Monitor problems.

Question

Level 1

46 points

Monitor problems.

I have a MacPro 5,1 with an ATI Radeon HD 5770 running Mojave 10.14.6. My monitor is an old Samsung 24 in. flat screen connected with a HDMI cable and a DVI adaptor to the DVI port and it works fine. However if I connect it to either of the Display ports with the same HDMI cable and a HDMI-Mini Display adapter I get the message to "Check Signal Cable." Does this indicate that the Display ports are dead or some other problem?

I also have a Mid 2010 MacBook Pro and hen I connect a Dell 17 in. VGA monitor using a VGA cable > VGA-HDMI adapter > HDMI-DVI adapter the screen saver image disappears and the screen goes black. I have tried System Preferences > Monitors and then gather windows. I see two rectangles and one is labeled Dell E176 FD. I tried checking the Mirror and the screen is still black. We frequently connect it to our TV and it works fine. Is there a problem with the display or something else?

Posted on Feb 23, 2021 12:22 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

141,211 points

Feb 23, 2021 4:24 PM in response to Bob1177

on your first issue.

If you just randomly connect the cables, the signal is unlikely to appear.

to get a Mac display to become active, you need the Mac to query the display, and the display to answer with its name and capabilities. Otherwise, the display will not be shown as present, and no data will be sent to the display. "No signal detected" is generated by the DISPLAY, not by the Mac.

This query is only sent at certain times:

• at startup

• at wake from sleep

• at insertion of the Mac-end of the display-cable, provided everything on that cable is ready-to-go

• on invoking Option-(Detect Display) button in Displays preferences (from another display)

so try doing some of those things and see if the display comes alive.

Modern Displays with multiple ports are sometimes busy scanning the other ports, looking for an input, and miss the query from the Mac. They need to pay attention to the port you are actually using, or they will miss the query.

Some displays have On-Screen Display settings that can be used to tell the display a computer is attached on a certain port, or a certain port should be highest priority. Changing those may make your display more responsive.

Some displays include their own private "sleep" settings for the display alone. This can allow the display to enter its own sleep mode, on top of the Mac's not sending it data. A display that is sleeping on its own cannot respond to the Mac's query, and will stay dark.

Reply

Answer 2

Feb 23, 2021 4:25 PM in response to Bob1177

On your second issue.

You can not stack adapters. You must make the jump from computer output to display input in at most ONE adapter.

Reply

Monitor problems.

Similar questions