Mac Mini / Catalina - apple menu not showing on monitor

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Level 1

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Mac Mini / Catalina - apple menu not showing on monitor

I just bought a new mac mini which came preloaded with Catalina. I have started the installation process. However, I can't see the menu strip at the top of the screen.

This mean I can't find the apple logo menu with About This Mac / shut down / restart etc. Nor can I see "file", "edit" "view" "go" menus or any of the usual date/volume/wifi/search etc logs.

I tried to adjust the resolution in preferences to show more on the screen, however, none of the settings reveal the menu bar. The scale button only shows a choice of 3 resolutions, none of which work. There is no percentage scale that I can find.

The monitor is an older Samsung monitor (technically a TV screen) and I am wondering if the apple menu is somehow hidden underneath the frame of the monitor. I have used this monitor successfully as a second monitor for my mac air, with the menu bar appearing normally.

Maybe I need to install a driver? Or is there somewhere in the preferences that I can apply a percentage to the scale function? This exists in the preferences on on my older mac air (running 10.10.5), but not in Catalina as far as I can see.

Without this top menu bar, the computer is functionally useless to me, since I am unable to navigate around the computer, nor can I shut the computer down (I ended up doing a hard shut down using the power button.)

Thoughts?

Posted on May 3, 2020 5:12 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Malcolm J. Rayfield

Level 7

23,095 points

May 3, 2020 6:21 PM in response to karyn147

Look at all the settings un the TV. For picture size, try and find something like full size, pixel-to-pixel. If you can't fix it in the TV, look in the Mac's Displays syspem preference for the Underscan adjustment.

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Answer 2

den.thed

Level 10

90,988 points

May 3, 2020 7:12 AM in response to karyn147

Try changing the Aspect Ratio of the TV, using the TVs menu settings.

https://www.samsung.com/levant/support/tv-audio-video/how-can-i-change-the-aspect-ratio-of-tv/

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Answer 3

den.thed

Level 10

90,988 points

May 3, 2020 7:22 AM in response to karyn147

You may need to re-adjust the Mac Mini's res. after changing the TVs ratio.

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Answer 4

karyn147 Author

Level 1

5 points

May 4, 2020 6:48 AM in response to karyn147

Thanks so much for your help! It's fixed!!

It was quite an adventure, and to be honest I'm not sure exactly which setting fixed it in the end. I don't have a remote control for the monitor and had to use the buttons on the monitor itself. Plus, all the text was in German because I borrowed the monitor from a friend of mine here in Germany. At one point I accidentally reset the monitor back to the store demo and it took awhile figure out how to get it back to home mode. That was fun!

But now it's working. And I can see my top menu! Hurray! I am so excited to finally get cracking with my new mac mini.

Really appreciate the help.

Cheers! Karyn

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