ARD slow to refresh on Lion

Question

Level 1

15 points

ARD slow to refresh on Lion

I have a Mac Mini running Lion (10.7.3) which I control only via ARD (3.5.2) - no physical monitor is connected to it. When I access it via ARD from my other Macs the screen has lots of black areas in ARD where the screen should be displayed. Typically I have to open an application full screen on the Mac Mini to get the screen to refresh and then it is ok from then on.

When I was running Snow Leopard it would always load the screen fully on connection but in Lion it doesn't. Any ideas?

Thanks.

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Mar 10, 2012 5:56 AM

Reply

Answer 1

TeenTitan

Level 4

2,640 points

Mar 10, 2012 5:40 PM in response to inforr

Have you tried connecting with a diffrent computer? if so, dose it have the same issue?

Alterntively

have you tried using vnc? if so dose it have the same issue?

ie: go to dock, click on finder, go to menu bar, click on go menu, chose connect to server... in the address field type in vnc://nameofcomputer.local

Reply

Answer 2

inforr Author

Level 1

15 points

Mar 11, 2012 5:56 AM in response to TeenTitan

The same issue occurs when connecting with different macs and with VNC. 😟

Reply

Answer 3

TeenTitan

Level 4

2,640 points

Mar 11, 2012 12:02 PM in response to inforr

Did you try turning off and then back on remote management? (if you have remote login enabled, you should be able to ssh using the terminal and use the kickstart command to reboot the service)

What if you set a lower screen resolution on the mac mini?

is this over ethernet or wifi?

if it's wifi, have you tried ethernet.

If it's Ethernet have you checked what levle of physical connection it's getting? (hardware tab of ethernet in system prefrences networking)

dose the issue go away if you connect a display?

Reply

Answer 4

inforr Author

Level 1

15 points

Mar 11, 2012 12:06 PM in response to TeenTitan

Please can you provide the kickstart command I should run and I will try that.

Connection is over Ethernet with 1Gbps speed.

Will see if I can connect a physical monitor for that test.

Thanks.

Reply

Answer 5

TeenTitan

Level 4

2,640 points

Mar 11, 2012 8:17 PM in response to inforr

So when you check network , ethernet, hardware, it shows that the computer is using the ethernet 1000baseT/UTP, with full-duplex, and a MTU of ? The reason I ask is a cable can go bad.

Apple Remote Desktop: Configuring remotely via command line (kickstart)

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/k ickstart -restart -agent

you could also try directly connecting a client to the server.

Reply

Answer 6

inforr Author

Level 1

15 points

Mar 22, 2012 3:46 PM in response to TeenTitan

As it can be difficult to navigate when the screen isn't refreshing fully, is there a way to either:

1. Run the command remotely from another Mac?

or

2. Create a shortcut icon to run on the local Mac?

That way I can test it more easily.

Thanks.

Reply

Answer 7

TeenTitan

Level 4

2,640 points

Mar 22, 2012 9:29 PM in response to inforr

yes, select the client from the computer list in ARD. then click on the "send unix command" send command as user "root" the command should be "/System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/ k ickstart -restart -agent". then click send.

Reply

Answer 8

inforr Author

Level 1

15 points

Mar 23, 2012 8:05 AM in response to TeenTitan

I managed to try the command when the screen need to be refreshed but it made no difference. Is there anything else I can try? The only solution for me is to drag a window around the virtual remote desktop screen to force the screen to refresh/repaint. I can post some screenshots to help illustrate this if that helps.

Reply

Answer 9

TeenTitan

Level 4

2,640 points

Mar 24, 2012 12:12 AM in response to inforr

you could try attaching a monitor.

Reply

Answer 10

mibsfo

Level 1

0 points

Jul 5, 2013 7:28 AM in response to TeenTitan

I have the same issue with my 2013 Mac Mini Server (top of the line specs, 16GB RAM, etc) over a GIG-E local network directly connected to the same switch. I've tried different cables and ports to ensure it's not a network issue. Ironically enough, I get a solid connection with the Windows RDP client on my laptop to a Windows VM running on that same server; but when I try to directly connect via ARD, I get the slow refresh / blocked appearance you see in the attached screenshot.

Reply

Answer 11

inforr Author

Level 1

15 points

Jul 5, 2013 11:58 AM in response to mibsfo

I managed to solve this by calling Apple support. It turned out this is a known issue and the case was escalated. The solution is you need to have one of the VGA adapters attached. It acts like a sort of terminator. The one that worked best for me for my late 2009 Mac Mini was the mini Displayport to VGA adapter http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB572Z/B/mini-displayport-to-vga-adapter?fnode =51

Apple were nice enough to send me one as my system was still under Applecare so they maybe able to do the same for you.

Reply

Answer 12

Jul 2, 2015 7:42 AM in response to inforr

This solution worked. I added an HDMI adapter to my headless Mac Mini and it worked to correct the horrible ARD performance. Performance of ARD across client systems worked great... they are all laptops so no missing screen issue.

Reply