Mac mini won't start up when LCD TV connected

Hi,
I seem to have a problem which at the first glance looks similar to a lot others being discussed here. Just I am not sure if it really is.
Having received my Mac mini a few days ago I am trying desperately to use an LCD TV as display. Once connected powering on the Mac mini gives me that white screen you all know with the grey Apple symbol and the progress circle. At that point the TV says it’s running in 1080i mode. All looks good. -- Until a few seconds later the screen will turn black and not display anything anymore. (Just as if it would not get a signal.)
The TV is a quite popular one over here I would think: Philips 32PF9830, HDTV, with DVI and HDMI input ports. 1280 x 720p and 1920 x 1080i are supported video modes which I would like to run.
TV specs would be here: http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/3/32pf983010/32pf9830_10_psseng.pdf
TV and Mac are connected via a DVI-D cable. I’m having SSH and VNC access to the Mac.
Now with VNC I only get a proper desktop screen when the TV is not connected. When the TV is connected all I am getting presented via VNC is that white boot screen and the nice grey Apple logo. So with TV connected it appears the Mac doesn’t really start the window manager.
Looking at the process list this seems to confirm. Without having the TV connected after powering on the Mac I do see a process running called loginwindow.
When the TV is connected I don’t see that one, but instead 2 processes called WaitingForLoginWindow. See below for the full process lists.
All my trials configuring a good screen resolution via VNC before connecting the TV did not give a different result. Whatever I configure to be used as resolution, I am getting the above.
Funny enough running the Apple Hardware Test from the install disk shows a perfect picture in 1080i mode and also specifies 1920 x 1080i as screen resolution used.
Would anyone have an idea what’s going wrong here … and how to fix? I would suspect that communication between the TV and the Mac is broken. Would I have any chance to further troubleshoot on that?
Is there a way to tell the Mac not to do any auto configuration or auto discovery on the DVI port?
Any other ideas?
Marc
Process lists (NFS and SSH servers are enabled intentionally.)
TV not connected (look for process id 52):
<pre>
ps -axw
PID TT STAT TIME COMMAND
1 ?? 0:00.08 /sbin/launchd -v
23 ?? Ss 0:00.00 /sbin/dynamic_pager -F /private/var/vm/swapfile
27 ?? Ss 0:01.41 kextd
32 ?? Ss 0:00.02 /usr/sbin/KernelEventAgent
33 ?? Ss 0:00.38 /usr/sbin/mDNSResponder -launchdaemon
34 ?? Ss 0:00.20 /usr/sbin/netinfod -s local
35 ?? Ss 0:00.68 /usr/sbin/syslogd
37 ?? Ss 0:01.31 /usr/sbin/configd
38 ?? Ss 0:00.06 /usr/sbin/coreaudiod
39 ?? Ss 0:00.06 /usr/sbin/diskarbitrationd
40 ?? Ss 0:00.01 /usr/sbin/memberd -x
41 ?? Ss 0:00.11 /usr/sbin/securityd
42 ?? Ss 0:00.11 /usr/sbin/notifyd
45 ?? Ss 0:00.29 /usr/sbin/DirectoryService
47 ?? Ss 0:00.01 /usr/sbin/distnoted
49 ?? Ss 0:00.94 /usr/sbin/update
52 ?? Ss 0:00.19 /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow console
57 ?? Ss 0:00.13 /System/Library/CoreServices/coreservicesd
59 ?? Ss 0:00.73 /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/CoreGraphic s.framework/Resources/Wind
60 ?? S 0:00.34 /usr/sbin/blued
64 ?? Ss 0:00.06 /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/ATS.framewo rk/Support/ATSServer
66 ?? Ss 0:00.11 /System/Library/CoreServices/mcxd.app/Contents/MacOS/mcxd -s
69 ?? S 0:00.02 /System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgent.app/Contents/Resources/authorization host
70 ?? S 0:00.90 /System/Library/CoreServices/SecurityAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/SecurityAgent
76 ?? Ss 0:00.00 /usr/libexec/crashreporterd
114 ?? Us 0:00.30 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mds
132 ?? Ss 0:00.10 ntpd -f /var/run/ntp.drift -p /var/run/ntpd.pid
146 ?? Ss 0:00.00 nfsiod -n 4
154 ?? Ss 0:00.00 rpc.statd
156 ?? Ss 0:00.01 /usr/sbin/portmap
157 ?? Ss 0:00.01 rpc.lockd
160 ?? S 0:00.00 rpc.lockd
173 ?? Ss 0:00.00 mountd
176 ?? Ss 0:00.00 nfsd-master
177 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsd-server
179 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsd-server
180 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsd-server
181 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsd-server
182 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsd-server
183 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsd-server
184 ?? Ss 0:00.02 /usr/sbin/automount -f -m /Network -nsl -mnt /private/var/automount
188 ?? Ss 0:00.01 /usr/sbin/automount -f -m /automount/Servers -fstab -mnt /private/Network/Servers -m /automount/static -s
193 ?? SNs 0:00.17 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mdimpo
234 ?? S 0:00.19 /usr/sbin/sshd -i
238 ?? S 0:00.11 /usr/sbin/sshd -i
277 ?? SNs 0:00.17 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mdimpo
282 ?? Ss 0:00.01 /usr/sbin/lookupd
239 p0 Ss 0:00.05 -bash
285 p0 R+ 0:00.00 ps -axw
</pre>
TV connected (look for PIDs 53 and 54 at end of the list):
<pre>
PID TT STAT TIME COMMAND
1 ?? 0:00.05 /sbin/launchd
23 ?? Ss 0:00.00 /sbin/dynamic_pager -F /private/var/vm/swapfile
27 ?? Ss 0:01.35 kextd
32 ?? Ss 0:00.02 /usr/sbin/KernelEventAgent
33 ?? Ss 0:00.30 /usr/sbin/mDNSResponder -launchdaemon
34 ?? Ss 0:00.13 /usr/sbin/netinfod -s local
35 ?? Ss 0:00.71 /usr/sbin/syslogd
37 ?? Ss 0:00.49 /usr/sbin/configd
38 ?? Ss 0:00.07 /usr/sbin/coreaudiod
39 ?? Ss 0:00.06 /usr/sbin/diskarbitrationd
40 ?? Ss 0:00.01 /usr/sbin/memberd -x
41 ?? Ss 0:00.14 /usr/sbin/securityd
42 ?? Ss 0:00.07 /usr/sbin/notifyd
44 ?? Ss 0:00.17 /usr/sbin/DirectoryService
45 ?? Ss 0:00.01 /usr/sbin/distnoted
50 ?? Ss 0:08.36 /usr/sbin/update
59 ?? Ss 4:43.49 /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/CoreGraphic s.framework/Resources/Wind
60 ?? S 0:00.33 /usr/sbin/blued
61 ?? Ss 0:00.14 /System/Library/CoreServices/coreservicesd
65 ?? Ss 0:00.07 /usr/sbin/lookupd
79 ?? Ss 0:00.88 ntpd -f /var/run/ntp.drift -p /var/run/ntpd.pid
93 ?? Ss 0:00.00 nfsiod -n 4
101 ?? Ss 0:00.00 rpc.statd
102 ?? Ss 0:00.01 /usr/sbin/portmap
104 ?? Ss 0:00.01 rpc.lockd
109 ?? Ss 0:00.06 slpd -f /etc/slpsa.conf
110 ?? S 0:00.00 rpc.lockd
115 ?? Ss 0:00.00 /usr/libexec/crashreporterd
135 ?? Ss 0:00.05 /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/ATS.framewo rk/Support/ATSServer
158 ?? Ss 0:00.12 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mds
164 ?? Ss 0:00.00 mountd
167 ?? Ss 0:00.00 nfsd-master
168 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsd-server
169 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsd-server
170 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsd-server
172 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsd-server
173 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsd-server
174 ?? S 0:00.00 nfsd-server
175 ?? Ss 0:00.02 /usr/sbin/automount -f -m /Network -nsl -mnt /private/var/automount
179 ?? Ss 0:00.01 /usr/sbin/automount -f -m /automount/Servers -fstab -mnt /private/Network/Servers -m /automount/static -s
196 ?? S 0:00.20 /usr/sbin/sshd -i
200 ?? S 0:00.06 /usr/sbin/sshd -i
205 ?? SNs 0:00.14 /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/Metadata.framework /Versions/A/Support/mdimpo
201 p0 Ss 0:00.03 -bash
209 p0 R+ 0:00.00 ps -axw
2 ?? Ss+ 0:00.03 sh /etc/rc
53 ?? S+ 0:00.02 /usr/libexec/WaitingForLoginWindow
54 ?? S+ 0:00.04 /usr/libexec/WaitingForLoginWindow
</pre>
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.8)

A PRRAM reset did the trick.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
This Mac mini is a refurbished one, so probably had some old settings from being connected to something different before.
The TV now is recognized properly as 'Philips FTV'.
Marc

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