10.9 (Mavericks) External Display Problem

Your monitor has resolution of 1920x1080 and has HDMI, VGA and DVI ports. I tested several DVI cables with higher resolution (2560x1440) monitors and found that some of them simply do not work well under Mavericks. I have no idea if this might be the case for the 1920x1080 monitor but you may try to test another DVI-to-miniDisplayPort cable (and if you are using standard DVI-to-DVI cable connected to DVI-to-miniDisplayPort extension box, you may try first just another DVI-to-DVI cable). From my experience HDMI-to-miniDisplayPort cable the safest solution. You may also try VGA-to-miniDisplayPort cable (you would probably need again an extension box); in the case of my 1920x1200 Samsung SyncMasetr 2693HM monitor, I do not see deterioration in quality of the image between HDMI and VGA cables.

I am running dual 27" 2560x1440 display on my Linux box, and had to go to dual-DVI cables to get anything to display. I also run them on my MBP with these cables using a DVI<->Mini DisplayPort adapter. I haven't tried turning down the resolution to 1920x1080 and trying the old single-DVI cables. This (dual-DVI cable) might be something you could try if a friend has a dual-DVI cable you could borrow. In my case, the single-DVI cable simply could not handle the data transfer rate of the 2560x1440 monitor. This may not be your issue at all but it might be worth a try.

I'm getting same problem with my MacBook Pro MD101 2012.

when entering dual displays mode with recommended resolution for DELL 2312HM, external display isn't stable.

sometimes it gets sleep or screen flick every time i perform a right-click .....

The external is not work with 1920x1080 resolution properly.... why?

This is terrible, please help me bypass....

Using Mini display port to VGA, so using display port to DVI may help ???

I have a Samsung as a second monitor and was having this same problem.

Thank God for Google and some very smart Macisticians like G Webb!

Would be very nice if Apple would have a tooltip or something about this...would probably be too intricate and expensive to implement. 😝

P.S. For those of us somewhat new to Macs, alt = option.

I don't know if anyone already posted a fix for this, I don't have time to read whole 11 pages of this thread, I apologize -- just sharing real quick in case this helps others.

This solve 100% worked for me. I don't know if you need my exact setup for this to work... I would guess not, but I will describe my setup in case.

I just upgraded to Mavericks from Mountain Lion, and external would not connect/work like it used to.

My setup:

• MBP 15" -- upgraded from Mountain Lion to Mavericks
• Trusty old 30" Cinema Display (still more beautiful than a newer 27" with reflections, ugh)
• Display connected via Apple Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter $99

  (not any of the cheaper $19-$29 connectors, I don’t know if they work, this is just what worked for me: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB571Z/A/mini-displayport-to-dual-link-dvi-ada pter)

• Display will connect, but all I can see is the MBP desktop picture on the external display, the MBP is still in charge

My solve:

• Connect external display same way you did before system upgrade to Mavericks
• System prefs > Keyboard

  UNCHECK – "use all F1, F2 keys as standard function keys" (you can recheck it afterwards if you use this, as I do)

• System prefs > Mission Control

  UNCHECK – "displays have separate spaces"

• Log yourself out and back in (no need to restart, logout is fine)
• On your keyboard hit CONTROL and F1
• This “Forces Mirroring” and bingo… what’s on your laptop… should now be on your external monitor

I would be interested to know if this helps anyone.

It works! Thank you!

Awesome, pleased to hear it! Give my post a "like" if you like :-)

Sorry Moomin, I was actually responding to someone on page 1. I didn't realize how deep this thread went. (but you can see who I responded to at the top of the comment)

I am havin an issue like these while using a projector. The projector has via only so its 1024x768

When I did a clean install of mavericks all of the stretched resolutions went away even when holding down alt. How can I get those back? Also it does thee same thing limn the boot camp side. I have a 21.5-inch, Mid 2011

using thunderbolt to via adp

should I try iusing thunderbolt to dvi and then dvi to via adapter?

Any ideas? No way add custom reolsutions with stretch?

None of the solutions suggested so far work for me. Even after more resolutions showed up when I clicked "Scaled" while holding down Option/Alt, the only 16:9 resolution choice displayed was 1920x1080. My monitor is 720p (with a maximum resolution of 1366x768), so 1920x1080 doesn't work. How can I set the resolution to 1280x720, 1360x765, or 1366x768 (720p resolutions the display could handle)?

FYI, I'm trying to connect this HDTV via Mini DisplayPort-to-VGA adapter to a MacBook Pro 5,1 (15-inch, late 2008) running OS (Mavericks) 10.9.4. I haven't tried disabling separate spaces because I'd like to be able to use that feature, and I don't see why I shouldn't be able to while also having the correct resolution. Resetting PRAM didn't work, either. I didn't have this problem when I used OS 10.5.

Hey Folks,

I couldn't find the best post to reply to for this, so I just grabbed the first one. I want to make sure that people could find the fix, that worked for me, faster than I did.

Basically, this is one of the threads that came up when I did a ggl search for the issues I was having with my LG ultra wide monitor not letting me consistently go 2560x1080 from my 2010 MBA in Mavericks 10.9.4. I was pulling my hair out for almost a week and I was about to give up on the monitor all together.

Eventually, what worked for me was creating an override that would force RGB mode on my monitor instead of YCbCr.

http://embdev.net/topic/284710#3027030

It's a ruby script that you run while only the problem monitor is in use. Close the lid if you're on a laptop. Follow the directions... your mileage may vary.

What a relief it was...

Thanks G Webb! The alt works perfectly. It solves the problem which has been bothering me for a long time.

I had the same issue with a MacBook Air (Intel HD Graphics 4000) with a Mini-Display to Displayport cable. The black bars occurred on all sides. All fixes described previously did not work. The following procedure worked for me:

• Start the computer in safe mode (hold down shift button during power on)
• Set according display resolution
• Start in normal mode.

As a follow-up to the previously suggested solutions not working for me:

The only way I could get this to work was to buy a Mini DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter and use an HDMI connection instead of the VGA connection I was previously using. So, Mavericks broke VGA capability. Gotta buy an HDMI adaptor.