[zombie punk]

When I plug my mbp into my LCD monitor, it shows up, but at lower resolution than it should be. The monitor then shows a message saying that the wrong resolution is selected, and I have to go into prefs to change to the the correct res. What's going on? This happens every time, it's annoying.

[seanc]

Has it ever worked properly? It could be a preference gone awry.
Secondly, how is it hooked up? Straight DVI or via a DVI to VGA converter? If you're using a converter, that could be interfering with the MBPs ability to get the EDID data from the monitor.
Thirdly, is this a cheap no name monitor or a good quality brand? I ask because I've run across a couple of cheap brands of monitors that don't play nice with regards to being set at the right resolutions with certain graphics card configurations.

[ghporter]

...and even lower end LCDs from "known brands" should at least talk to the Mac. I have a Dell E171FP as my secondary monitor on my iMac, but I tried it out on my MBP—both with adapters from either DVI (on the MBP) or whatever that mini-connector on the iMac is, and in both cases, the Mac knew what that monitor was. So there are a number of places that could cause you problems, starting with the secondary monitor's cable...

[zombie punk]

It's an asus - it works fine when I set the res manually, it has never auto detected the correct res (and works fine, just with a lower res when it auto detects). I'm using VGA adaptor because the monitor doesn't have a dvi port. The monitor cable is hard-wired to the monitor.

[zombie punk]

bump?

[macwall]

the video card might be out of whack? does it do this with other monitors?