Extended desktop mode with external display

I use my Macbook with an external display. Sometimes I need to use extended desktop mode and sometimes I don't need the extra desktop space and prefer to work only with my external display. My needs change as I work throughout the day and I'm getting tired of having to close the Macbook to put it to sleep and then wake it up without opening the lid to just have one display (the external one).
I'm wondering if anyone knows if there's a way to put the Macbook built-in display to sleep while continuing to work with the external display, without having to put the Macbook to sleep first. I'm thinking that there's got to be a way to do this (maybe there's a piece of software out there or some other work around?).

Thanks for your suggestion. That's actually a workaround I've used. The only problem is, the display isn't really put to sleep. The result: I still get an extended desktop and occasionally I "lose" my pointer. A bit annoying, but thus far the only solution I've come up with.

Similar Messages

Using extended desktop mode with ThinkPad x220

I have an Acer AL2216W external monitor. It has a resolution of 1680 x 1050
http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/monitor/0000/Acer/AL2216W/AL2216Wsp2.shtml
When I use extended desktop mode with the external monitor set as the primary display, everything scales properly on both the external and internal monitor.
However, if I set the internal monitor as the primary display, the external display does not fill the screen (there is a big black border around the desktop).
In both cases, the resolution setting for the external monitor is 1680 x 1050.
Is this normal behaviour?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hello,
That's how Windows behaves. Supposedly Realtime Soft Ltd.'s UltraMon gives you more precise control over wallpaper under Windows, but I have not used it myself.
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
I am a volunteer and neither a Lenovo nor a Microsoft employee. • Dexter is a good dog • Dexter je dobrý pes
S230u (3347-4HU) • X220 (4286-CTO) • W510 (4318-CTO) • W530 (2441-4R3) • X100e (3508-CTO) • X120e (0596-CTO) • T61p (6459-CTO) • T43p (2678-H7U) • T42 (2378-R4U) • T23 (2648-LU7)
Deutsche Community Comunidad en Español Русскоязычное Сообщество

Trouble getting out sleep mode with external display

My 15" ALPB si connected in closed mode to a Viewsonic external monitor. When not used for a while, the Powerbook will of course get to sleep. But then there is no way to make it wake up again. Disconneting screen and other devices won't help. Only a restart will do, thereby losing all ongoing work. (BTW, never had this problem with a 12" ALPB also connected to the same type of display).
I know that by removing the monitor shutdown option in the energy saving preference panel it will dissapear. But I really need the display sleep option to work.
Someone experiencing this problem? Any solution?
Thanks. Mark

Thanks for your suggestion. That's actually a workaround I've used. The only problem is, the display isn't really put to sleep. The result: I still get an extended desktop and occasionally I "lose" my pointer. A bit annoying, but thus far the only solution I've come up with.

HT3131 Operating MBP in closed clamshell mode with external display

I have a new MBP retina display. Trying to operate in a closed clamshell mode. I connect a USB keyboard and a wireless mouse. My external display is a Dell 2007FP display screen connected via a VGA adapter. Whenever I close the computer lid to operate in clamshell mode the screen goes to sleep/power save mode. Have tried various combinations of attaching keyboard and mouse first then screen, switching computer off on etc. The external display states there is "no signal coming from computer"...any suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciate

Congratulations on taking one more step in becoming more self sufficient in tech stuff.
But I have to wonder why you spent so much on a Retina display only to have it cooking uselessly there.

Extended Desktop Mode on iBook G4

I am trying to configure my iBook G4 to use extended desktop mode with a Dell M780 monitor. I currently have the Dell monitor mirroring the iBook display, but would like to have it in extended desktop mode.
OS X Help Viewer tells me to go to System Prefs > Displays > Arrangement, but when I go to the Displays section there are only two tabs: "Display" and "Color", and there are no other buttons, menus or anything related to arrangement.
My graphics card, which perhaps has something to do with this, is an ATI Mobility Radeon 9200. There are 32 MB total of VRAM. Core Image is not supported on either the iBook display or the Dell display.
iBook G4 (Model Name PowerBook6,5 Mac OS X (10.4.7) 1.07 GHz, 768MB Memory

Hi Mathew,
Welcome to the forum.
The iBooks do not support extended desktop. Should you wish to have this feature, you can with a third party solution. More details here:
http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/ibook_e.html
Be aware, if your iBook is under warranty or you have AppleCare, this could be void if there is any damage caused as a direct result of applying the above. That said, a lot of people have done this without any issues. Infact I have yet to come across anyone who has had issues.
RD

24" iMac and 20" Cinema display extended desktop mode ?

I got a 24" iMac and a 20" Cinema display. I wanted to know if they will work on extended desktop mode? I didnt try to hook it up yet as I am waiting for mini dvi to dvi adapter to come.
Thanks

Hi,
according to this http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Hardware/Conceptual/HWTechVideo/index.html#//appleref/doc/uid/TP40003504
you should have no problems (you must scroll a bit down the iMac 24" section)
Have Fun
Stefan

Tablet PC calibration error in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS3 whilst in Extended Desktop Mode

Hey everyone!
I've run into a snag which hasn't bugged me before because I never used a second monitor, but now that I do, Photoshop and Illustrator don't function properly.
I am running my Adobe products on my Lenovo X61 Thinkpad Tablet, which is Wacom PenEnabled. It's got the basic digitizer pen and pen pressure features, no stylus tilt or anything.
Whenever I run Photoshop or Illustrator in Extended Desktop Mode so I can have a different window open on my external monitor and the Adobe app on my tablet screen, my stylus goes strange. It seems to think that the extended desktop is part of the Adobe window, so when I move my stylus to draw, the cursor will appear on the external monitor, usually proportionate to the size of the screen...ie. It interprets the external and tablet screens as one desktop and the top left corner of my tablet screen is the top left of my external, whilst the bottom right on tablet IS the bottom right on tablet, if that makes any sense...sorry.
So I can't draw anything in photosho unless I set it back to standard desktop mode, or mirrored desktop. I've searched over the net and these forums and I can't find a fix for this. I was walking in harvey norman the other day and the Wacom Cintiq 12" was there on display, and it had the same issue with extended desktop and photoshop.
Has anyone had this issue before and/or does anyone know of a fix for it? I'll keep searching around and playing with the computer until I fix it and I'll post any solutions I find here if noone else has one.
My system details are:
Abobe Photoshop CS3 10.0.0
Adobe Illustrator CS3 13.0.0
OS: Windows Vista Build 6001, Service Pack 1, 32bit
RAM: 2GB
HD: 18.2GB free Disk Space (out of 66.3GB on the Active Partition)
Video: Intel GMA: Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family

I'm using an HP tx2011au tablet pc, using adobe flash cs3 and have the exact same problem. it becomes decalibrated only while the flash window is open, and only while flash has a file open, and only when using an extended desktop. even if flash is open and it has no files open it works fine.

Screensaver eMac monitor while in extended desktop mode?

Officially, eMacs can mirror to an external display but cannot do extended desktop. Since my 2005 eMac's built-in monitor is only functioning correctly at low resolutions (see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2013835), I'm using a program called Screen Spanning Doctor to run it in extended desktop mode. My eMac is running Mac OS 10.4.11.
*I'm searching for a way to run a screensaver and/or turn off the eMac's built-in monitor while I continue to use my external monitor.* Is that possible? I've configured my external monitor to function as the primary display while the eMac's built-in monitor is the extended display.
Thanks!

Hi all,
I've found a solution to my problem!
I'd forgotten that Mac OS X allows each monitor in an extended desktop configuration to have its own desktop picture. I copied all desktop pictures to a new folder, used the procedure described at http://www.macworld.com/article/51937/2006/07/savedesk.html to copy all Apple screensaver photos to that new folder, and then configured System Preferences => Desktop & Screen Saver => Desktop to use that new folder and change the picture every five seconds. EDIT: I selected "Random order" too.
This won't be too distracting since I'm using an external monitor as my primary display. Also, this solution should require only a tiny percentage of my computer's resources. Thanks again to all of you for your great ideas!
Message was edited by: gobbles414 (original)

Getting a video card that supports extended desktop mode: AGP? PCI?

Hi guys and gals (and everything in between),
One of the reasons I got a Power Mac not so long ago was the convenience of using two or more displays at once, but then I discovered that the stock ATI Rage 128 in my Gigabit 450 (dual) does not support two displays. (I discovered it the hard way, when I connected a recently acquired Studio display to it, and my trusty CRT stopped getting a signal.)
I won't be using the computer for games, design or anything graphics intensive, mostly word processing (I'm a translator/editor/writer by trade), so I do not need the high end of the video card spectrum --just an AGP card that could allow me to work on extended desktop mode, preferably with an ADC connector. Would a Radeon 7500 suffice?
Or maybe a PCI card? I have read a lot in this forums against getting a PCI card, because of the 33 Mhz bottleneck, but wouldn't it work well enough for checking email and working on 2 or 3 documents at once?
Any help with this will be greatly appreciated!
Peace.
eMac, iMac, iBook, Power Mac Gigabit (running Tiger & 9.2.2) Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Thanks, PB PM.
I also did a little research in the forums and elsewhere (by the way, your posts have been really helpful to me, very knowledgeable and well-documented), and ended up buying a Radeon 7000 PCI for hooking up my VGA monitor, as a cheap solution to my problem.
Thanks again!
eMac, iMac, iBook, Power Mac Gigabit (running Tiger & 9.2.2) Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Extended Desktop Mode on iMac G5

New iMac user here,
Just picked up a G5 iMac w/ 2.1 GHz. Video card is Radeon X600 XT.
Wanted to know if this will run 2 displays in extended desktop mode.
Everymac.com says that video card will, with some other firmware.
Has anyone tried this? What steps need to be done? Success rate?
thanks for any helpful hints.

It's been a month since you posted this question, so I hope you get this reply. The answer is yes! I have been using extended desktop on my iMac G5 for a while now with no problems. Do a Google search for "screen spanning doctor." Double check the supported systems, but I think yours is on the list.

Extended desktop mode

Can anyone with a new imac and a second monitor verify that the new imac supports extended desktop mode? (I know it's supposed to work, but I'd just like to hear it from someone firsthand).
First reports of this feature was like the cherry on top! I'm hooked on extended desktop mode and it was my one regret in deciding to buy a new imac: now no regrets and no excuses: gotta order one!

I'm sure apple lied about it....
Glor
Didn't "think they lied", but it was only briefly referred to on the Apple website and I had first heard about it from a Mac rumor site, so I wanted to verify it. Sorry, but I just wanted to hear it from someone who actually was using it, since the new imacs are starting to arrive. It's a feature that means a lot to me and I'm very excited about it being included.
In the debate about "should I get the G5 imac or the intel imac?", this feature alone would be a clincher for me.

Pavillion N-15 030us stuck in safe mode with no display

The display is broken and I was using a monitor connected thru the HDMI cable. I restarted the notebook in safe mode which I take it does not enable the HDMI port? So now I am stuck in safe mode with no display.

Hello @LogicMantra,
Welcome to the HP Forums, I hope you enjoy your experience! To help you get the most out of the HP Forums I would like to direct your attention to the HP Forums Guide First Time Here? Learn How to Post and More.
I have read your post on how your desktop is not able to display after booting in safe mode, and I would be happy to assist you in this matter!
To correct this issue, I recommend borrowing an HDMI compatible monitor and updating the drivers for your system this way. If this does not work, please follow this document on Computer Starts but Monitor Remains Blank (Windows 8).
Please re-post with the results of your troubleshooting, and I look forward to your reply!
Regards
MechPilot
I work on behalf of HP
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the right to say “Thanks” for helping!

Help with external displays

Just installed Lion and afterward I noticed that things work differently with external displays. In the past I could have my laptop open to mirror but now it must be shut and the mirrior button or selection isn't available within the display preferences. So my question is, 1. does any one know how to better manage displays? and 2. does anyone know how to mirror while having the laptop screen open?
I know trhis sounds petty but where I work it is very hot and it seems like with the screen shut the computer syncs heat away a lot less efficiently.
Thanks

Thanks,
I now know how to turn on and off mirrioring with command/F1 (didn't know that yet), but would you know how I can use my external display in mirror mode with the laptop display completely turned off, not dimmed till black, but off?
Before lion I was able to do this by shutting the laptop screen which would put the machine into sleep mode and then by clicking the mouse or hitting a key on the keyboard it would wake it. Once the external display came on then I would open the laptop and the laptop display would remain off while using the external display. Hope that makes sense. Any suggestions?

No Wireless Internet with External Display, Other Issues

Hello,
When I connect an external monitor to my MBA, I lose my connection to the Internet. The wi-fi signal remains strong, but pages will not load (I tried many) and I cannot retrieve email. The connection times out when I try to ping as well. This occurs whether I have the MBA open or closed. The loss of Internet happens immediately when I connect an external display using the supplied dongle, and returns the moment I disconnect it. It is clearly an issue with external displays.
On the advice of an Apple Genius, I also tried disabling bluetooth. I did so, and turned off all my bluetooth devices (Apple keyboard and mouse, iPhone), but the problems persist.
The other trouble I am having is difficulty connecting to a network for the first time in a session. In other words, I was connected all day yesterday, take the MBA home, and return to the office the next day. MBA takes a long time to see the network, then fails to accept the password. If I carry the MBA closer to the wireless router, it finds and connects automatically as I'd saved my password. When I return to my desk, I remain connected with full signal strength. This has happened in two locations, one with an Airport Extreme, the other with a Netopia 802.11g router. When my Macbook Pro is sitting right next to the MBA, it recognizes and connects to the same networks almost instantaneously.
Anyone have any suggestions? Much appreciated.

Just a quick update... I was on the phone with Apple Support on Saturday morning and I thought we were making progress. The basic idea behind the proposed solution was that there was some "Preferences" that were causing the problem. We started over with a clean Preferences folder and tried connecting up the external monitor. At first, this approach was showing progress. The suggestion was to copy over my original Preferences (I had made a backup copy) just a few at a time until we figured out which ones caused the problem. The problem with this approach is that immediately after I got off the phone, the internet started not to work again. So, even with a clean Preferences folder, the internet would quit working after connecting up the external monitor.
So, I'm back to the drawing board. I have since restored my Preferences folder and I don't have my external monitor and internet working at the same time. BTW, I also upgraded to 10.5.3 and it didn't help.
Still bummed,
Kevin

MBP Retina low performance with external displays

Hi everyone!
I have a very bad performance with my MBP 15´´ retina display when it comes to ad an external display. I have a FUL HD LG monitor that looks very bad when i connect the HDMI or the thunderbot port with the proper adapter (as bad as you can´t even read). I want to know if this may ba a hardware problem just with my computer or if it is a software problem, any ideas? does anyone have the same issue?
How can i update my NVIDIA card???
Thanks a lot!

Topic seems to come up here often. Apple has a tendency to dismiss the issue.
Its a pretty well known problem that Mac font smoothing doesn't seem to work well on high resolution third party external displays, making text hard to read. In addition, I think the Mac HDMI resolution support is limited to 1080p, so you must use DP or DVI video interfaces to see full monitor resolution.
The OS default is no font smoothing on external displays (except perhaps the apple display). There is a terminal command that will enable font smoothing for any external monitor, but it often doesn't work well enough. I found that using the OS zoom feature magnifies text to the point to be easily readable. You can set zoom parameters in the accessibility systems preference panel.
For some reason, sometimes the Mac OS thinks some monitors are TVs and use YCbCr instead of RGB. You can open the color sync utility and brouse the settings to see what is being used. There are scripts available that can fix that but are more complicated to install than an app.
It seems that PCs are way ahead of Macs with external display implementation. Most folks having monitor problems with a Mac do not see the same issue with PCs or Unix/Linux OSs.
Oh as far as updating the video card, can't. The monitor "drivers" are built into the OS. When a new display is connected, the OS finds the profile for it.

Extended desktop mode with external display

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for