10.9 (Mavericks) External Display Problem

Not sure if you still need this but in the System preferences > Displays. In the Displays Tab hold down the option key and click the toggle button for "Best for display", then the gather windows button (in the bottom right hand corner) will turn into a detect displays button. Then click it. This should work. If not option click the toggle for scaled and it should give you additional resolutions to choose from.

This solved the issue for me (1920x1080):

1. I connected a new external monitor to MacBook Pro, which I never connected before. It has the same shifted / wrong resolution issue.

2. I connected my usual external monitor back. Mac OS suddenly recognized a model of my usual external monitor and the issue was solved.

Conclusion: try to connect different external monitors. It may reset wrong settings.

thanks, Luke20333! I already spent hours trying to figure this out; your observation provided the solution.

This should be the best answer-

Thanks G Webb!

🙂

I had the issue for a Dell E2214H where I could select the correct resolution with the "Alt trick", but the screen was offset.

FIXED! I went to the menu in the Dell monitor and disabled DDC/CI. FIXED!

Not sure if it was just any change that caused OSX to rethink the display or if that did something specific, but it worked for me.

I had previously encountered but fixed this issue before 10.9.5 with an early 2009 Mac Mini and a Sony Bravia KDL-60w850B connected via Mini DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter.

After the latest Security Update 2015-001 however the TV does not get an HDMI input signal from the Mini at all anymore. The alt trick doesn't show any other resolutions, Switchresx or DisplayMenu give me nothing but a blank screen.

Did Apple kill anything related to the HDMI adapters in this security update?

Any suggestions for another solution I could try?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Thank you for this! I am using a late 2012 iMac that I just upgraded to Yosemite last night (finally). Today, my external monitor could NOT get a good resolution. I have an original, Apple mini-display to VGA adapter, but it just would not work. I unplugged and replugged a few times hoping it would reset. When I used the alt options in displays, it allowed me to detect my displays again, and this reset the resolution problems. Thank you!

Thank you BobDisembodied!I have a DELL U2711 and a MacBook Pro 17-inch, Mid 2010. I haven't been able to use my mas resulution of 2560 x 1440 for a year, trying all other suggested solutions and now the DDC/CI disabling made it work! The max resolution didn't show up right away, had to restart mac, change input source on monitor, unplug the monitor power, choosed scaled resolution of 1600x1200 - and suddenly the "2560x1440" option was back!

Wow, yes, holding down Alt while clicking the "Resolution: Scaled" radio button in the System Prefs -> Displays

helped show the resolutions I needed. That's a pretty horrible user interface decision on Apple's part. A radio button that says "Show more resolution options" would be a much better choice.

In my case the machine kept booting up using 800x600 (I have a KVM switchbox that only switches VGA connections, so I have a MacMini DisplayPort-to-VGA adaptor). So when I clicked "Scaled", the only options were 800x600 and 1280x1024, both of which look horrible; this monitor's native res is 1920x1200 which I've used for almost a decade through the VGA connectors on various machines including mac + windows + linux. This is the first time I'd encountered a machine that couldn't recognize the display's native resolution.Couldn't figure out why it was giving me such a limited list of resolutions.. weird.

Anyway, the Alt-Click on the "Scaled" radio button gave the extra resolution options in the chooser.. great!

Thanks G Webb!

Wow. Do you work at Apple? Did you read the manual? Is there a manual??

🙂

I have a 2014 iMac connected to a LG IPS226 via Monoprice Thunderbolt to HDMI cable.

The display worked initially and then eventually stopped working. Detectable by iMac but display is dark.

I tried PRAM reset...no joy.

What ended up working is hooking the monitor up to another computer, and doing a factory reset.

Good luck!

Even worse problems with external monitors now in 2015 with Yosemite on an a early 2015 Macbook Pro 15" retina... Now on top of the wrong resolution you get horribly wrong colors that look like 16bit + horrible aliasing problems on text if you don`t use a original Apple Cinema display monitor. More than 2 years have gone and absolutely nothing have happened to fix this problem, instead they have made it worse... How is that possible to not fix a simple problem like this? I suspect Apple is on purpose sabotaging the use of other brands of monitors in the hope that we buy a Apple Cinema Display...

Another problem is when I run windows instead so I can use my external monitor (a 42" LG TV with color and picture quality similar to Apple Cinema Display at 1/10 the cost) with correct colors without aliasing problems my MBP overheats because "system interupts" use 100% of CPU core 0 all the time 24/7 so the idle temperature on my laptop is 85 to 90 Celsius (normal idle is 28 to 30C). This problem have also been around for more than 2 years and people all over internet is complaining and no solution whatsoever is in sight...

Apple have totally lost its way ignoring their costumers needs, I will never buy a Mac again and I have recommended to all my friends that have been thinking about buying a Mac to stay away from Apple...

This helped me solve an issue I was having with my yiynova tablet monitor. Thank you!

it worked. thanks 😀 😀