Display resolution issue - 2009 Mini - 42" TV

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Level 4

2,985 points

Display resolution issue - 2009 Mini - 42" TV

Hi all,

I have a late 2009 Mini, the last one with an optical drive. It has 6GB of RAM, 320GB HD and I have had no issues with it until tonight.

It is connected to a 42" Pioneer TV by VGA. My TV does not have HDMI. It has been connected to the TV for a year and has shown full wide-screen resolution. I turned it on tonight and can not get wide-screen resolution. It is only square. It has been working fine for a year then it suddenly changed. I did a permissions repair, half a dozen restarts, changed the resolution to all the options available in system preferences, restarted the TV half a dozen times and it still will not come back to wide screen. I scanned the preferences folder for any relevant plist files, but could not find anything. I know a 42" display is right on the limits of its video card capabilities, but it has been fine for a year.

Help please?

Many thank yous in advance

SR

Posted on Mar 7, 2013 7:56 AM

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Answer 1

Silly rabbit Author

Level 4

2,985 points

Mar 7, 2013 7:57 AM in response to Silly rabbit

Oh, it is running Snow Leopard.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

239,219 points

Mar 7, 2013 11:37 AM in response to Silly rabbit

Have you done a PRAM reset, CMD+Option+p+r...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

In fact, do 3 in a row, takes a bit of time.

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions.

Can you change rez in Safe Mode?

What rez does it say it is when square, compared to what it should say?

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Answer 3

Silly rabbit Author

Level 4

2,985 points

Mar 7, 2013 4:51 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for your input BDAqua,

I tried your your first two suggestions but it is still the same. I will try the safe-boot tonight after work. The resolution is 1024 x 768, 60Hz at present. I can't say what it is supposed to be because I never really took much notice of it.

Any other suggestions?

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

239,219 points

Mar 7, 2013 9:46 PM in response to Silly rabbit

Sadly, that is a terribly low res for that size, but seems the normal..

http://www.trustedreviews.com/Pioneer-KURO-PDP-428XD-42in-Plasma-TV_TV_review_pi oneer-pdp-428xd_Page-3#tr-review-summary

Is there some scaling setting on the monitor itself?

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Answer 5

Silly rabbit Author

Level 4

2,985 points

Mar 8, 2013 6:08 AM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua wrote: Is there some scaling setting on the monitor itself?

You are a flipping genius! Or, I am a Silly Rabbit! Yep, that was it! I found the aspect settings on the TV and low and behold we are back to wide screen. Somehow it had jumped back to 4x3, but it was only for the PC and not for TV, Wii or the DVD player. Odd! It's now running at max resolution of 1280x768 in glorious wide screen.

I owe you a beer mate! 😀

Thank you very much for your input.

What a great community!

SR

PS. Please reply so I can mark it as solved and boost your ratiio. 😉

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