External monitor no signal until log-on screen

Hi
After my 2012 Macbook Pro's LCD became damaged, I had to connect an external monitor via HDMI.
The problem is there is no display signal before the Mac/Win7 login screen. My guess is the MBP sends signal to the native LCD and only after Mac/Win7 boots up it loads up drivers and recognizes the external HDMI monitor.
This essentially prevents me from re-installing Win7 because I can't see anything during the reboot and install process.
I connected to many monitors and HDMI TVs in the store and results are the same. I'm on 10.8.5
Thanks

Yes.
Apple restricts access to all system settings for Base system boot.
Not really.
They also restrict installing Windows from the Built In DVD drive on Mac computer that come with built in DVD drive. But yet allow the system to boot to an OS X installer on a USB thumb drive or externally connected DVD drive even when the system has a built in DVD drive.
Apple's way or no way.
ddoeu wrote:
Then, is this an issue people put up with?
I searched online and PC users have similar issue. But they can go into BIOS and set the display output to 'external'.
I hoped Macs were more sophisticated

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Connected external monitor displays only the astral starburst screen on all macs.
Then it is working as designed.
By default, the external screen is combined with the built-in screen into an Extended Desktop, as seen in the Arrange tab below. You need to (Gather Windows) to get all controls on all displays, then drag the tiny white MenuBar to the display where you want it to appear. Then things will begin to operate as you expect.

Working on an external monitor as well as the macbook screen

Hello,
When working on an external monitor as well as the macbook screen is there anyway you can have the top bar (with file, edit ect) on the second monitor also?
Im using a macbook with mountain lion if that helps.
Many thanks,
Chris

Yes.
System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement Tab
Then one of the monitors should be displaying this screen:
You can put your cursor on that white bar (shown on the blue box to the left) and drag it over to the right if that is where you want the menu bar.
I have mine set up here with my external monitor to the left and the MBPro to the right with my Menu Bar on my external screen as shown by the white bar being on top of the left blue square above.
Hope this helps.
Update:
I misread your question I believe.
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Message was edited by: sdpitbull to add Update section.

External monitor loses signal to macbook pro through DVI cable and Mini DisplayPort Adapter

Hello,
So I had my external monitor connected to my MBP with a DVI cable and a Mini DisplayPort Adapter, for a while already. But sometimes, the monitor would lose signal from the laptop and gives me a white noise screen. Now, the monitor can't receive signal at all, even after I got a new Mini Displayport Adapter. When the monitor and the MBP is connected by the cable and the adapter, the monitor would say "no signal" and the MBP screen would flicker (I think it's trying to connect to the monitor, but can't). The new Mini Display Port Adapter also makes the screen flicker, so I'm not sure if it's the problem is at the adapter or the DVI cable. I'm pretty sure it's not the monitor.
What do you think? Have you ever have a screen flickering problem when your MBP is connected to an external monitor?

I have had the same problem. By following your suggestions I got to arrangements. I could not send them off to the side. When I hit the mirro disply key everyting worked. I got it solved by clicking in arrangements and setting displays to mirror display.
I am still have a problem of no sound coming through my tv.
Rolland

External monitor works only works when laptop screen displays

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H
Try this:
After connecting external monitor, press win key+p and thrn choose projector only.
Have a nice day
Ishaan Ideapad Y560(i3 330m), Hp Elitebook 8460p!(i5-2520M) Hp Pavilion n208tx(i5-4200u)
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External monitor "No Signal" message

MacBookPro mid 2010 with 250GB solid state drive. W80183G9AGZ
Two problems, they may be related
Randomly for some time the computer restarts with the message “Your computer has restarted because of a problem”
This generates a crash report which I always send to Apple.
(Unfortunately this computer does not support Apple Hardware Test nor Apple Diagnostics).
Today the computer will not send a signal to the external monitor, ( a Samsung TV).
I have carried out the following fault finding.
DVI-HDMI cable plugged and unplugged several times in different order before and after -
Restart
Shutdown and then Restart
Reset PRAM
Reset SMC
The same when using a VGA cable.
With HDMI there is a “No Signal” message, with VGA the screen just stays black.
Both HDMI and VGA previously worked flawlessly.
Checked that the GPUs are switching correctly from the integrated Intel HD graphics to the NVIDEA GForce 330M. Previously, as soon as this happened, the external monitor desktop image would appear immediately.
The presence of the external monitor is not being sensed, in “Displays” in System preferences no second display options are present.
Questions
Is the video problem definitely the NVIDEA GPU or could it be the computer crashing problem just getting worse?
Is it possible to replace the NVIDEA GPU if it is faulty?
Although the problem seems to be the same with both HDMI and VGA could it still be a problem with the HDMI cable?

same results:
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1366 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
LVDS1 connected 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
1366x768 60.2*+
1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
1024x768i 43.5
832x624 74.6
800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
720x400 85.0
640x400 85.1
640x350 85.1
VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 376mm x 301mm
1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0 72.0
1152x864 75.0
1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
832x624 74.6
800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3
640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
720x400 70.1
640x350 70.1
external monitor becomes a copy of LVDS1(according to xrandr) but monitor's screen is still black.

External Monitor no signal

Hi all,
I have a brand new 24 inch iMac and I love it! However, I am having a terrible time trying to set up an external monitor. I have a LaCie 19 inch monitor, which is Mac compatible. I have the mini-DVI adapter, which I have connected to the monitor's DVI-D cable. The iMac recognizes the external monitor, but the monitor keeps saying 'No Signal'. I have tried different resolutions on the LaCie, and tried mirroring the desktop, but no luck getting anything on the external monitor.
As far as I can tell, the iMac thinks everything is working - the LaCie shows up in System Preferences > Displays, and I can change the resolution of the LaCie using the Display Preferences from the iMac, but there's no image on the LaCie! The LaCie is plugged in, it has power, but no signal. Am I missing something obvious about setting up an external monitor on the iMac? Does anyone have any suggestions for getting a signal on the external monitor? Thanks.

Hi Donna Jones1,
Thanks for the welcome, and for your suggestions. Those are certainly the obvious steps, and they OUGHT to work. But unfortunately, there's still no signal on the external monitor. I can detect the second display, and gather the info on it, set the rez, turn off Mirror, etc., but there's no picture. The monitor definitely works, as I've just had it connected to a PC laptop. It is plugged in. I have the mini-DVI adapter plugged into the iMac, and the monitor's cable plugged into the mini-DVI adapter. Heck, I even tried plugging the monitor cable into both the DVI-I and DVI-D inputs on the back of the monitor. No luck. I would normally suspect a faulty cable or connection, except that the iMac recognizes the external monitor and it shows up in 'About this Mac'. I'm completely baffled!

Configure external monitor to be --left-of laptop screen (nouveau)

Hi,
I have problem configuring external monitor to work like nvidia's 'twinView'.
Having no xorg.conf my external monitor is configured just to clone image displayed on latop screen. I can setup correct resolution in my DE (I'm using XFCE), but what confuses me is how to configure external monitor to work as separate screen (not to present cloned image).
This my my output from xrandr:
[kuba@t61:~]$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3120 x 1050, maximum 8192 x 8192
LVDS-1 connected 1440x900+1680+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 304mm x 190mm
1440x900 60.13*+ 50.00
1152x864 59.96
1024x768 59.92
800x600 59.86
640x480 59.38
720x400 59.55
640x400 59.95
640x350 59.77
VGA-1 connected 1680x1050+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 474mm x 296mm
1680x1050 59.95*+
1280x1024 75.02 60.02
1152x864 75.00
1024x768 75.08 60.00
800x600 75.00 60.32
640x480 75.00 60.00
720x400 70.08
DVI-D-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Following wiki instructions (http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/Randr12/) this commad helps me to setup what I want:
xrandr --output VGA-1 --left-of LVDS-1
and I want to persist such configuration.
I tried to configure it in /etc/X11/xorg.conf (there was no such file)
[kuba@t61:~]$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak
# the right one
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "LVDS-1"
Option "PreferredMode" "1440x900_60.13"
EndSection
# the left one
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "VGA-1"
Option "PreferredMode" "1680x1050_59.95"
Option "LeftOf" "LVDS-1"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "nvidia card"
Driver "nouveau"
#Option "Monitor-DVI-I-1" "NEC"
#Option "Monitor-DVI-I-2" "FUS"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "screen0"
Monitor "VGA-1"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
#Virtual 2560 2048
EndSubSection
Device "nvidia card"
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "layout0"
Screen "screen0"
But it seems like still there is something wrong as every time I run X I have cloned output on both screens.
Any ideas?
Last edited by jakub (2014-11-16 12:05:19)

jakub wrote: Option "LeftOf" "LVDS-1"
Should that not be "left-of"?

How to keep monitor from returning to log-in screen?

HP Touchsmart 610 with Windows 7: When watching a movie, how can I prevent the monitor from returning to the log-in screen every few minutes?
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hello michin:
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IMac 27" flashes to white on startup, chimes, then goes to a black screen. It works fine on an external monitor. Any ideas how I can fix this?

I've got a late 2009 iMac 27". When I start it up, it chimes and makes all the normal sounds. The screen flashes white for 2 seconds, then goes black. The iMac starts up (if I use an external monitor, it works fine) but the screen remains black.
Weirdly, if I start it up on Bootcamp as a Windows machine, it flashes white, then flashes briefly a few seconds later on the Windows logo, then goes to black.
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I'm stumped. I don't want to splash out on a new LCD screen if it's the inverter or something else that's the problem
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External monitor w/ mbp - display has 1" border that is blank -- doesn't fill out screen can this be adjusted?

how to configure external monitor so that content fills the screen. blank border around edges aren't taking advantage of full screen and is annoying.
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jvaughan68 wrote:
Thanks Bob,
new monitor is 1080p and i'm using mirrored mode -- don't see extended mode as an option -- suggestions on where to find that? Sorry, rookie here
Uncheck Mirrored, you'll then be in Extended mode:

I was trying to extent monitor, I get black screen on laptop and external monitor :/

so I have this hdmi cable that plugs into the DVI on my external monitor.
I did get the screen to show up just on the external monitor and that's it. Now, when I boot up my lap top I get black screen on both monitors. Uh oh.
I've unpugged the monitor, batter, all that stuff.
I think it's possible I clicked on don't display external monitor or something, but not it's not displaying anywhere.
I have an idea pad of some sorts w/ windows 8. I don't think it's 8.1
thanks
-Hayes

so I got this resolved. the guy at the computer store hit f10 and then enter. he did this while the screen was black
shouldnt' it just detect that there's not an external monitor? but even when there was a monitor connected, both screens were black.
/thread

Connect laptop to a external monitor with laptop screen off

I need to connect my laptop to an external monitor but i need my laptop screen off.
Is it possible? I use an hdmi or vga connection, gnome as DE and ati 5700 graphic card

mm...
try on a terminal "xrandr"
first type xrandr to know the name of the two displays... then
xrandr --output laptopdisplayname --off --output monitorname --preferred
That will turn of the laptop display and turn on the monitor....
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Last edited by vigohe (2010-12-20 03:36:54)

Pages Full screen view second external monitor

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Jerry
Apple has sort of spoiled the multiple monitor thing, which before OSX used to be a great feature on Macs.
Apple tends to make assumptions about its users, based on whatever it is selling in its latest hardware.
Since so many large screen iMacs have been sold and the external monitor ports have switched numerous times, most users have given up trying to connect multiple monitors and many are probably even unaware it is possible.
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I have a MacBook whose screen has gotten trashed (less than half of the left side visible), and I am resigned to using an external monitor. But I need to re-install Leopard. When I boot from the DVD, the trashed screen is the main one, and the external monitor is active, but the installer screens won't drag. Obviously I can't get to the Monitors Preferences to reset the main screen. BTW, resetting the main screen to the external monitor doesn't persist across the reboot.
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Try this trick. Get everything set for the install. You can have the disk in the drive so it is ready to rock as soon as you start. Have the external display hooked up. Turn off your MacBook. Now hit the on switch. As soon as you do close the display on the MacBook this will force the MacBook to use the external display as the main Monitor. Now do your install. You can open the MacBook and the internal display will stay off and the external will continue being the main monitor. This will allow use of the keyboard if you don't have an external one.

External monitor no signal until log-on screen

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