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.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-20-2008 @ 5:51PM
Steve said...
Wow, a TRON reference. I would've been more impressed had you not felt the need to link to IMDb... ;)
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2-20-2008 @ 5:52PM
Andreas Ekberg said...
and Apple is not going to fix this in a new update? I have the same problem and also problems with any web browser that suddenly suck all power from the macbook pro to the point when I cant quit anything... instead I have to make a hard restart... anyone with that problem? also started after 10.5.2 and graphic update...
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2-20-2008 @ 6:11PM
james said...
the graphics update kills dvd player on 12" pbs. i just had to go back to 10.5.1 in order to get mine to work. there are several threads going on about it on the apple discussion boards.
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2-20-2008 @ 6:11PM
Tony said...
I’m having second-screen troubles with a 15" MacBook Pro after the update too. Really weird ones. After waking from sleep, the desktop picture on my laptop screen defaults to the Leopard starfield, no matter how many times I try to set it to my usual image. The second screen is unaffected. Fixes if I restart. Sometimes, my laptop screen decides to go totally black. Terrifying, until I worked out that it had simply set it’s own brightness to zero. This has only started happening after installing the update.
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2-20-2008 @ 6:24PM
Matthew said...
Same exact problem here. Current generation MBP. Although I was convinced it was because of a corrupted file. I was also getting kernel panics and the error report indicated it was nvidia drivers. Somehow it is all working now and I have no idea why.
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2-20-2008 @ 6:35PM
dwash59 said...
an easier solution should be to put the mac to sleep with the external display connected and plugging in an usb device. This will wake the mac up using the external display as the primary display, essentially doing the same thing as the solution in the article.
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2-20-2008 @ 6:43PM
Kurt said...
It's even worse - for some folks who had never had a display problem that warranted this update (me and dozens over at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6602842), the patch causes our displays to completely freeze when activity is occurring on the external display. Freeze as in no update whatsoever and "Graphics Channel" errors in syslog. The only recourse is to ssh in and reboot, or hard-power off.
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2-20-2008 @ 6:54PM
k.eternity said...
Apple replied to my bug submission that it is a known issue that is currently being researched in engineering.
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2-20-2008 @ 7:00PM
franky said...
I have no secondary screen problems on my MacBook (Mini-DVI to DVi adapter) after 10.5.2, but sadly 10.5.2 threw me back around 3 years in time and made my wireless almost unusable (on both NetGear and Apple Wireless router). I.e. deconnect within 3 minutes, so I'm obliged to be wired again. :S
Seriously consider reinstalling everything and going back to 10.5.1. Everything rather work. Not just worked.
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2-20-2008 @ 8:13PM
Johnathon Zirkle said...
I've got one for you. Check this out. Almost every time I power up or reboot when I'm plugged into an external monitor I get this.
http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/4517/dsc00031de5.jpg
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2-20-2008 @ 8:13PM
Chuck Lawson said...
Wow! For once my vintage Core Duo 15" MBP is ahead of the curve -- I've had this problem on and off since I got the thing, and have been doing the "start it up and slam the lid" dance for two years now...
Hopefully, their fix will fix the old version of the problem as well as the new one, but my guess is that if it does, it'll only be the day before the Penryns come out and I replace it anyway :-)
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2-20-2008 @ 8:42PM
Ed said...
I haven't had this, but I just had a complete screen freeze - except for the cursor. Odd, because programs continued running in the background but nothing updated. I think something like this was meant to be fixed 6 months or so ago wasn't it?
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2-20-2008 @ 8:53PM
Kurt said...
Nope - take a look at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6602842 and see whether you have the Graphics Channel errors in /var/log/system.log. If you do, then Apple's advice right now is to archive and reinstall, and then update excluding the graphics update.
2-20-2008 @ 9:19PM
Ed said...
Thanks Kurt, looks like thats the same problem :( I've only had it once so I think I'll leave it for now.
2-20-2008 @ 9:40PM
Kurt said...
It's reproducible - if you're running Entourage, put it in your extended display, and then wait until you have the calendar notification popup. Dismiss the calendar alerts, then open up a calendar event (again, from the external display). Boom. I've done this 6 times in a row.
2-20-2008 @ 10:43PM
kattkieru said...
Just so you know, that particular error has been happening since the powerbook times. It happens on my MacBook Pro under 10.4.x if I use any external display at all, but it happens randomly. It's never been fixed AFAIK and any time you call the AppleCare hotlines they're all, "I've never heard of that before..."
Between this and the wireless issues, looks like I'll be waiting for 10.5.3.
2-20-2008 @ 8:44PM
Gil said...
"the usual Cmd-F2 to trigger a display detect"
That would be Fn-F7.
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3-19-2008 @ 4:27PM
Harvey said...
F7 - toggles between mirrored and dual-display whereas Cmd-F2 is the key for Detect Displays. Ever since I upgraded to Leopard, Cmd-F2 no longer works on my 15" Al Powerbook.
2-20-2008 @ 10:17PM
ZeroCorpse said...
I've no problems with my external display hooked to my MacBook. All worked fine with the update.
However, the updates did NOT fix the issue I've been having with DVD Player causing a kernel panic. I'm not the only one, either. There's a discussion in the Apple forums, and it's growing daily. I've tried trashing prefs files, zapping PRAM, and even did an erase and install, and it STILL does the grey curtain of doom when I click DVD Player's icon.
Right now, I can only play DVDs though VLC, and it sucks for skipping chapters and the like. I can't use FrontRow at all.
I'm sure this is a MacBook/Leopard problem, but there's no acknowledgment from Apple yet.
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2-20-2008 @ 11:09PM
Shiggy said...
I have a MacBook (non pro) as well and I just tested your issue with my Goldmember DVD, and for me it's a non-issue. What model MacBook do you have? I have the late 2007 model. 2.2 GHz Santa Rosa with the GMA X3100. In fact, I haven't had any problems with my MB since I got it. I've had maybe ONE random KP in the last 2-3 months. I got it like December 19th or something of last year.