restart during the grey bootup screen?

I'm going to try it anyway, got nothing to lose 😉

Heofz

Level 1

0 points

Jun 12, 2009 3:39 PM in response to Heofz

Bah nevermind, the adapter was already up to date 😟

Jun 12, 2009 11:08 PM in response to unidesk_ch

Thanks unidesk for your info, I have no doubts Apple knows about this and let's hope in a fix soon. What I don't like is Apple's policy of ignoring problems until they have a solution.

As for other recent messages: no, the VGA adapter firmware update won't fix the problem on Vista.

heyjoeMN

Level 1

6 points

Jun 15, 2009 2:56 PM in response to thelazydesigner

I'd just like to echo my frustration that this problem continues. I am on a job with both an aluminum macbook and a macbook pro, both with 10.5.7, Vista with most current SP and 2 VGA adapters both with firmware 1.03 - even going into the nVidia control panel and trying to force non standard resolutions, I cannot get them to present over 640x480. I have just dumped all my old crappy PC laptops for 2 newer macs, and boy do I miss my crappy old Acer. I'm in the middle of a 3-city tour and totally f-ed as far as presenting from the bootcamp side.

Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter not working under Vista (Boot Camp).