Mac Mini and LCD TV, changed resolution and now cannot use the screen anymo

Welcome to the Apple Discussions!

You will almost have to have a different display. Another Mac will not help unless you by chance turned on Screen Sharing on the Mac mini. It is off by default.

Is there another TV/computer display to connect to temporarily? Perhaps connecting to the other display will reset the mini to read the display and set the manufacturers default resolution, then you could switch back to your TV and hopefully the mini would again default to the manufacturer's default resolution like the first time that you connected the LCD TV to the mini.

Dah•veed

Hi-

Follow these steps to get out of a jam (a different display is not necessary!)

1. Shut down your computer by holding down the power button.

2. Restart your computer, and immediately after you hear the startup tone, press and hold the Shift key. (Don't press the Shift key before you hear the startup tone.)

3.Release the Shift key when you see the progress indicator below the gray Apple icon. Startup may take a bit longer than usual.

4.Your displays should begin working correctly.

5. Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu.

6. Click the Displays preference pane.

7. Select a resolution and refresh rate that is supported by the display.

8. Restart your computer.

Good luck-

I can confirm that this did indeed work!

The one caveat was that it started with a resolution much bigger than my display, so I had no toolbar visible across the top. If this happens just visualize that the toolbar is there above the boundary of the display. Mouse up into the top left corner and click. Enough of the out of bounds Apple menu should show on the display for you to mouse down and choose the System Preferences.

Dah•veed

Sorry to hear that it did not work for you. It worked fine for me. I am using an LG 24" LCD HDTV as the display.

Dah•veed

Arie- if you havent tried this, give these a shot...

1. Start with TV off, then startup mini in safe mode, then turn tv on.

If that doesnt work, with mini still in safe mode and powered on, disconnect mini-dvi cable from back of mini for a couple of seconds, and then reconnect.

Message was edited by: kguy

Arie, it may be possible to get to System Preferences via the keyboard. But you have to be sure the Finder is the foreground application. Is your Mac set to boot straight into your account or does it pause waiting for a password? If it boots straight into a user account, you can try the following procedure:

\- Restart the Mac (It should be hooked up to the misbehaving display in case that's not clear)

\- When it is done booting, type Cmd-Tab and then Cmd-Q. Do this several times. (Cmd-tab will step the Mac through all the programs that might be running. Cmd-Q quits them. Doing this several times ensures that only the Finder is running since the Finder can't be quit. This is important for the next step)

\- Type Shift-Cmd-a (This should open the Applications folder)

\- Type "sys" quickly (System Preferences within the Applications folder should now be highlighted)

\- Type Cmd-o (This should open System Preferences)

\- Type out the word "screen settings" completely (This should cause Displays to be highlighted in the System Preferences main panel)

\- Hit the Return key (This should open Display Preferences)

\- Hit the Return key again (This will clear any alert box that may have popped up)

\- Hit the Tab key once (This will shift the keyboard focus to the resolutions list)

\- Now start using the up (or down) arrow on the keyboard one press at a time. Each press of the arrow key moves to the next resolution in the list. Wait at least five seconds between arrow key presses for the resolution change to take effect. Hopefully, at some point, the monitor will light up with a stable image and you are back in business.

That is pretty amazing. It works with one correction. Instead of Screen Settings, which highlighted nothing, type Displays, which highlighted only the Display Preferences.

Dah•veed

Now THAT is a great 'thinking out of the box' solution encompassing the best principles of improvise, adapt and overcome.

Arie- give BSteelys workaround a shot and let us know if it worked for you. I for one will keep it in mind if the problem ever occurs for me!

(one note- if you are able to resolve this issue, it might pay to set up your mini for VPN or screen sharing. If you do, any pc or mac connected to the internet anywhere in the world will be able to access your mini for reconfiguration in case of a pinch)

I followed his instructions, but had to type Displays, not Screen Settings. Is your Mac configured in English? It worked perfectly. I would Cmd+Tab, Cmd+Q 4 or 5 times, just to make sure that only Finder remains.

I have an LG LCD HDTV.

Dah•veed

Arie, be warned that borrowing a monitor may not get you anywhere. Depending on how you look at it, Mac OS X has this fortunate or unfortunate ability to store different configurations for a given display depending on whether one display is connected or two displays.

What this means is, when you have a second display connected to the mini and are able to get a setting working with the first display (the LCD TV), that setting won't apply when the second display is disconnected. Likely what is going to happen is the LCD TV will revert to the non-working format when it is solely attached. I'm not 100% certain that is going to happen, but don't be surprised if it does.

Ideally, what you want to do is borrow a second computer and get screen sharing working between the two (if it's a Mac) or else a VNC client/server arrangement running if a PC (the PC is the client; the mini the VNC server). Then with only the TV hooked up to the mini, you will be able to see and control the mini's screen from the second computer. You can set the resolution on the mini from the other computer so that the TV starts working.

You still may need to borrow a second monitor for a while just to configure the mini for screen sharing/VNC. But once you know you have it working, disconnect the monitor and reconnect the TV in order to make the required setting that will light up the TV.