Monitor with wrong resolution after 10.5.7 update!!!! PLEASE HELP!!!

Grantb2 wrote:
Part of the reason so many of us are so annoyed is that we feel truly betrayed by a company we have relied on to "do the right thing." Microsoft would have to improve a very great deal to generate such loyalty that anyone sane could feel betrayed by them.

What makes me annoyed is the assumption that Apple randomly decided to do this.

If it's a bug, Apple will fix it.

If it's an HDMI requirement, Apple will not fix it unless HDMI Licensing LLC says they can, and it's likely Windows 7 will behave the same way.

My question to you, William, is if its a problem with HDMI licensing, then why in the fuzzy-wuzzy haven't they said so? Why take the heat for something that's not their fault? Doesn't make sense to me. I find the logic of a bug more compelling and can understand waiting to fix it until the next update cycle, but again, why not acknowledge it now?

Cc2iscooL wrote:
Apologies for the rant, but give me a break!

Just FYI, from Apple Discussions Use Agreement, in the "Submissions" section:

3. Post constructive comments and questions. Unless otherwise noted, your Submission should either be a technical support question or a technical support answer. Constructive feedback about product features is welcome as well. *If your Submission contains the phrase “I’m sorry for the rant, but…” you are likely in violation of this policy.*

Please remember that these are moderated forums purposed for user-to-user help & discussion of technical issues only. Rants, discussions of Apple policy, etc. should be posted elsewhere, where they might be appropriate or do some good. In particular, if you are disappointed with an Apple product & want the company to do something about it, use one of the links in the "Contact us" page that appears at the bottom of this & most other Discussions pages.

Keep in mind that the terms of use forbid discussing Apple policies here, so it is fairly pointless to ask in these forums why Apple's policy is to "take the heat" for this. However, we do know that the source code makes it clear this is intended behavior, & in that sense it is not a bug.

Also please keep in mind that Discussions is purposed for user-to-user constructive help & discussion. Aside from urging those with this problem to contact Apple or media outlets, all we as users can really constructively do here is make suggestions of workarounds & how to apply them or look for patterns of what display types are affected so users can find out which ones are potentially problematic.

Exaggeration, hyperbole, rants, etc. don't help other users; in fact, they make it that much harder to find the now relatively small amount of useful info in this massive topic.

As a reminder, here are some of the useful things that can be culled from this topic's posts:

1. Not all 'HDMI-type' displays are affected.
2. It doesn't matter if the connection to the display is through a DVI-D, HDMI, Apple Mini DisplayPort, or whatever kind of connector. If it is not an analog (VGA, etc.) connection then the potential for the issue exists.
3. Third party utilities offer a workaround, assuming suitable settings can be found & applied.
4. Acceptable solutions/workarounds for affected users should meet three separate but closely related criteria:
a. "Native" resolution support. All this actually means is any 1 to 1 pixel mapping that avoids interpolation or stretching input pixels across more than 1 screen pixel.
b. Full screen support; IOW, using all the pixels of the display.
c. A crisp, clear display. Basically, this means a video signal optimally timed for the display's on-board electronics processing & logic. This is not the same thing as pixel resolution, which is only a small part of it.
5. Ideally, an Apple-supplied solution should "just work;" IOW, the above three criteria should be discovered & used automatically, without user input.

Thanks for the synopsis, R C-R. My apologies.

After having this error on my white MacBook, I was foolish enough to buy an adapter to DVI again for my new MBP 13". Now I have the same problem, I tried ScreenResX but it doesn't really work; after a while, the screen starts to flicker more and more, until the lower half finally is filled with randomized RGB values most of the time. Sometimes the screen is instantly filled with this garbage until I reboot. I think this might be because ScreenResX is not a 100% proper solution?

I'll try to get my MiniDP->DVI adapter replaced for a VGA one tomorrow, they better not make me pay 30€ again…

This sounds more like a video card or driver issue of some type; mismatched timings will not cause the effect you describe.

I've been having the same problems as almost everyone here, and the SwitchResX helped me fix it. However, after I got the right resolution, my TV (37LG50D) keeps flashing, like the signal is being lost. Is there anything else I should've done in the SwitchResX? I'm sorry if this has already been answered here in this post, but I couldn't find it here yet. Thank you all, in advance.

Thanks William, and this makes it even more confusing. Should I reven replace the adapter if it's a HW problem? I'll see what the Apple reseller guys tell me tomorrow.

jlnr wrote:
Thanks William, and this makes it even more confusing. Should I reven replace the adapter if it's a HW problem? I'll see what the Apple reseller guys tell me tomorrow.

If it works with a VGA adapter it sounds like that's the solution, though if other monitors work fine with the DVI adapter it could just be something very strange having to do with your monitor.

If your reseller has a DVI monitor you can connect to it sounds like a quick ten second test.

I have installed Windows 7 and it works just fine. So how can my monitor not working in Mac OS X 10.5.7, at its native 1920x1200 resolution, be a HDMI license requirement?

Since we are only suppose to offer "solutions" here and not discuss Apple "policy". I offer my "solution". Windows 7 works just fine.

dicen wrote:
I have installed Windows 7 and it works just fine. So how can my monitor not working in Mac OS X 10.5.7, at its native 1920x1200 resolution, be a HDMI license requirement?

Wow, it's October 22 already?

Time flies.

Oh, it's not?

Then you haven't actually installed the *final release version* of Windows 7, have you?

Betas and release candidates quite often lack changes implemented in the final shipping version.

As an aside, I wonder if this behavior might be required by the newly released HDMI 1.4 spec.

Alas, it's only available to HDMI licensees right now, so I can't say one way or the other.

Hey guys. After a maddening hour of troubleshooting this issue, I have stumbled upon a solution.

This may not work for everyone, but it does NOT involve 3rd-party apps a-la SwitchRes. I cannot vouch for the reliability of the fix, only because I fear that I wouldn't be able to recreate whatever dark magic was needed to resolve the issue! Anyway, here's what I did.

• Navigate to System Preferences --> Displays
• Turn on "Show displays in menu bar"
• In the list of resolutions, you may see +duplicate screen resolutions+ that do not appear in the list of available resolutions displayed in the System Preferences pane.
• In my case, the menu bar list included 1600x900 (the crappy non-native resolution at which I was operating) and TWO iterations of 1920x1080.
• I chose the first of the two duplicates, and presto, I was returned to my native resolution.

Here are a few caveats to keep in mind : My display (an Acer H233H) WAS operating properly via HDMI until today, which was the first time I tried to alter the resolution of my external monitor in System Preferences. So I cannot say, like many of you, that this has been broken since 10.5.7. But, I certainly had the exact same problems as many of you here - I suddenly found my list of available resolutions reduced dramatically, and I could not get my display to run on its native 1920x1080 resolution.

I hope someone finds this helpful. Good luck. Here are some (some might say "superfluous" details):

• Brand new 2009 Unibody MacBook Pro, 2.66GHz w/9600M, 4GB RAM
• 10.5.7 (natch)
• Acer H233H

You may also find it helpful to toggle your monitor / TV on and off - I can't say whether that was a factor in my fix, but it may help.

Yo gang. On a whim, I emailed HDMI Licensing LLC about this biz. I know next to nothing about EDID thingamagigs and all the other techie stuff discussed, but hey, it's a slow night around the ol' house and we'll see what they say.