[wowway1]

Hi all,

I've had my MBP now for three weeks, and up till now it's really worked well for me as a replacement for my Windows laptop. Thing is, I'm a presales engineer, and I do a LOT of presentations to customers with an external projector. Sometimes mine, most of the time using what they have at their offices.

I've tried both of ours (an Epson and a Sony) and can't get either working completely succesfully. When I CAN get the image to project, it won't go higher than 800x600 even though they both support 1024x768. What I've done is:

1.) hook up the projector via the DVI-VGA adapter
2.) Booted everything up. In every case, the projector is not 'automagically recongnized, so"
3.) System pref - detect displays. Every time is 'sees' the projector as a second display, but it also knocks my MBP's resolution to a very crappy lower rate that I can't change. 90% of the time, I still can't get the projector to display an image.
4.) F7 is no help.

Anyone out there using one of these consistently for road traveling and using external projectors? What's your secret?

Thanks,

[imitchellg5]

Normally I don't boot everything up, I just plug in the adapter and start up the projector and everything works at 1024x768.

[ibook_steve]

As stated, there's no need to reboot when attaching a projector. Just attach it. In Displays preferences or in the Displays menu, you should see the name of the projector if it has been detected correctly. If you are seeing some sort of generic name (don't remember what it usually is), the projector was not detected correctly and you would only be able to run at 640x480 or 800x600. Try just unplugging and replugging the projector. If you still have a problem, there could be an issue with your DVI to VGA adaptor or, worse, the external monitor port. Try a spare adaptor first.

Steve

[wowway1]

Thanks Steve. It's not the monitor port, as I have a 20" DVI widescreen on it when I'm at the office. Never thought it might be the the adapter.

[Simon]

Sounds like the adapter. Check with another one. And keep in mind to attach the adapter to the projector first and then to the MBP, not the other way around.

[ibook_steve]

Originally Posted by Simon

Sounds like the adapter. Check with another one. And keep in mind to attach the adapter to the projector first and then to the MBP, not the other way around.

The order doesn't really matter since the external monitor detect signal isn't grounded until the complete connection is made (the monitor or project grounds the detect signal).

Steve

[Simon]

I know you were in that part of the business so I'm certainly not going to argue with you. Nevertheless, Apple's docs explicitly mention doing it at that order. And there were recent reports on MacFixIt that changing the order caused a connection between a projector and the MBP to suddenly work after it stubbornly refused to do so repeatedly. Weird stuff.

[ibook_steve]

Yeah, that's the order I always do it in, too, and it makes more sense, but there is no technical reason why you can't do it the other way. I guess since the pins in the adaptor are designed to connect ground first before power, as is the case on most hot connectors, would be the best explanation. But the amount of power is very small, 5 V at low current to power the monitor detect and communication circuitry.

Steve

[imitchellg5]

I always do it projector first too.

[tooki]

There is a reason for the order: the computer is detecting the adapter even when no display is attached. If the display isn't attached when the adapter is detected, the computer obviously cannot get the DDC2 (configuration) data from the display/projector.

I think it's very important to connect to the computer last.

tooki

[ibook_steve]

As I mentioned, the monitor or project grounds the detect line, not the adaptor. So if there is no monitor attached to the adaptor, no detect operation will occur.

Steve