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10.8.4 External Display Problem

Updated my rMBP to 10.8.4. The laptop rebooted, and the external display is not displaying correctly. How can I fix this?

The monitor has never had problems until immediatly after the update. The monitor attempts to display 1920x1080, but is offset. Part of it is off the screen, and is not horizantally long enough to fill the screen anyway. (Black bar on left side).

Bootcamp Trial

Booted into Windows 7 64bit

Monitor works fine, highest available resolution is 1280 x 1024.

Tried to set Mac resolution to 1280x 1024, works, but this is noticably less resolution than I had originally, before the update.

Specs

Retina Macbook Pro

LG external monitor: FLATRON W2343T

Thunderbolt to VGA adaptor

Thanks for any help you can provide.

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Jun 4, 2013 8:05 PM

177 replies

hispeed

Level 1

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Jun 7, 2013 6:13 PM in response to dgoladay

Besides having the same problem on my Mid 2009 Macbook Pro, I have a similar problem at home on my Mid 2010 Mac Mini. The screen is shifted to the right about 2 inches, I am also using a KVM switch so cannot switch to DVI or HDMI. Both of mine also worked fine until 10.8.4.

savlos

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Jun 8, 2013 2:35 AM in response to khroy

Similar problem here on a MBP 15" Late 2008. Upgraded to 10.8.4 and cannot get a proper 1920x1080 display on my TV, an LG 37LK450-ZH. I get all of the pixels but on 4/5 of my TV screen, thus I would not call it as the picture being shifted but as being shrinked. It seems as if I am getting 1920x1080 under a 4:3 perspective (picture ratio looks distorted). I am using VGA cable to connect to the TV through the Mini DisplayPort. In order to get a proper display, I have to choose 1280x768, which is not my most preferred option, but it is better than working on part of the TV screen with the rest of it blank. The above problem happens on both open and closed lid environment. Before upgrading it was working flawlessly, so Apple please check better your OS X updates or hire more beta testers.

dgoladay

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Jun 8, 2013 6:08 AM in response to khroy

I went ahead and used Time Machine to roll back to 10.8.3....works fine again so it is the 10.8.4 patch that caused the issue. I will wait for 10.8.5 to see if it fixes it.

hispeed

Level 1

0 points

Jun 8, 2013 7:47 AM in response to dgoladay

I hope we don't have to wait that long. I'm sure that Apple could send out a patch to fix the problem. From my point of view, the problem seems to lie with the nVidia chipset, as both my Macbook Pro and Mac Mini have nVidia chipsets.

dgoladay

Level 1

0 points

Jun 8, 2013 9:50 AM in response to khroy

Yes, I have a MacMini as well, Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256 MB.

khroy Author

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Jun 8, 2013 1:03 PM in response to savlos

I have come to a similar conclusion.

I have a suspicion that the problem is not related to the resolution.

For those of you who have the problem, examine the aspect ratios of your external displays, and compare them to that of your laptop. I am by no means an expert on aspect ratios, but I think Mac OS may be outputting the wrong aspect ratio to the external monitor.

I do not believe I have any control over the aspect ratio on the external monitor controls.

Examine this image.

http://attachments.techguy.org/attachments/116078d1190460563/circle.gif

On my rMBP, 2880x1800 resolution, a perfect circle appears inside a perfect square.

On my external display, supposedly in 1920x1080, a vertically stretched oval appears inside a vertically long rectangle.

Booted into Windows

On my external display, for some reason, I cannot display 1920x1080.

On my rMBP, set resolution to 1920x1080. The image appears perfectly.

As I understand it, under normal circumstances, aspect ratio is based off of resolution. Therefore, no matter what monitor it is being displayed on, the same resolution should have the same aspect ratio. Apparently, this is not the case. Mac OSX may outputting an incorrect aspect ratio.

paletot

Level 1

13 points

Jun 9, 2013 5:42 AM in response to khroy

I have the same problem with my MBP 13" mid 2009 since 10.8.4

The only thing that works me for the moment is to use a lower resolution (I'm using now 1400 x 1050). It's not nice to look at, but at least I can work again.

So please Apple, test your updates before you release them!! I expect crappy updates from other companies, but not from Apple!

Jun 9, 2013 3:53 PM in response to khroy

Same thing happening here.

Early 2009 macbook pro connected to an external hp display (1920x1080) and getting 5cm of black on the left side of the screen. Only started to happen with the 10.8.4 update....

I'm expecting apple to fix this as soon as possible cause my work depends on it.

thanks.

oscargag

Level 1

0 points

Jun 9, 2013 4:30 PM in response to khroy

I am experiencing the same problem with my external monitor. The issue started right after I upgraded to 10.8.4. The screen is shifted to the right with a black bar on the left.

We need a new patch. It is time to release 10.8.5

Viper320

Level 1

5 points

Jun 9, 2013 5:32 PM in response to khroy

I use an external monitor often, and am having similar issues, except in my case it's not resolution issues pers, but graphical glitches. It started happening when I upgraded to 10.8.3, and has not been fixed in 10.8.4.

Please see the below videos. Are you seeing something similar?:

http://youtu.be/YGae1ams0i8

http://youtu.be/tqO30pxdSOs

http://youtu.be/OIwSkIJduRc

Jun 9, 2013 10:13 PM in response to dgoladay

How does one roll back to 10.8.3? Things like this are why I stopped using Windows.......

khroy Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 9, 2013 11:52 PM in response to Viper320

I am not experiencing anything like that. It almost looks as if your display hardware is malfunctioning. It is possible that your thunderbolt to VGA/hdmi/whatever adaptor is broken.

oscargag

Level 1

0 points

Jun 10, 2013 2:59 AM in response to khroy

It is not broken. If you read from the beginning of this list of posts the issue began right after the upgrade. The issue may be present with certain types of Mac models. If more than one user experience the same issue after an OSX upgrade, it is obviously not a broken video adaptor, but instead an issue with the patch released by Apple.

oscargag

Level 1

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Jun 10, 2013 3:08 AM in response to khroy

I am experiencing the problem and I also have an Nvidia chipset with a DVI adaptor on my MacBook Pro.

khroy Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 10, 2013 11:36 AM in response to oscargag

I was referring to Viper 320's problem. This problem started in 10.8.3, not 10.8.4 and the symptoms are completely different. It is not even the same issue. The problem we are discussing is the offset screen. He is having flickering and pixelating.

10.8.4 External Display Problem