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my macbook pro does not detect external display anymore

i bought a new plasma panasonic tv one month ago and i have the adapter and everything.... i've also watched already over 30 movies by connecting my laptop with the tv through the adapter and hdmi cable... yesterday i was at a friends place and i connected my adapter to his hdmi cable and my mac detected his tv straight away but it didn't work . after this my friend told that he faced a problem with the hdmi cable(brand=hama) and he could not connect his laptop . after finding his tv and finally not working today i connect it to my own tv and the screen turns blue for a couple of seconds like trying to connect but does not detect my tv ... anybody has any idea what happened. my mini dvi port seems to work because the moment i connect the cable it turns blue( as when i was watching movies no problem)... now what happened ??

Message was edited by: giannisg

macbook pro 13,3 late 2010, Mac OS X (10.6.6), intel core 2 duo 2,4GHz , memory->4GB 1067 DDR3

Posted on Jan 23, 2011 9:01 PM

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378 replies

Mar 30, 2017 5:29 AM in response to giannisg

I have a macbook 2016, with a widescreen. I have these issues, as well as a scramble screen and others. I actually have two, macbooks on one screen same age, same software. One always recognizes the monitor. The other, has issues every single time I power up. Unclamshell, force the recognition. I tried, changing cables. But most often unplugging and replugging in the cables does help. Sometimes the manufacturer of the cable goes on apples naughty list, and gets dropped from being recognized when it worked perfectly a day before.


Its apple customer abuse, quite frankly.

Mar 30, 2017 6:31 AM in response to jello2014

I had this same issue on and off. Then I got the "Belkin Thunderbolt 2 Express HD Dock with 1-Meter Thunderbolt Data Transfer Cable, Mac and PC Compatible" (link here) from Amazon. Boom! All issues fixed. I've been using it for 3 years with no issues. I upgraded my MacBook Pro to the newest one, 15-inch with LED strip. Works flawless with my 27-inch LED monitor.

Jan 27, 2011 12:34 PM in response to giannisg

Hi,

my MacBook Pro isn't able to detect my monitor (using Apple DVI adapter) samsung syncmaster 215TW ... the adapter is ok, they have tried it in service. What should I do? I have tried resetting PRAM, installed new firmware, tried another adapter.

I m not going to buy new external monitor because of apple. I'm desperate and i know there is a lot of people complaining about this problem and Apple is doing anything with it!

Feb 14, 2011 2:31 AM in response to georgebushw

Similar for me as Giannisg - sony bravia TV working flawlessly for months as external display using mini displayport to HDMI.

Then in January I brought MBP to a friend's house and successfully connected it to her TV and we watched a movie. Then brought it home and lo and behold it suddenly will just NOT detect my original set up of Sony Bravia display...

not sure if this new problem is due to the OS update or the fact that it was used with another display...

I am going to change to a different adapter today though it really annoys me to have to buy a new one when I am presuming my original cable is fine

Feb 14, 2011 12:01 PM in response to spenc1975

oh grrr! my other half went to an apple reseller earlier today to get me the new adaptor and was sold the wrong adaptor...you would think an apple reseller would know the difference between HDMI and DVI - they look pretty different

now we will have to return this one. TBH I don't think changing to a different adaptor/cable is going to work - it is a fault with the OS 😟

Feb 14, 2011 3:19 PM in response to giannisg

I will jump on the bandwagon here.
My Macbook Pro is only a few months old, as well as my Sony Bravia, hdmi cord, and adapter.

All was working well until last week. The tv gives me the message of "no signal". I tried to "detect display" again in my prefs, but when I click on that option, nothing happens. Nor do I have the option any longer to select "Sony TV" in either the display tab or the sound prefs.

Absolutely nothing has changed in my setup, and this has become a frustrating issue. Any more news on this problem?

Feb 17, 2011 2:37 AM in response to giannisg

so... seems i'm not the only one.
Yesterday i switch on my MBP (bought 4 months ago...) and connect my tv using mini display and hdmi cable.
MBP monitor blinks for a second and nothing happen. On my Toshiba (really cheap TV but it worked for months...) blu screen and No Signal Video.
I've tried also reinstalling OS... nothing!
Does anyone of you solved? changing adapter solved the issue? any answer from apple?

thanks

Feb 18, 2011 4:50 AM in response to giannisg

Same same here... exhausted all the suggestions I've come across. My external monitor ( via mini-dvi port) just stopped working after a couple years of being problem free and now I'm just getting the brief blue flash.... it started around the time of the 10.6.6 update. APPLE Please sort this out... the alarms a'sounding on this issue

my macbook pro does not detect external display anymore

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