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User profile for user: dwmusic
dwmusic Author
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Overscan checkbox disappeared after I selected it

I have two 40" Philips 4k monitors, connected to my Mac Pro 5,1 mid 2012, using an NVIDIA Gefore GTX960 GPU to power them on macOS High Sierra. This setup has worked ever since El Capitan, when I first installed the card. Today, I noticed the overscan box was checked by default in System Preferences > Displays. Out of curiosity, I clicked on it, to turn it off to see what effect it would have. The result was that the screen turned black momentarily, and then reappeared with a black 'underscan' border around the edge. So I clicked the Overscan checkbox in the left hand monitor, and the same thing happened. The Overscan checkbox disappeared completely from both instances of the Display Preferences, so I could not re-enable it on either monitor.


So, I restarted the machine, uninstalled the webdriver, rebooted the mac, reinstalled the webdriver, rebooted the Mac again, but the black box is still there and there is still no Overscan checkbox. Now the refresh rate is locked at 60Hz, I cannot get the maximum screen resolution any more, and the black border remains.


The Apple Forum article here shows how to do this with an overscan slider, but this slider is nowhere to be seen on my setup. I also tried clicking Option and other modifier keys, but nothing materialised.


I then tried changing the orientation to 90 degrees, but this caused both monitors to turn irretrievably black, even after a restart, so I rebooted in Safe Mode, and uninstalled the webdriver again.


Any suggestions as to how to get back the Overscan checkbox or to enable the slider, and how to undo the effect of a 90 degree rotation if the monitors turn black?

Mac Pro, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jun 8, 2019 4:27 PM

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User profile for user: dwmusic
dwmusic Author
User level: Level 1
16 points

Posted on Jun 18, 2019 6:58 AM

Thanks for this. I tried the plist fix option, but was unable to save the -a TextEdit /var/db/.com.apple.iokit.graphics text file back into the /var/db/ folder, because of a "reserved for system use" error. I had already tried restarting in Safe Mode before without this fixing the issue, but I restarted again in Safe Mode to see if this would allow me to replace the file. Still this did not work, so I restarted again. Now, suddenly, I have 4K resolution and the Overscan button back. Please refer to screenshot. I have no idea what fixed this, but I am sure it was one of your steps above. FYI, when I called Apple about this earlier in the piece, a senior technician told me that 4K were not supposed to work on any machine before 2013 trashcans, as this was the oldest article he could find on the subject. He asked around the floor for additional input, and came back with the same answer. I pointed out that my two 4K monitors worked on my older 2008 Mac, and that there were hundreds of Apple users with this issue, only to get the stock answer, "2013 is the earliest machine approved to run 4K displays." I pointed out that a checkbox is supposed to allow users to toggle a state on and off, not to disappear when toggled to Off, but kept getting the same answer about 2013. The last advice he gave me was to do a Time Machine Restore back to the point where Overscan had been operational, and I am sure that would've worked too. So, there we have it.


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User profile for user: dwmusic
dwmusic Author
User level: Level 1
16 points

Jun 18, 2019 6:58 AM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for this. I tried the plist fix option, but was unable to save the -a TextEdit /var/db/.com.apple.iokit.graphics text file back into the /var/db/ folder, because of a "reserved for system use" error. I had already tried restarting in Safe Mode before without this fixing the issue, but I restarted again in Safe Mode to see if this would allow me to replace the file. Still this did not work, so I restarted again. Now, suddenly, I have 4K resolution and the Overscan button back. Please refer to screenshot. I have no idea what fixed this, but I am sure it was one of your steps above. FYI, when I called Apple about this earlier in the piece, a senior technician told me that 4K were not supposed to work on any machine before 2013 trashcans, as this was the oldest article he could find on the subject. He asked around the floor for additional input, and came back with the same answer. I pointed out that my two 4K monitors worked on my older 2008 Mac, and that there were hundreds of Apple users with this issue, only to get the stock answer, "2013 is the earliest machine approved to run 4K displays." I pointed out that a checkbox is supposed to allow users to toggle a state on and off, not to disappear when toggled to Off, but kept getting the same answer about 2013. The last advice he gave me was to do a Time Machine Restore back to the point where Overscan had been operational, and I am sure that would've worked too. So, there we have it.


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User profile for user: dwmusic
dwmusic Author
User level: Level 1
16 points

Jun 8, 2019 7:00 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for weighing in! The behaviour is the same regardless of whether Default for Display or Scaled is checked. If Scaled is checked, I can no longer see the full 4K resolution of 3640x2560, and it defaults to 2560x1440 with a black border, and no option for Overscan. The Refresh Rate is greyed out at 60Hz.


I was wondering whether this might be a Preference set someplace that I could delete, however I couldn't find anything in either the System Preferences folder or the User Preferences folder.

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User profile for user: dwmusic
dwmusic Author
User level: Level 1
16 points

Jun 11, 2019 4:50 AM in response to dwmusic

Also found this: https://ishan.co/external-monitor-underscan


and I have a response from NVIDIA, copied below:


Hello Derek,


Thank you for contacting NVIDIA Customer Care. This is Varun, assisting you with your query. From the email description, I understand that you are experiencing issues with image on the monitors. Though you have a GTX 960 on this Mac, the display settings are controlled by the operating system. So I would request you to contact Apple's support to reconfigure the displays.


I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Feel free to let us know if you have any further questions.


Best regards,

Varun

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Overscan checkbox disappeared after I selected it

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