Thunderbolt to VGA Adapter not working with SMART board all of a sudden?

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Is your mini-DVI adapter an Apple one or a third-party product?

Is there a PC laptop that can be hooked up to the projector, just to make sure the projector itself is OK?

And, just to confirm, if you pick up a pen and draw on the board, does the ink show up on the laptop's screen?

~Lyssa

What might be worth trying is adjusting the resolution on your Mac before you connect it to the projector. Lower it to, say, 1024 x 768, then hook everything up.

I don't have a machine with Mavericks handy, but I think if you look in System Preferences>Displays, you should have a list of resolutions to pick from.

If you have a Retina MBP, you may not have those choices though.

Another thing to check is to see if the Mac is detecting the projector. I believe it should show up if you follow the steps below:

1) Click the Apple logo in the upper left corner

2) Choose About This Mac

3) Choose More Info

4) Choose System Report

5) Click on Graphics/Displays

Do you see info for anything other than the built-in display?

~Lyssa

If your laptop is not connected to power (i.e., plugged in to a wall), try plugging it in. It is not uncommon for a laptop to send the VGA signal out with less power when it is on battery power. I've seen this fix this problem, at least, dozens of times.

Try connecting the VGA cable to your adapter while the smart board display is on THEN plug the adapter in to your computer.

Also, try connecting the VGA+Adapter to your mac before booting it (or connect the macbook to the vga cable and then reboot the macbook). I've seen this work with macbooks using vga on projectors (or other external displays running through longer cables or crestron/extron/whatever switching equipment) many many times too.

If these fail, get your campus AV (or IT) people involved. We have often found that a damaged cable or long run needing amplification will work with some computers but not with others. It could be that the cable running from the smart board is somewhat sketchy.

Also, have you attempted to connect your macbook to any other display since starting to have the issue? A bad dongle (dp to vga adapter) isn't rare. I have a bad one sitting on my desk at this very moment.

One last thing you can try, this works for some:

Shut of the mac

Connect it to the smart board (i.e, connect the cables)

Turn on the mac and then close the lid

This *may* boot the computer on the external dispaly (smart board)

Open the lid before it comes to the login screen.

Hopefully one of these suggestions helps.

I'm not sure, but I suspect the color that the monitor flashes when connecting to an external monitor has to do with the color of your background (or maybe the color that was selected before adding wallpaper, or even just whatever the default is in Mavericks). In anycase, when you connect an external display, you should get a little display icon in your upper right corner near the volume/wifi icons. This may be dependent on clicking the apple in the upper left of your screen, then system preferences, then displays, then checking the box in the lower left of the resulting window next to "Show mirroring options in the menu bar when available".

Being connected to a power source often does the trick. When you connect your computer to a display using a vga cable, the computer actually sends out 5 volts to some circuitry in the display that is used to communicate information about the display back to the source (your computer). The source (your computer) sends a request for this info to the display during startup.

When you use dvi/hdmi/dp/dvi, the DISPLAY actually shoots some voltage back to your computer when the cable gets connected- this triggers their link up. This is called "hot plug". VGA doesn't support "hot plug", but DVI/HDMI/Display port/DVI all do. It is possible that the digital to VGA adapter dongle and your computer could use some smoke and mirrors to mimic a startup when the adapter gets connected... so that may be worth a try too (connect cable to your adapter and display (smart board) THEN connect the adapter to your computer.

Hello,

I came across this thread because I was having the same issue with the display not working with a thunderbolt to vga cable. I simply turned off my monitor and plugged the cable in and turned the monitor back on and it. When I monitor was switched back on I simply went to display and checked mirror display. I hope this helps.

I'm having the same problem with my iPad connection to the Smartboard. Sometimes it connects for a moment, but the Smartboard will freeze on the initial screen and won't project anything else. Any suggestions?

Hey flutecake -

You should create a new post in the "Using iPad" forum as the folks there will be able to help better 🙂

~Lyssa

Thanks Lyssa! Done!

Best,

Linda