Retina MBP can't use external 30" Dell display

I registered here just to say thank you, evarsanyi! That was the perfect solution to my problem with a Dell 3007WFP monitor and the Retina MBP.

Is your Samsung 305 T working fine now in 2560x1600, with holding down the option key while clicking scaled?

But the real question is why does Apple hide thise feature/option.

They do that now with the Detect Screens button. It is missing in ML unless you hold down the Option key.

And they use to say Mac's were earier to use. Not anymore. IMHO they never were.

when using my MBP retina display,

switchresX helped improve my external monitor situation so that the garble on my 30" dell became

almost legible (from previously just being a small distorted unrecognizable view of what

was supposed to be on that monitor), but it is still quite garbled. it let's me specify 2560x1600,

but i don't know how to make it look the way this monitor usually looks (eg. when i connect

it to a mac pro)..

would greatly appreciate any further advice..

thanks

btw, i'm running 10.7.4 ; haven't wanted to upgrade to mountain lion yet..

I'm having the same issue with an Apple HD Cinema Display 30" with a DVI connection.

Pressing the option button while clicking scaled in display settings didn't give me any better resolutions to select.

Here's my post:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4703869

Osageev, I'm ahving hte same problems still with my Dell 3008 WPF connected to my 15 inch macbook retina. The text looks very pixelated and garbled, as you said. The highest resolution I can get it to look decent with is 1920 by 1200.

Very disappointing that Mac is having these issues with a laptop I just spent 2500 dollars on... but hwat's even worse is the fact that I've called them multile times and all their employees are clueless and just say that it's the monitor's fault. If anyone could help, that'd be great...

James, have you tried holding option while selecting the "scaled" option in display and seeing if 2560x1600 is in the list? That should be all you need to do.

Yes, that's what I meant. When I do that (or when I use sitchres to do it too) the image is grabled and pixelated. I'm really ****** off... not sure what to do at this point. I might give up on Apple products from here on out just because of their service with this issue and how underassistant they've been

I wanna know why I have to come to a public forum for help when they're the biggest electronics company in the ******* world and I just spent 2500 dollars on 3 pounds of their assembled ****. Can they really not afford someone that goes on here and actually, you know, "helps" us with our issues?

Do you have the ($100) Dual-link displayport->DVI adapter? Single link DVI (which is what you get with the $15 displayport -> DVI dongle) won't go above 1920x1200. If you have that adapter check your DVI cable and make sure its also dual-link (all the pins are populated).

Yes, I do. I am dumb enough to actually give them 100 more dollars for their ******** proprietary garbage that doesn't work either.

I don't mean to be rude to you, I just wish more people would be hoenst about how ******* crappy Apple is and not put up with this **** so perhaps if I let them know how angry I am they might actually try and help someone for a change.

You Hit That Nail right on the head.

JamesArtMills wrote:

Yes, I do. I am dumb enough to actually give them 100 more dollars for their ******** proprietary garbage that doesn't work either.

I don't mean to be rude to you, I just wish more people would be hoenst about how ******* crappy Apple is and not put up with this **** so perhaps if I let them know how angry I am they might actually try and help someone for a change.

Maybe try that monitor on another system that is known to work at 2560x1600?

I just tried it and I noticed that a recent update changed that dialog so now you don't have to hold down 'option' to show the full resolution when you click 'scaled' (2560x1600 comes up automatically).

I'm not thrilled with the buggy DVI dual link adapter either, it cuts out every now and then causing the screen to flash and when it gets warm little green sparkles appear all over the display. I too was frustrated by Applecare level 1's lack of help on this -- maybe they have strict orders to not be helpful if any non-apple product is involved since they can't actually try it. Using these big screens is kind of off the normal beaten path for the bulk of their customer base. They're usually really good about forgiving the 10% return fee if it just doesn't work for you.

So Apple Support finally tried to help me and set me up with a meeting at the Apple Store "Geniuses". I lugged my 30 pound setup through the mall only to have them tell me (after hours of them not really problem solving anything) that there's nothing they can do, and that essentially they're not even going to report it because not enough people have complained. i explained to them that there are others online who ahve complained about blurry and garbled pixelated text at higher resolutions and they basically told me that it was my problem.

I also checked with the single link adapter (dvi to mini display) and it works perfectly up to 1900 resolution, so I'm thinking it's actually their own ******** dual link adapter that is the problem as it doesn't understand how to process the resolution past 1900 for monitors that aren't Apple made. Geez, I wonder why that is?