External display problems with snow leopard
- The display won't work at its native resolution (1680x1050) - it will flash up an image for 1/10 of second and then go black. I can only get it to work at a lower resolution, which looks AWFUL.
- If I try to start up my Macbook with the lid closed and the display connected, the display won't work at all (it jams on the start up screen). It only works if I keep both of them running
I never had these problems when using Leopard. I've searched lots of forums and found that many people are having similar problems with external displays. Apple still haven't fixed the bug after repeated efforts from people to get if fixed.
Here are some threads (now closed) on this if you're looking for solutions:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2132912&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2136455&tstart=1
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2132837&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10084332
Common suggested fixes are:
- Force OS X to use LCD font smoothing (does not work for me)
- Clear the PRAM on start-up (does not work for me)
- Delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist (does not work)
- Change energy management setting to high performance (only works on graphics cards in Macbook 15" and 17").
From reading these forums it appears that this is a well-know bug. Has anyone else got any suggestions to fix this? And why hasn't Apple fixed this yet after so many people bringing it to their attention? It's clearly a bug that wasn't in Leopard.
MacBook 5.1, Mac OS X (10.6.4)