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Leopard Graphics Update does a de-rez on external displays

Imagine the scary, Sarkian voice of David Warner intoning "You will be subject to immediate de-resolution" and you'll know how a cluster of Leopard-using laptop owners (including yours truly) are feeling after getting bitten by a problem in the Leopard Graphics Update. You can see the rundown over at MacFixIt; the symptom is that after a restart or crash, the previously-happy external display is registered by the OS as a replica of the internal LCD, limited to the same 1400x900 resolution (in the case of the MacBook Pro 15" I'm using) as the built-in display. Custom calibrations and other display-specific tweaks are also nowhere to be found.

The usual first steps to troubleshooting display issues -- unplug/replug, "Detect Displays," sleep and wake the laptop -- were fruitless. For me, even the heroic measures of a PRAM reset and deleting the com.apple.displays plist from the ByHost preferences folder didn't make a dent. Switching from a DVI to VGA cable left me with only a secondary screen on the laptop, sans menu bar, and the usual Cmd-F2 to trigger a display detect did nothing at all. How aggravating!

Still, one of the reasons I heart MacFixIt is because there's usually an offbeat (not to say wacky) workaround in the mix when a problem comes on the radar. In this case, the suggestion that made me go "Wha? Nah!" was to power on the laptop, immediately close the lid (with external display still attached) and wait for the machine to boot completely. I tried it; lo and behold, the external display is now recognized correctly, and when the machine is slept and awakened or "Detect Displays" is triggered, everything behaves as expected.

Sometimes, when the weirdest possible fix is the one that works, you just have to put the laptop down and slowly back away.

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Troubleshooting Leopard

Imagine the scary, Sarkian voice of David Warner intoning "You will be subject to immediate de-resolution" and you'll know how a cluster of...
 

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Frank

I have had this problem also.
I called Apple support. They made me run some reporting software on my system and send the results back to them but they still couldn't figure it out.
I tried for months to get it working.
I finally was able to fix it.
I ran a free program called Onyx. (link here http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html) I cleaned everything out of my system. This worked and I haven't had any problems for the last 3 weeks.

April 18 2008 at 1:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jeff

the firmware update for the keyboard fixes this issue as well (at least on my mbp c2d 2.2 GHz)

February 25 2008 at 1:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ashley Grayson

The MBP problem with lid-closed operation is a real bug in the Graphics update. We just have to live with it until Apple releases a fix. Jeff is correct, the workaround is to boot the MBP with no external display connected, then plug one in and all is fine as long as you keep the lid up. The issue of the external monitor having the wrong resolution is a different issue, that might be related. This will happen if you boot the MBP with the external monitor attached. Sometimes the external display will be dark, or both dark and Detect Displays shows two ColorLCD displays giving the external the wrong resolution. This can usually be fixed by disconnecting, rebooting then attaching the display.

February 24 2008 at 9:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jason

Not to be a hater, but does anyone remember when we paid a premium for the Apple hardware and OS so that we didn't have these types of problems?

Everyone should have waited for 6-12 months before upgrading to Leopard. I know I should have. Actually, that's probably pretty good advice for any OS release. Wait for the bugs to get worked out!

February 21 2008 at 1:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
elliot

Well, here's my story. I purchased a MBP two weeks ago, and connected it into my Apple Cinema 20 in (purchased 60 days ago); it actually worked fine for a couple of days, and then when I tried operating the computer with lid closed, after clicking wireless mouse or wireless keyboard to wake up, it flicked on for a couple of seconds and then flicked off back into sleep mode. After escalating my call to a Product Specialist yesterday, Apple's support engineers appeared baffled; their advice was simply for me to return my MBP to Apple Store and swap it out for a new one (they thought it was a hardware issue, although after reading these comments, I sounds like there's a conflict within Leopard's operating software). It's amazing that Apple hasn't addressed this issue by now (or even acknowledged a that problem exists between their MBP and Cinema displays).

February 21 2008 at 12:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to elliot's comment
Shelley J Green

Joseph,

On Elgato's home page, their is a note indicating for users who have purchased after Dec 1st, you get a free upgrade. Just fill out their form - requires your serial number.

The upgrade is just one step closer to not needing a DVR. However, without cable cards, I guess you can't get premium channels you subscribe too, like HBO.

February 22 2008 at 1:37 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bipit

its actually funny because the graphics update actually FIXED this problem for me. I was having this very issue with my external displays, and then the update fixed it for me. Seems in fixing it for some, they borked it for others. Not good.

February 21 2008 at 10:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jeff

I have this problem as well, and here is how I get around it:
1. Start up my laptop without the external display hooked up
2. Connect the display after booting
3. Fixed (until the next reboot)

February 21 2008 at 10:09 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ronald

well, i also had trouble with my itunes on the external display. after a while it puts the whole machine in a kernel-panic-like situation. no responding at all. the only way out is to hard reboot… so i am back on the mbp´s display.

February 21 2008 at 8:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Q

I have experienced a similar problem to this recently after a reboot with my external display attached and I HAVE NOT installed the graphics update. The only way I could get the correct resolution was to reboot without the display attached. If I tried closing the lid immediately after rebooting with the external display attached the machine would kernel panic.

February 21 2008 at 4:07 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Eric Longstaff

Equally impressed with the TRON reference. =)

February 21 2008 at 12:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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