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icruise · Feb 12, 2003, 03:23 PM

Just got a new 12" powerbook and am using it with a 17" Samsung 172T LCD. When I have the dock and menu bar on the external monitor, my desktop icons all end up being half off of the screen. (See screen shot below) If I set the external screen so that it is to the right of the powerbook, this doesn't happen (but I need it on the left...). Just a minor annoyance, but it didn't happen on my Pismo with the same setup. Any ideas what is causing this or how to solve it? I did quick search and found one other person with what seems to be the same problem, but no solutions.

Laurence · Feb 12, 2003, 06:08 PM

I don't have an answer for you, but it is not limited to PowerBooks. I have a G4 QS tower and it has a Matrox RTMac in it. The same thing happens, even when the 2nd monitor isn't connected. It seems the RTMac doesn't sense a monitor and just assumes it is there. both monitors show up in the display prefpane.

BTW, there are no OS X drivers for the RTMac so it is just working using whatever is built into the OS. (640x480 60Hz)

This is a really annoying bug, but a related issue is even more annoying, since all the icons along the left edge of the screen are cut-off halfway at boot time, I select all and move them over a bit. everything is fine for a while, but if I drag a new icon to the desktop, everything shifts right again! it will continue to do this until the icons are completely on the 2nd monitor, not just half way off the screen.

all2ofme · 03:20 PM

I've got the same problem on my 17" with a 20" Apple display. It was ok with my TiSD. No-one else has any idea on how to fix this? I've tried different sizes for the icons in the hope of jumping them all back onto the main screen (the 20") but no luck as yet.

<edit>It works if you have the second screen above or below as well as to the right. Hmmm.

himself · Jul 21, 2003, 01:19 AM

I get the problem on my Ti every now and then, and as far as I can tell it mainly has to do with the resolution of your second display. OS X has an invisible grid used for aligning the icons. The grid aligns to the right edge of the screen, so if your second monitor is on the right of your main monitor, it will align to the right edge of the right-most display. So, depending on your screen resolution and icon size, your icons may get lopped off, or not.

icruise · Jul 21, 2003, 01:23 AM

Strangely this problem went away for me when I changed the system language from Japanese to English. I haven't played around to make sure that was the actual cause, though.

Mithras · Jul 21, 2003, 10:29 PM

How is the quality on the 12" + 172T?

I just bought that monitor in anticipation of a new powerbook; I'd be happy with a 12", but wonder if I should stick with a 15" to get the crisp DVI connection.

When you compare the 12" screen to the external, does the external look fuzzy at all? Or is it pretty good? I do a lot of text work, so I need crisp, clean text.

jasong · Jul 22, 2003, 01:28 PM

Funny, I have had this problem since OS 9. I just assumed it was one of the stupid OS 9 bugs the new guys replicated along with the "click through the hole in the icon" bug (where you can't click on the transparent parts of the icon).

-- Jason