I am wondering if there is a way to make an external display automatically work as the main display when plugged into my MacBook Pro. I just picked up the stuff needed to be able to connect to an external display and it has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 which has a higher resolution than my MacBook Pro built in display does and I'm wondering if there is a way to just basically have the external display work as the main display when connected to the MacBook. I know you can mirror which is what I'm doing now, but the problem with this is like I said it won't let me use it at its max resolution as it is different than the MBP's resolution and doesn't look as good because of it. I am wanting to basically set it up where it will be a desktop type when I'm at home and when I'm out, it will be a portable. I don't need a dual screen setup but would love to have it work that way if possible. So far the only way I can get it to work at the max resolution of the external screen is to have a dual monitor setup where the MBP is the main and the external screen is the 2nd screen and I really don't like that setup because of the way that the screen and the MBP sit by each other.
I have a 14'' iBook and recently bought an LG 19'' Widescreen monitor. I am testing a Dell 17'' on it right now before I open the LG one, but my problem is that the same screen shows on my ibook and the external. This isn't what I want. I have read you are supposed to be able to close the laptop and then it shifts to the external display but this is not working for me.
This is my goal: Use my bluetooth keyboard full time Have my ibook closed at all times Have my external as my main display How do I make this work?
We have an iMac G5 running 10.4.11 which developed some nasty colour banding down the screen and have now plugged in an external display. How can you turn off the iMac display so it only outputs through the external monitor?
I'm using my Macbook Pro as a desktop computer. It is connect to my 32" LCD TV through a Mini DisplayPort -> DVI and a DVI -> HDMI cable. All is working correctly, except that I don't want to use the Macbook display, I just want to disable it.I know I can just turn the brightness all the way down until there's no image, but this method won't properly disable the display. Another way is to close the Macbook, wait for it to go in sleep mode (white light blinks) and then move the mouse until the screen appears in the TV. This method really disables the main display (it no longer appears in the Displays pannel at System Preferences), but is a lot inconvenient. I don't want to have to close the Macbook everytime I boot my system and don't want to let the Macbook powered on 24/7, even in sleep mode. I like to just turn my computer off and then power it on whenever I need to.
alright so i bought a 2TB External Hard Drive and i was wondering if we could you the hard drive as your main hard drive like the Mac system files ect...? because my current one (250GB is kind of small) compared to the 2TB
I have a white MB (early 2008). I'm going to be getting an external monitor soon with a native resolution of 1920x1200 - the highest that the MB's Intel GMA X3100 will support. I know that I can open System Preferences > Display and then click the little menubar and drag it to the other monitor to make it the primary. Here is the thing: I want to just use my 24" monitor and not use the MB's screen with it (I have an external keyboard and mouse).
Should I... 1. Use the two displays as an extended desktop and then (leave the MacBook lid open) just turn the brightness on the MB all the way off so the screen is black (no back light)? or... 2. Just close the MacBook and use it in clam shell mode? I watch Hulu and YouTube a lot which causes the CPU load to increase and fans to spin up.... do I have to worry about over heating? I would be using the 24" monitor exclusively all the time and then take the MB when I go to class. Will this just ruin my MB pre-maturely?
got a real basic question to ask and you're gonna think im an idiot for asking...I just bought a 320gb western digital elements hard drive and want to reformat it so that its compatible for both mac and pc's. i intend to format it as NTFS-3G as it would allow me to use it on the 2 platforms without having the 4GB file size restriction that fat32 has, anyway.....
when I go to reformat my external hard drive in disk utility, I see my external hard drive to the left, and there's a "sub" hard drive as a child of the external hd listed uppermost. just wandering which one of the two do i select before going to Erase>Windows NT filesystem (NTFS-3G)>erase? Do I select the uppermost drive and erase that or the lower one? or both
1 going mini display port to DVI adapter to DVI on 19" Monitor (standard monitor)
1 going mini DVI to DVI adapter to a DVI to HDMI on 52" LCD (Samsung TV)
i just sold me iMac and switched to the Mini not only to be able to hide the Mini which i couldn't do with the iMac but also when i watch a movie full screen on the 52 i was never able to turn off the iMac monitor and would have to cover it with a towel so that it was dark in the room except for the 52 showing the movie.
my thought was that with 2 monitors separately hooked up to the Mini that i could solve the turning off the second monitor problem as they would now both have power buttons. besides making it dark in the room i also like to have the monitor off and so that i can have Plex on the 52 always in full screen mode so my wife can just hit "Watch Plex" on the logitech remote and the TV and Stereo switch to the proper inputs and away she goes to watch whatever without having to touch the computer which when both monitors are on works perfectly.
I noticed that after upgrading to Lion quicktime player won't play movies full screen on my second display. Under Snow Leopard if the quicktime window was on the second display and you hit full screen it would fill the display is was on. Now the video slides to the main display and then goes full screen. There doesn't seem to be any way to change that behavior. There are no preferences.
The only work around is to move the menu bar in the display preferences to the second menu, so that the second monitor becomes the main one.
Info: MacBook Pro 17in 2.16, Mac OS X (10.4.7), 2gb ram 10.4.8
My external display (HP w2207) seems to conflict with my MacBook Pro (15 inch Retina display, early 2013) since I upgraded MacBook OS to 10.9.4.The external display works at initial boot of Mac but does not work after OS sleeps and I attempt to awaken, and while the external display is not waking, the Retina display flashes through different screen views, which only partially reflect my normal screen, or do not reflect my normal screen at all.
While using Google Sketchup and several other prgrams concurrently my macbook air cpu heats up substantiall. I like keeping the air "open" to allow for maximum heat disipation but of course this keeps the air screen on while I only want to use my external monitor. Is the only way to turn of the air screen turning down the brightness and using the "Mirror Display" option or is there another setting which alows my to utilize only the external display while the screen is open on the air?
As the title states. I am looking for an external display that matches the display on my black MacBook. I want one with the same gloss finish as my MacBook, this way I can calibrate both screens to look the same. That way when I switch screens it doesn't look different.
Anyone know of a screen that looks identical to the (previous generation) MacBook? I was thinking of getting a Samsung T240 but it has a different finish. How are ASUS screens? Any screens out there that have the same gloss finish?
i'm hoping someone can help me out on this little problemmy usual set up is a pair of speakers connected with jacks via an m-audio usb audio interface, with an external monitor connected via mini-dvi to dvi.now for some reason my audio interface has randomly broken (on a side note, could a power cut have somehow broken a usb peripheral connected to my macbook whilst it was asleep?) so i've hooked up my speakers to the line out to rca. Now for some reason, when i plug the mini dvi connector into my macbook i get an incredible amount of hum. not just a little, alot!
I have an 13" MBP that I ordered new in April, 2012. It is running Lion. I have an external monitor that is capable of 1440x900 resolution. I have an external keyboard and trackpad hooked up, and I like to close my MBP up and stick it in a BookArc. I want to be able to have the internal display disabled and to have the MBP only allow me to put windows on the external display, so long as the lid is closed. I also want to be sure that I am taking advantage of the resolutions available on my external monitor, which are higher than those supported by the internal display (specifically 1440x900).
This doesn't seem to work because I either have to allow the MBP to continue to draw my desktop across both screens (internal and external), OR use the "mirror displays" mode, which restricts my resolution of my external monitor. This means I either forgoe the additional resolution benefits of my external monitor, or I end up with windows that fall off-the-cliff, so to speak, because they are drawn in the portion of the desktop that would be shown on my internal display (which is closed).
I've read the community support pages on using the MBP with an external monitor, most relevantly, this page. It simply recommends using the "mirror displays" option. However, this option, as I mentioned above, doesn't allow me to make use of the additional resolution, and my external display looks bad. how to keep the 13" MBP in closed clamshell position, with the internal display disabled, and use my external monitor at resolutions higher than those allowed by the 13" MBP but which are available to my external monitor when not in "mirror displays" mode?
Info: MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.3), External display (1440x900)
Lately I've been using my external hard drive as the main drive of my imac I5 and every day it freezes when I open 3 or 4 apps or more or while doing several stuff at the same time. This, obviously, doesnt happen when using the internal hard drive of the imac, so I suppose is due to using firewire 800 or usb 2.0. Is it normal for every external hard drive to freeze when using it as the main drive or maybe is it that my external hard drive is bad?
I'm planning on buying a more quieter external hard drive to use as the main drive of my imac, but I wont do so if it also keeps freezing every day. Any suggestions? Is it normal even when using firewire 800? When using the external hard drive I umount the internal drive of the imac. Maybe this is the reason? Its a Lacie Big Disk 500GB. Would an external SSD make a difference or would it still freeze?
I am wondering that is it essential to connect power adaptor all the time while operating in closed calmshell mode? When I unpluged the cable it didn't work. Is there some way?
For the past few months i have been using an external display hooked up to my 12" powerbook g4. I have had it on a dual display mode so no mirroring. Recently i would open the laptop lid waking it from being in sleep mode and my internal display will not turn on. The apply system profiler does not even recognize that the internal display exists. My external display works fine and has always been set as the main display. If i go to detect displays nothign happens. I have tried restarting the computer, instering system disks, unplugging the external and nothing has worked. I simply cannot get my internal screen to fire back up. When i used to unplug my external display the internal display would switch back to being the main display and everything would be fine. Now i cannot get the internal display to function whatsoever. Please try and help me as a need this laptop working and i will be ordering a mac pro soon for use with my external display.
I have a Macbook Air, and i just picked up the new LED ACD from my local apple store. Since im new to mac, is there a way to either close my Air and not have it go to sleep? I want to use the external display as the primary display with my laptop closed, any ideas?
I have a question about using dual displays with my new macbook. The basic issue is this:
1: plug in second display and setup dual monitor support to use the external hi-res display and the macbook's display (no problem here).
2: drag windows to the external display and resize to use (no problems here either).
3. Power down and disconnect the external display.
4. Start up the macbook without the external display and try and open up a program that I was using previously on the external display. The problem is that it is resized and positioned for the external display and is now off the screen of my macbook display and I can't directly get to the title bar to move it or the resize corner to resize it.
I just purchased a 23" monitor to replace my iMacs 17" display (since it has a nasty crack in one of the corners). I hooked it up fine and all, but the displays are linked, allowing me to hover the mouse to the iMac's display which I find annoying most of the time.
Is there a way to make the iMac display zone out and just use the external by itself?
I'm interested in the new iMac but could not work with a glossy display. Can anyone share their experiences of using the iMac with an external display? In one respect it seems like a waste to have two monitors but the base model costs little more than the maxed out Mini and seems like the better option.
I would be interested in seeing photos of any setups featuring the iMac and an external display.
Also, is there a way to turn off the iMac display when using an external display?
I have a Macbook Pro 2.16 Core Duo, and I'm wanting to install 10.6, but about a year ago, I cracked my screen to the point that I cannot make anything out on it, and haven't replaced it. Instead, I have just been using it in clamshell mode, which has worked out fine so far. My problem is that I cannot get the 10.6 install to show up on my external monitor.
I searched around, and could only find one other similar thread that just ended with the author putting it in clamshell and having it work fine. When I boot to the install and close the screen, I just get a grey box on my external display with a black bar on either side of it. I can't seem to find any other resources, so I'm not entirely sure what to do at this point. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
My boss is purchasing a 15" MacBook Pro. She wants to use an external desktop display. Our financial officer won't pay $899 for the Apple 24" LED display, and asks me to find something compatible for under $300. Since I don't know anything about Mac (I'm a PC), please tell me what monitors are compatible with a MacBook Pro.
I have a new Macbook Pro 13 inch. When I use gmail, labels show up in beautiful colors on the screen. However, when I connect an external display (I tried three displays) the colors of the labels become almost invisible. When I try to calibrate with this card [URL] I can't see the boxes in the white strip on the right no matter how I set all three moniters (unless I go down to D50 yellow).
I have this gorgeous 22" ACD that I have plugged into my G5, where I use it quite often. But my intention for the G5 was to be a server, which it is. I often need some extra display space when I'm doing school work, or coding, so I was wondering if there is a way that I can use the display, while plugged in to the G5, as an external display for my MBP. Preferably something that I could stream over my local network.
I was successfully connected my MBP with External Display Philips 107T4, my question is How to Totally Turn of my LCD monitor so I can lid my MBP and use external monitor only. Recently I used this tips. Just restart my MBP and close the MBP, but I really thanks you, if any one have some another tips to do this without restart my MBP. (some times I have a lot off open document and I don't want to re open each document again).
