MBP Retina shows wrong resolution on external display since 10.8.4

I can verify. Problem first appeared this morning - exactly the same problem with two DELL 2713HM. Unable to get resolution up to 2560x1440. At first with one port, now after hour of testing both ports. Have used these monitors for months without problems. I have ruled out cable and monitor problem. Must be new software or less likely broken MBP Retina.

Have you already tried to reset PRAM and NVRAM or SMC?

If not: search for the SMC reset on google or Apples Support page (i just can't look for the link right now because it says my computer isn't supported)

for NVRAM/PRAM:

shut down your computer

Press the Start Button and the immediately press "CMD"+"OPTION"+"P"+"R" until the start tone sounds for a second time! release the keys and let your MacBook boot normally. Also try to reboot without the display(s) (and the cables) connected to your MBPr!

This worked for me:

Step 1: Delete system windowserver preferences

1. In the Finder, from the menu bar, select "Go -> Go to Folder..."
2. Enter: /Library/Preferences/
3. Delete the file called com.apple.windowserver.plist

Step 2: Delete user windowserver preferences

1. In the Finder, from the menu bar, select "Go -> Go to Folder..."
2. Enter: ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/
3. Delete all files that start with com.apple.windowserver (On my rMBP, there was one file called com.apple.windowserver.12AFB147-95D6-5C70-8F62-C1E4F2BE81BE)

Step 3: Reset the PRAM (These instructions are fromhttp://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379)

1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.

The same problem is occurring for me. I also just updated to 10.8.4 on my MBP retina (mid 2012), which is hooked up to a Dell U2711 monitor via a displayport cable. Right now, it seems to only occur with the far back displayport port.

Unfortunately, your steps did not work for me. 😟

A couple things of note:

• I did not even have the com.apple.windowserver.plist file that you listed in the first step. I was perplexed.
• I did have a one in the ByHost folder, as well as a lockfile with the same name. I deleted both.
• After following your steps, the resolution options did change. They now only had 2 options: 1080p and 2560x1440. I was excited.
• I chose the latter, but it did not actually change the resolution. I was no longer excited.
• I switched to the closer displayport port, and it still worked fine. I was relieved.
• And then I switched back to the far non-working port. The display options had gone back to the original list of resolutions that did not include 2560x1440. I was disappointed.

Anybody have any other ideas? I'm really hoping that what Z described in the original post, namely the situation eventually degrading so that neither displayport ports work, will not happen to me also.

Thanks for posting this! I'm glad to see I"m not the only one with this issue.

Is there a way to revert back from 10.8.4 without losing all the work since I updated?

I followed the steps provided by tristian9 and it resolved my problems. I have a 15" Retina MacBook Pro connected to two Dell U2711 displays running 10.8.4. My problems did not start immediatly after installing 10.8.4 and only started yesterday when the display connected to the Thunderbolt port (via a mini Displayport to Displayport adapter) nearest to the MagSafe power port was the only one that could display native 2560x1440 resolution. The other port would only display at 1080p. Then today both monitors would only display at 1080p and I couldn't get either of them to display at native resolution.

Deleting the windowserver preferences and resetting the PRAM (actually NVRAM for Intel) restored native resolution for both of my monitors. Thanks tristian9!

Now one of the screens started blinking with 2 second intervals - turning on and then off in endless cycles.

This helped me:

http://embdev.net/topic/284710

This is still occuring on OS X Mavericks. The fix does work. Very disappointing Apple!

Apple really needs to fix this because it is so annoying for my Dell 2711. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I tried deleting the windowsever and it works 20% of the time.

The windowserver includes the 2560 by 1440 when you view the plist, however the display option is not display for the external monitor.

I bet the Apple Monitors won't have issues.......

Yeah, Vin, I have a Dell 2711 too, and I'm still having the issue as well. None of the above solutions ever worked for me. Fortunately, plugging in the monitor to the other TB port still works.

By the way, I do use a 2560x1440 Apple display at work with the same laptop, and it doesn't have this issue. I also have a 1920x1080 Dell monitor that presents no resolution issues either.

When I had previously tried the solution posted at http://embdev.net/topic/284710#3027030, it didn't work for me. On a whim, I just tried it again, and it worked. Perhaps I did things slightly differently last time, but here's what worked for me:

1. Unplug all other monitors except the problem one and restart
   
2. Downloaded the script "patch-edid.rb" from http://embdev.net/topic/284710#3027030. Note that the script is not in the first post. Here's a direct link: http://embdev.net/attachment/168316/patch-edid.rb
   
3. Deleted the old color profile in /Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays. You'll need to choose the right file for your monitor. For example, I did:sudo rm /Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays/DELL\ U2711-000010AC-0000-A057-3145-4A4C00000000.icc
   
4. Run the script by executing the following command in a terminal window from the directory you downloaded the script to.
   ruby patch-edid.rb
   For me, this created a folder called "DisplayVendorID-10ac/"
   
5. Copy that folder to /System/Library/Displays/Overrides/
   sudo mv DisplayVendorID-10ac/ /System/Library/Displays/Overrides/
   
6. Restart
   

Previous post of forcing RGB mode instead of YCbCr by overriding edid helped!

MacBook Pro Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013 with Dell U2711, OSX 10.9.1.

I hope that Apple will add easier way to force RGB instead of YCbCr on external monitor in the future.