Help! Black bars around image external monitor when connected to MBP

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Help! Black bars around image external monitor when connected to MBP

Dear all,

I just ordered an ultrawide external monitor (LG 29WK500) to use along with my Macbook Pro (13", Early 2015). However, when connecting the monitor to my MBP, black bars of approx. two cm (left/right) and one cm (top/bottom) appear around the image. The image on the monitor does not completely fill up the entire screen. Does someone know how to solve this issue?

Additional info

The settings on the LG monitor itself (Aspect Ratio) are already set to 'full wide'.
Under Display settings in System Preferences of my MBP, the display Resolution of the monitor is set to '2560 x 1080' (the actual and recommended resolution of the monitor according to LG) and the Refresh Rate to '60 Hertz' (the recommended refresh rate according to LG).
I tried adding a custom resolution (2560 x 1080 again) using SwitchResX4, however this didn't work and resulted in the same black bars around the image.
What's really strange is that I hooked up my MBP to my father's LG 29WK600 (with has the exact same resolution and pixel pitch as the LG 29WK500) and the entire screen was filled up, no trouble at all.
Tried different cables, did not work. Doesn't seem to be a cable issue.
My MBP should be able to push out an image of '2560 x 1080' as 1) the built-in display itself is '2560 x 1600', and 2) no problems were encountered when connecting to the other monitor (LG 29WK600).

Can someone help me, please? :)

P.S.

Please find attached two photos of the black bars appearing around the image.

MacBook

Posted on Apr 3, 2019 5:54 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Weón Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 3, 2019 8:17 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thank you for your time, Grant Bennet-Alder. Much appreciated! In the end, I have solved the issue myself. Apparently, I had to overwrite the external monitor's EDID. This turned out to work perfectly. If other people encounter the same problem, I would suggest to watch the following video and follow the instructions (btw, no need for a bluetooth mouse or keyboard. You can simply plug in a usb mouse and use macOS's built-in virtual keyboard): https://youtu.be/TzC7HN_Dbyo

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Answer 2

Apr 3, 2019 8:39 AM in response to Weón

Eduardo does not speak very clearly, and his Video technique (and choice of Video rather than a written article) are abysmal. My hearing and eyesight are not good enough too get much from You Tube Videos in general.

Can you summarize what you had to do in words, including the names of any software packages you need to fix this?

What version of MacOS are you running?

Did you have to disable System Integrity Protection to install the modified EDID?

Thanks very much.

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Answer 3

Apr 3, 2019 6:52 AM in response to Weón

If you have checked [√] Mirror Displays, you will get a compromise between what works on the internal and external displays. regardless of what resolution you select.

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Help! Black bars around image external monitor when connected to MBP

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