Getting a Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter & Monitor to Work with an Xserve

First let me say that I'm very new to Xserve's and OS X Server and any help is greatly appreciated.

I have an Xserve with a connected Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter and a confirmed working VGA monitor. There is also a keyboard and mouse plugged into the front USB port of the Xserve. The internal SSD has been formatted clean.

I've been trying to boot up from the optical drive on the Xserve using the 10.6 DVD. I use the front panel/system identifier button to boot up and I make sure enclosure lock is unlocked. Each time I try to boot up, the monitor stays off and the DVD is spit out.

I eventually got the DVD to stay in, and the screen showed the grey screen with black apple and the spinning black circle on the bottom. However, after a few minutes the screen turned orange in color. Using Screen Sharing, it looked fine. I tried a second VGA monitor, but that still didn't do it.

So with the DVD still in, I stay connected via Screen Sharing and begin the installation process remotely, thinking Snow Leopard will recognize the monitor eventually. Well, 10.6 is now fully installed, but still no working monitor.

I then decided to try the Mini DisplayPort to VGA Firmware Update. I download and run the installer, but it tells me, "The Updater could not find a Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter to update."

How can I possibly get this monitor working?

Thanks in advance.

Message was edited by: nappy

Xserve Intel 2.26QCX, Mac OS X (10.6), SSD

Posted on Sep 24, 2009 7:23 AM

Reply
2 replies

Nov 23, 2009 9:25 AM in response to intarwab

Just ran in to this myself -- Nehalem Xserve running 10.6.2 Server with an MiniDisplayPort to VGA adapter connected to an Avocent Switchview 1000 KVM. Took the server offline to install RAM and after rebooting, no video. Oddly enough, the KVM's LEDs showed a display connected but Apple System Profiler showed no adapters connected to the video card. Nothing seemingly worked -- rebooting, shutdown/restart, and/or hot-plugging the adapter made no difference. I also tried a second MiniDisplayPort adapter to no avail.

Note that the MiniDisplayPort to VGA Firmware update had already been applied to BOTH adapters prior to this issue appearing.

What restored video output on our system: reboot from the Snow Leopard Server install media, video reappears over the adapter, and after that I can reboot from the SSD boot drive running 10.6.2 Server with video output working over the MiniDisplayPort to VGA adapter.

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Getting a Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter & Monitor to Work with an Xserve

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