[flareslow]

Thought I would upgrade the display on my mini- 1.66GHz 1Gig C2D to a Samsung 245BW, but the display looked terrible. It's next to impossible to read text on the screen at native resolution 1920x1200. Plan to return the monitor to Sam's. Anyone with experience with the Samsung 223BW or 940BW (in stock models)?

[mfbernstein]

I had decent results with the Samsung 204T (20", 1600x1200) a while back. Have you tried the monitor with another machine to verify that it's the Mini at fault here?

[flareslow]

I tried it with my MacBook Pro 2GHz CD with the same results as the Mac Mini. The Mini works great with an old Mitsubishi 900U 19" crt. Something could be up with the 245BW display, but I always give new stuff the benefit of the doubt. I thought I might have picked too much monitor for the video chip in the Mini. The problem with the display is tiny visible vertical lines (like a screen) which cause text to appear distorted. I'll try a second monitor in the store (if they will let me) with my MBP.

[slpdLoad]

If the mini can push 1920x1200, then it's pushing it at the highest "quality" it can. Even though it's integrated graphics it should still look as good as any computer. Make sure you take a browse through the System Preferences to make sure you don't have some obscure setting configured that's messing with the signal (like Universal Access).

[Kadman]

I agree that something else may be amiss here. Please don't think I'm trying to insult your intelligence, but a few basic questions:

1. Did you actually verify that it recognized the new display and set it for it's native resolution? I've often seen the Mac choose something below native resolution for whatever reason even though it will let you manually choose up to the native resolution.

2. Once up and running, did you press the Auto button to let the display sync up to the signal from the Mini?

3. Are you using the DVI cable?

I've used my Mini with a Dell 2405 at that same resolution and the image looked razor sharp. It could even be a bum monitor. Might be worth digging into instead of giving up on that combo.

[flareslow]

Thanks for the info. I actually tried both DVI and VGA cables, checked different resolutions in System preferences, and different settings in the monitor's menu and nothing improved. The monitor correctly identified the cable in use, and the Auto button didn't help - it's actually disabled when the DVI cable is used, according to the manual. I suspect I may have a bad monitor and whether it is or isn't working properly, it won't work with my Mini.

[flareslow]

Followup- Exchanged monitor yesterday, new one works great. Thanks for the help.