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Deal · Apr 7, 2006, 02:30 PM

Hi all,

I'm running Windows on the MacBook Pro via Bootcamp and can't get an external monitor to work. Has anybody accomplished this on a MacBook Pro?

I've tried two different NEC LCD monitors and both behave the same. The second screen will wake and display the windows startup screen, but as soon as Windows and the driver kicks in... blank.

Any ideas why I can't get it to work?

Thanks

mduell · Apr 7, 2006, 02:31 PM

Have you selected "Extend Windows onto this display" in the Display Control Panel?

Deal · Apr 7, 2006, 02:37 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

Have you selected "Extend Windows onto this display" in the Display Control Panel?

Yep. I've mucked around with nearly every setting in there (going back and forth, testing). I am going to try another monitor (non NEC) and see what happens.

Deal · Apr 7, 2006, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by Deal

Yep. I've mucked around with nearly every setting in there (going back and forth, testing). I am going to try another monitor (non NEC) and see what happens.

fixed. If anybody has this trouble, go into the ATI driver software and go to displays and select the bottom left (which is by default the primary), deselect the top left (by default the secondary) and select the top right to use as the secondary monitor.

Then it wakes up all happy!

Thanks,

Duane

Gee4orce · Apr 7, 2006, 03:37 PM

The joys of windows :/

skemple · Apr 7, 2006, 04:08 PM

Originally Posted by Gee4orce

The joys of windows :/

Exactly. The other day in one of my classes we had group presentations. The groups before us spent about 10 minutes trying to get their PC laptop hooked up and working with the projector. My group was next and I had my Macbook Pro setup in about 1 minute and used the remote with Keynote. It was great.

Salty · Apr 8, 2006, 04:49 PM

Originally Posted by skemple

Exactly. The other day in one of my classes we had group presentations. The groups before us spent about 10 minutes trying to get their PC laptop hooked up and working with the projector. My group was next and I had my Macbook Pro setup in about 1 minute and used the remote with Keynote. It was great.

Yah no kidding I've never had near as much trouble with projectors as all the windows drones I see.

nacho · May 7, 2006, 12:15 AM

I am having problems with this myself.

I too feel like I have exhausted the options to get an external monitor working, the same same symptoms except I am plugging using the converter to plug into an older crt. I never had such problems doing this on other dual head Windows machines. The displays tab in the ATI config grays out all the monitor choices when the external monitor is not plugged in and when it is, I have to use keyboard tricks to get open windows to display on the "second" monitor (which is the only functioning one -- the laptop display) just to get to that same config page. Now at least there are monitor choices but I run into a whole slew of other issues and never get the external monitor to display.

Is it possible someone with a Macbook Pro can post a more detailed walkthrough?

Aesop · May 17, 2006, 10:33 PM

having the same problem. just posting so i can subscribe to thread in hopes of finding a solution.

Deal · May 18, 2006, 10:43 AM

Usually there is a way to make it do what you want it to, but it is not the usual way it should work in the driver.

For instance, having to use the lower left and upper right monitor boxes.

Switching between mirrored and extended is also an issue that can only be resolved by changing which monitor is monitor 1 and which is monitor 2.

However, there are still some strange problems. When in extended desktop mode (or whatever it's called in Windows) I had a screen only show half of it's content on the external monitor while the laptop showed it fine (?). Not great for a presentation, let me tell ya.

It seems we need an update for the video driver before all is well.

Good luck!

alex_kac · May 18, 2006, 11:07 AM

Using DVI on the MBP worked for me perfectly. The only issue I had was it wouldn't let me make the external LCD the primary.

Aesop · May 18, 2006, 12:05 PM

Can you give me some direction on how to make that happen? (sorry to be so lame.)

alex_kac · May 18, 2006, 11:02 PM

Well for me, I simply plugged in the DVI cable to the port, then turned on the monitor, and went to the ATI Advanced controls and set it up there. I'm not near the setup now so I can't do a step by step, but perhaps that will help.

Humphz · May 19, 2006, 10:59 AM

My problem is slightly different. I can attach a DVI Flat Panel and everything works fine. When I attach my inFocus projector, the display on the MacBook Pro 17 goes to blank desktop and is functionally the 2nd display. The projector isn't provided a signal. I'm using the Apple supplied DVI to VGA cable.

When I'm in Mac OS mode, the projector works just fine when attached to the MacBook Pro 17...

Any thoughts? I'm thinking driver problem, but wanted to know if anyone has a work around?

Thanks, Bob

Cadaver · May 20, 2006, 12:37 PM

What I've had to do to get the external monitor (a 30" cinema display) working as the "primary" monitor in Windows, and with proper 2560x1600 resolution, is to activate the display via the ATI control panel, click the "power" button icon to turn off the internal display, then reboot Windows and close the lid on my MBP before the OS starts. The internal screen will still light until Windows has finished booting, then will shut off and the external display will pop alive.

Its a right pain in the arse, but it can be made to work. Very frustrating, but this is exactly how it would work on a "real" PC.

Getting just the external display to activate, keeping the internal display as the primary Windows display (dual head mode with internal as primary), is far easier and doesn't require rebooting. Just plug in the display, go to the Windows' Displays control panel, click in the square/rectangle representing Display 2, and then click the "extend Windows desktop..." checkbox. To clone the primary and secondary displays, go then to the ATI control panel and click the "clone" button - it'll look like two superimposed squares. The ATI's help menu has decent instructions for this procedure.

Cadaver · May 20, 2006, 12:42 PM

Originally Posted by Sierra

My problem is slightly different. I can attach a DVI Flat Panel and everything works fine. When I attach my inFocus projector, the display on the MacBook Pro 17 goes to blank desktop and is functionally the 2nd display. The projector isn't provided a signal. I'm using the Apple supplied DVI to VGA cable.

When I'm in Mac OS mode, the projector works just fine when attached to the MacBook Pro 17...

Any thoughts? I'm thinking driver problem, but wanted to know if anyone has a work around?

Thanks, Bob

Check the settings in the ATI control panel. It might be activating a saved preset or something (plug in InFocus projector, and do the following...). Delete any saved settings your ATI control panel may have, and start over. See ATI's help window for further details.

As to why your projector isn't getting a clean VGA signal, however, isn't certain, but it may be due to the ATI control panel trying to set a refresh rate the projector isn't happy with.

Humphz · May 22, 2006, 10:38 AM

Buying a DVI cable to interface to the projector solved the problem (for Infocus LP-120, it's the M1-DA DVI digital computer cable with USB).

Mac OSX will drive the project with either DIV->VGA->DVI (via Apple's adapter) or DVI->DVI. Windows XP w/ Apple's ATI driver wouldn't do the DVI->VGA->DVI. Hence, the problem is a software, not hardware issue...

Fortunately, the Infocus LP-120 has a DVI (M1) input, so I can work around the problem.

Thanks, Bob

gtrcello · Jun 11, 2006, 10:28 AM

Originally Posted by Sierra

Buying a DVI cable to interface to the projector solved the problem (for Infocus LP-120, it's the M1-DA DVI digital computer cable with USB).

Mac OSX will drive the project with either DIV->VGA->DVI (via Apple's adapter) or DVI->DVI. Windows XP w/ Apple's ATI driver wouldn't do the DVI->VGA->DVI. Hence, the problem is a software, not hardware issue...

Fortunately, the Infocus LP-120 has a DVI (M1) input, so I can work around the problem.

Thanks, Bob

Unfortunately, I have the exact same problem, but my projector only does VGA. Does anyone else have any ideas? Right now, I'm burning a new boot camp driver CD in hopes that they solved the problem and just didn't tell anybody.

Ken

harrisjamieh · Jun 11, 2006, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by anderkh

in hopes that they solved the problem and just didn't tell anybody.

VERY doubtful...

gtrcello · Jun 11, 2006, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by harrisjamieh

VERY doubtful...

Unfortunately, they have not...

I have an appointment at the Apple store this afternoon - but since Bootcamp is not really supported, I don't have high hopes...

gtrcello · Jun 11, 2006, 04:42 PM

OK, I spoke to a friend who works at Apple - turns out there's already a bug for this filed in radar. Hopefully there will be a fix sometime soon.

aristotles · Jun 11, 2006, 07:23 PM

I had a hell of a time getting my LCD TV working in XP.

BkueKanoodle · Jun 13, 2006, 01:42 AM

Originally Posted by Gee4orce

The joys of windows :/

To be fair this is not a Windows issue, but a manufacturers drivers issue.

Windows by iteself does a pretty good job of managing multiple desktops if the driver allows windows to handle it.

What screws everything up is the video card manufacturers insist on controlling the multiple desktops within their own proprietary driver (the ati control panel etc)

This is an advantage apple has in that it can control the drivers it has to support and you don't have to worry about each vendor writing their own implementation of multiple monitor support that may or may not interfere with the OS handling it.

Deal · Jun 13, 2006, 10:20 AM

Bkue has a good point there. I see it just slightly differently. Microsoft has done a fairly decent job copying OSX (dates back before OS 7 if I remember correctly). They duplicated the sliding around of the screens to adjust their position, but with one annoyance. You have to click apply for it to take affect. On the Mac it happens immediately.

MS could still make it much easier than the interface they have though. Most people can figure out the OS X Displays System Pref with no trouble. Not so with the MS Control Panel. The pull down to select the monitor is completely redundant and the layout and wording is dumb. Too many things to confuse the average user. When they copied OS X they might as well have done it all the way.

The video board manufacturers complicate the issue even farther. We recently installed two new PCs in our lab at work and trying to get the MAIN monitor on the left (the one with the start button) was nearly impossible. It wasn't doing what it was supposed to do. Then when we switched from DVI to VGA cables to see if that would help, the monitors went black. They would wake up and see the Windows start up screen (and worked in safe mode) but would shut off as if no signal was coming to them as soon as the drivers took over. That would never happen on a Mac.

Everything is working now, so please no advice... it just should not have been difficult.

Well, that's my rant. Like always it can be summed up; Mac = easy, Windows = difficult if possible

bobelmore · Aug 12, 2006, 12:37 AM

I too had problems with multiple displays. At first it worked, then I could only see one display. After doing some debugging I found that the Windows WIN.INI file was the problem, so I reloaded the driver from the drivers disk I made and it worked (that was yesterday).

Now, today, when I try to boot into Windows I get a blank screen. I don't know whether Windows is failing to boot or if I have no display at all. Any ideas?

ghporter · Aug 12, 2006, 09:49 AM

How was the WIN.INI file "the problem," and what did you do to it? Try booting Windows into Safe Mode (hold F8 as soon as it starts booting and you'll get a screen of options including Safe Mode). Once you're in, undo whatever it was you did to WIN.INI. The original installation of the ATI driver should have made all the system modifications it needed, so something (or someone-that's you) changed the file. Windows is sensitive to some file modifications... Very sensitive at times.

bobelmore · Aug 12, 2006, 11:47 AM

Sorry I didn't give more info. MS technical support walked me through the process of turning off various services to isolate the problem. Yes, we started in safe mode, then used the configuration manager to isolate services. We got down to the point where only the win.ini file seemed to be the problem. I reloaded the display driver, which seemed to fix the problem, but now I only get a blank screen, so I don't know what's going on.

The only change I made was to load MS Visio, which I suppose could have caused the problem.

oallostavros · Oct 28, 2006, 07:54 PM

I bought the apple connector for video output, and it works fine when I'm running the mac operating system. But when I boot up with windows and try to use my TV as the external display, it doesn't work. Do I need to download a driver for the video out port on the macbook?

Thanks

BGMac · Nov 11, 2006, 09:42 PM

Well I got it working and I have instructions for you.

-Un-Install all ATI related software and drivers
-Delete all entries for ATI in your windows registri (there are some that can't be deleted)
-get the latest version of bootcamp and burn a drivers CD (Botcamp Version 1.1.2)
-Install the new Drivers.
-Enable your second monitor from the ATI control panel
-There is still a problem with the supported resolution(I think that might have to do with my monitor) but I had to set the default monitor resolution to 1024x768

Hope this helps anyone

ghporter · Nov 11, 2006, 10:25 PM

Originally Posted by BGMac

Well I got it working and I have instructions for you.

-Un-Install all ATI related software and drivers
-Delete all entries for ATI in your windows registri (there are some that can't be deleted)
-get the latest version of bootcamp and burn a drivers CD (Botcamp Version 1.1.2)
-Install the new Drivers.
-Enable your second monitor from the ATI control panel
-There is still a problem with the supported resolution(I think that might have to do with my monitor) but I had to set the default monitor resolution to 1024x768

Hope this helps anyone

Interesting process, particularly the part with deleting all ATI entries in the Registry (which must take some time because of how spread out everything can be in the Registry). How did you come upon this set of instructions?

Scolidoc · Nov 13, 2006, 06:14 PM

Originally Posted by BGMac

Well I got it working and I have instructions for you.

-Un-Install all ATI related software and drivers
-Delete all entries for ATI in your windows registri (there are some that can't be deleted)
-get the latest version of bootcamp and burn a drivers CD (Botcamp Version 1.1.2)
-Install the new Drivers.
-Enable your second monitor from the ATI control panel
-There is still a problem with the supported resolution(I think that might have to do with my monitor) but I had to set the default monitor resolution to 1024x768

Hope this helps anyone

Hi guys, I'm new here. Interesting forum you have...

Is that for a VGA or DVI monitor. I can't get any VGA screen to work using the adapter in Windows (even with the most recent Bootcamp 1.1.2). I can't see a second monitor in the ATI control panel. I read on Apple's site that external monitors are not supported yet...

notjackobrien · Nov 13, 2006, 06:52 PM

Howdy all. I'm running into the same brick wall with my DVI to S-Video adapter, and the solutions as posted aren't of much help as I don't appear to have any ATI control panel. I have an intel graphics media accelerator whatsit (which isn't recognizing that I have an extra monitor plugged in), and the standard "Displays" control panel, and everytime I turn on the "extend desktop" option and hit apply, it ever so kindly unclicks it for me and does nothing. Also, when I plug the adapter in, the display refreshes and makes that lovely windows "something just happened" noise once every five seconds.

Did I install Bootcamp wrong or something? I installed all my Mac Drivers & things with it... I also installed The Sims 2 (the primary reason I bothered with windows in the first place) but I wanna play it with my big ol' TV though!

any help is appreciated.

-Jackson

BGMac · Nov 15, 2006, 03:38 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

Interesting process, particularly the part with deleting all ATI entries in the Registry (which must take some time because of how spread out everything can be in the Registry). How did you come upon this set of instructions?

I have been using windows for years and I have noticed that some manufacturer would come up with new drivers and forget to do house keeping on the old ones.
The instructions worked for a VGA monitor using the mac DVI to VGA adapter.
It worked pretty well except for the resolution issue that i mention on the instructions.

if you open the registry editor by going to Start>run> and then type regedit. you can do a search for "ATI " make sure you leave an space after ATI and no quotes then press F3 on the keyboard to go to the next entry, probably takes no more than 5 mins. also pay attention of what I say on the instruction about having some entries that can't be deleted

ghporter · Nov 16, 2006, 10:10 PM

I've always found that search in Regedit was less than great, but if ATI is all you have to search for (instead of some eleventy-billion-character long GUID) then that's not nearly as bad.

jdeakin · Mar 5, 2007, 05:19 PM

Bingeaux! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!

John Deakin

fixed. If anybody has this trouble, go into the ATI driver software and go to displays and select the bottom left (which is by default the primary), deselect the top left (by default the secondary) and select the top right to use as the secondary monitor.

Then it wakes up all happy!

utomi · Jul 30, 2007, 07:14 PM

Hi everybody. Any ideas?

My problem is the next:

I have an iMac 17" Core2Duo with Ati X1600. I want to use my Samsung 27" as an extended display. I hooked up with miniDVI-VGA connector. The OSX works but it is strange a little bit. Because my Samsung LCD native resolution is 1360x768. But i didn't find this res. on the osx display panel. But when i'am try the 1280x768 my LCD switch to 1360x768 so it is strange but works like a charm.
My really problem is the following:
I installed an WindowsXP SP2 Hungarian lokalized version because i'am Hungarian.

I installed the Bootcamp 1.3 drivers. but my secondary monitor(Samsung LCD) resolution is didn't correct. It means if i switch my sec. monitor resolution to 1360x768 i got black screen and the lcd sasy not supported resolution. But it's her resolution. I have no idea what is the problem. I put up the Catalyst Control Center but won't help. The only last resolution what work is 1152x856.But is not her native res. Please somebody help me.Please. I want to play 720p HD movie on xp because VLC didn't support DTS correctly with MKV.
Please help me.

p.s
Sorry for my pour english. I'am Hungarian so my english is bad. Sorry.

TailsToo · Sep 4, 2007, 10:41 PM

Originally Posted by jdeakin

Bingeaux! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!

John Deakin

fixed. If anybody has this trouble, go into the ATI driver software and go to displays and select the bottom left (which is by default the primary), deselect the top left (by default the secondary) and select the top right to use as the secondary monitor.

Then it wakes up all happy!

This still doesn't work for me - no matter what I do, I cannot get the external LCD to be the primary display! Running bootcamp 1.4 now, but with no more luck than before.

linuxbot3000 · Oct 23, 2007, 07:47 PM

cant even find the ati control panel on bootcamp 1.4 BETA

ibook_steve · Oct 24, 2007, 04:00 AM

Bringing up old threads is bad karma, but anyway...

Use the Displays control panel Settings tab. Once you connect the external display, click the "2" display and enable "Expand onto this monitor" or whatever it is. You may also need to click on the "1" main display and click the Advanced button. Go to the ATI Displays tab to configure mirroring or extended desktop.

Steve