You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Multiple display problem in OSX 10.9.2

I just updated to 10.9.2 on my 15" Macbook Pro (Mid-2010) and after the restart my secondary display will not work. When I plug it in to my mini displayport my secondary display comes up black and my primary display comes back with the background and settings that I had set for my secondary display. It seems as though the OS was confusing my primary display for my secondary. After messing with the settings I was able to get my primary display back to my primary settings, but the secondary display is still showing up black no matter how much I mess with the display settings in the system preferences (changes to resolution, mirroring, ect.). Anyone else experiencing this?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2010)

Posted on Feb 25, 2014 1:00 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 25, 2014 1:14 PM

Nearly the same here. I've an external display connected to my private iMac via mini displayport respectively two external thunderbolt displays connected to my iMac for work. Before the update to 10.9.2 everything worked fine, afterwards the screen turns from black to the normal display to black and so on, it's flickering every time I do something, open up an app, repositioning a window from one display to another, switch to fullscreen. This totally *****, as an Developer and UI designer I'm depend on two respectively three displays o.O

135 replies

Feb 27, 2014 8:35 AM in response to athomas1

Also having some pretty similar issues with my early 2011 Macbook Pro that appeared right after the update to 10.9.2 (so it's fairly obvious what caused them).


The basic gist of these issues is that OSX seems to become confused about what it's supposed to do with multiple monitors. When I just plugged in my secondry display (an HP Pavilion 23xi trough an Onkyo HTX-22HDX) it decided that what I wanted to do was to do screen mirroring, which I've never set it to do and had to go into the settings to uncheck that box which OSX seems to have kindly checked for me. Another slightly more bizarre issue happens whenever a program wants to go full screen.


What happens then is that there's a mixup between the secondry displays' and the main ones' desktop wallapapers. First time that happened the 1st, 2nd and 5th of my 6 spaces changed to the wallpaper I had on my secondary display and the second time it was also the 6th one. This happens basically every time an application goes full screen.


In other words: How the **** did this get past tests? I mean they've had developer test builds of 10.9.2 since december and this still got past? Did 10.9.2 get pushed out in an unfinished state because of the SSL verification bug? Because it sure seems like it...

Feb 27, 2014 11:05 AM in response to athomas1

FWIW: I was using an old, crappy Westinghouse L2220HW that had been laying around. After I updated, the screen resolution was only able to go to 1280 using the Analog port.


I switched from a standard Mini Displayport to VGA Cable Adapter, to the newer Mini DisplayPort to DVI style of adapter. Now my screen resolution is back to max (1920)!!


🙂

Feb 27, 2014 1:03 PM in response to athomas1

I'm not sure how useful this will be, but hopefully it might help some of you. I've managed to get my monitor working again. (Full blurb at: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5939866?tstart=0)


To do this I had to disable DisplayPort 1.2 support within my monitor's On Screen Display (so that it's just using 1.1a) so if that's an option for you I'd recommend trying it. (I'm guessing that 10.9.2 has some DisplayPort 1.2 issues that really need fixing.)

Mar 1, 2014 10:36 AM in response to athomas1

10.9.2 on a New Mac Pro. I have 2 30" displays, one the Apple cinama display, the other an NEC 301w. The 301w is problematic when using the display port connection when waking from sleep etc. but using a dual link DVI adaptor has worked fine. However, after 10.9.2, the 301w will not wake, yet the computer still sees it as active. The password dialog box does not appear (it is normally on the 301w), yet is still active and available. If I type in the password I can get to the menubar on the second display.


The only solution I have found is to shut the comptuer down, unplug the 301w, restart the computer, and then after the login screen appears, turn on the 301w and connect it. Then things are back to where they were.

'

I had no issues at all with 10.9.1

Mar 3, 2014 5:41 PM in response to athomas1

I have a friend who lectures frequently, and depends on mirroring to demonstrate Photoshop and Lightroom. I also teach classes on Lightroom, and depend on mirroring to demonstrate things to the class. My friend upgraded to 10.9.2 and it has been a disaster for him. We've had to cancel one class and now are trying to downgrade. At this point he can't teach the class with his laptop, the projected image is showing but his screen is black. The backlight is still on and the Mac think's it is there.


I'm glad I didn't upgrade. But here I sit on an open airport in a hotel typing this. My hope is the security bug is so huge and there are so many millions of apple devices to go after that odds are pretty slim they'll find me.

Mar 4, 2014 10:15 AM in response to athomas1

After 10.9.2 update, main screen and secondary monitor (HP LP2480zx) have swapped identity in Settings>Displays. My 17inch MBP's main screen shows up as the secondary screen in Settings>Dipslays and the HP/secodnary screen shows up as primary screen. I've begun the work-a-round to my problem but have not found an answer as of yet. Currently in the reset SMC and the the NVRAM & PRAM phase soon. Any other suggestions would be fantastic. Wish Apple would fix this issue soon.

Mar 4, 2014 10:43 PM in response to athomas1

Similar issue. Mac Mini - Mid-2011. Using a powered DP to DualLink-DVI adapter, connected to a QX2710 2560x1440 monitor. Immediately after upgrade to 10.9.2, display won't work.


At boot, I can see the white screen with the apple logo. As soon as the display would normally swap to my desktop, the adapter drops to a test pattern.


Unfortunately the adapter has no configuration, so I can't change the DP 1.2 setting as described above. The monitor has no alternate inputs, so I can't use HDMI. For the moment, I'm sitting a 13" VGA monitor on the thing. This really *****.


I opened a bug report, but I'm not expecting much.


If Apple is reading this... The user experience here was/is absolutely horrible. Basically the update started and then the monitor dropped to test pattern and never returned. I had to de-cable the machine and HDMI it to my TV just to make sure it was still working (and it actually hadn't finished the update!) After letting it finish the update, I tried returning the machine to my desk. Tried resetting PRAM and SMC, etc. Nothing helps. So now I have an expensive HD monitor that's totally useless.

Multiple display problem in OSX 10.9.2

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.