MB doesn't see external display

I have attached an external VGA display to my MB running 10.5.6. I have purchased the Apple miniport to VGA adaptor for this purpose.
The MB System Preferences/Display doesn't see it at all. I have tried two different displays, both of which work with a PC. I have tried various combinations of turning devices on and off and unplugging the connector.
I am obviously doing something wrong - any suggestions would be welcome.
PS It would be useful to be able to test the miniport without the adaptor - what is it actually designed to connect to?

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MBA doesn't see external display

Folks,
This is *really* frustrating. Last night I tried, for the first time, to use an external display for my MBA. I have a Thunderbolt-to-HDMI Apple cable I bought for this purpose (the only way to do it on my MBA), and I connected it to the external display via an HDMI cable. I plugged in the monitor, turned it on, and opened up the MBA (it was in sleep mode) and it was glorious -- full, beautiful color (well, after I adjusted the gamma and brightness/contrast appropriately to calibrate it).
So I went ahead and turned on bluetooth so I could use my BT keyboard and I was able to then close the MBA and work on my Mac just like it was a desktop. It was the greatest thing since... well, since cheap gas. I could see that I would be using my MBA even more than I already do. I put the Mac to sleep and tried to see if it would revive from a mouse movement and it did, with the display working perfectly. I put it back to sleep again and went to bed.
This morning I tried to revive it with a mouse movement and no-go. Okay, so I opened it up -- still no life. Hmmmm, I pressed the power button a while so it would come back on, and it finally did, but no external display. I read online about getting it to see external displays (something I didn't have to do yesterday) and tried "Detect Display", tried turning it completely off for five minutes and powering back on, tried disconnecting and connecting the cable, turning the display power on and off... nothing. No matter what I do, I can't get the external display to work again.
What in the #$%@# am I doing wrong? I can't even think of anything else to try. Leaving aside the fact that it somehow stopped working in the night during sleep mode, what can I possibly do now to get it going again?

I thought I'd add a couple of things here that might be helpful to others searching for a solution to this or a similar problem.
I happened to leave my MBA turned off for a while but with the external monitor connected. When it came time to turn it back on I connected it to power (although it was pretty fully charged) because I had been reading this:
http://gizmodo.com/5938452/a-trick-to-make-using-an-external-monitor-with-your-m acbook-way-better
and in the bottom comments there was a section that read as follows:
"Closed Clamshell Mode is still a function of the OS. Here's how: close the lid of portable, plug into power, monitor, and keyboard/mouse, wake portable by clicking the mouse or hitting a key on the space bar. Important note: portable has to be plugged into power, even if the battery is full."
It was the last bit that seemed to make a connection in my mind that perhaps the big issue here was that I was trying to do things without the power connected, even with the Clamshell open. In any case, the external monitor came back on and then worked just fine. So I shut things completely down (power down) and restarted several times and each and every time it worked, and kept working even when I went to Closed Clamshell mode.
So I tried with the Clamshell open but NOT connected to power and I had the same issues -- no display and couldn't get it working properly again until I completely shut down, connected to power, and brought it up again. I am now of the opinion that, at least in my particular case (with the particular thunderbold to HDMI adapter, Dell monitor, and 2011 MBA) that the power needs to be attached no matter if the battery is full or not. (Note: I realize in the above quoted paragraph the big point is that in closed clamshell mode you need to be connected to power. Still, it seems to me it also makes a difference in open clamshell as well, at least based on my limited tests).
The MBA may still be faulty -- perhaps it should work otherwise -- but I'm happy with things the way they are now. I will continue to play with this (I had, in the meantime, ordered both another thunderbolt to hdmi adapter as well as a thunderbolt to DVI adapter just to see if they made a difference -- they will come Wednesday and I'll give them a try to see what difference, if any, they make) but at least at the moment I feel like the key to solving this was to keep it plugged into power (it also may have helped to reset the PRAM because I had made some changes to the LCD display that may have screwed things up. No matter what, that's still good information to know).

HT5167 after I updated to 10.7.4 my macbook pro 2011 doesn't detect external display anymore what should I do?

after I updated to 10.7.4 my macbook pro 2011 doesn't detect external display anymore what should I do?

after I updated to 10.7.4 my macbook pro 2011 doesn't detect external display anymore what should I do?

MBA mid-2012 does not see external display on wakeup

My mid-2012 MBA does not see external displays on wakeup. VERY annoying
I have a BenQ 24" HD display connected by HDMI and it is not seen by the Air on wakeup. I have to open the laptop, pull the mini-DV plug out 3 or 4 times before the display is recognised - some of the time. Most of the time requires a reboot with multiple cable/plug inserts.
What an absolute POS this mid-2012 MBA is! Apple finally fixed the garbage colours on external displays in 10.8.4 but the issue of recognisisng external displays remains. Its a crock. Totally regret buyiing this POS.
Have reset PRAM, SMS, cleared prefs etc etc ad nauseum. No solution with any of them. After almost a year of this garbage, the laptop is close to being thrown out as e-waste.

macbook pro 13" 2012
osx 10.8.4
adaptor
http://www.maplin.co.uk/mini-displayport-to-dvi-adaptor-454323
display: philips 230c1hsb
i have reset PRAM but nothing happens

Macbook doesn't recognize external display

I am trying to use my tv as an external display. My Intel Macbook doesn't detect my tv as an external display, this is because I am using an unconventional connector (VGA to RCA connector).
Anyways, I am wondering if there is a way to force my laptop to output video over the mini-DVI out port on my computer. I am thinking a utility or something would be able to do it.
This is my setup:
mini-DVI out from computer>
mini-DVI to VGA cable from apple>
VGA to RCA(yellow video cable) (from hong-kong)>
AV in of TV (RCA yellow video cable)
I realize that the VGA to RCA makes my computer not detect my tv, I am looking for a work-around.
Macbook 2.0GHz (White) Mac OS X (10.4.8)

You just need the Apple mini-DVI to video adapter. It has both a composite and s-video output.

What is apple doing. This macbook pro doesn't detect external display, doesn't detect my wacom..

This is awsome. Cant work on this laptop... Doesn´t detect nothing.

Hey there mrlrsm,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities.
The article below provides troubleshooting tips that may help you resolve the issue with your MacBook Pro no longer recognizing the external display.
Apple computers: Troubleshooting issues with video on internal or external displays - Apple Support
Ciao,
-Jason

Thunderbolt to Firewire doesn't see External HardDrive

Greetings...
I was setting up my Mom's new MacBookAir, and I had to aquire a Thunderbolt Adapter (to Firewire 800). She used an External drive for her Time Machine backup previously. It is a Maxtor OneTouch drive, but it uses the older Firewire ports. Fortunately, the Firewire 800 cable I bought (by Rocketfish) also came with an Adaptor to connect the FW 800 cable to the FW 400 ports on the Maxtor drive. But, the drive won't show up on her Desktop (nor does Time Machine see it when trying to use Migration Asst to transfer her backup). I also pulled up the Disk Utility (as a test), but it didn't see the External drive either (?).
Anyone out there have an idea as to why the MacBookAir (running Maverick) doesn't see the External Maxtor drive? I appreciate any input…Chip Henley

I thought that the cable might have been bad, so I used the USB cable that went with my Iomega HD to test this idea. It didn't work either.
Ironically, after I posted my previous message, lo and behold, the SimpleDrive showed up when I booted my PowerBook. I used that opportunity to reformat the HD for MacOSX extended (journaled), and it has thus far appeared twice after shutting down and rebooting. So, I'm not quite sure what the problem was, or still may be. But I'll keep the forum notified of progress or setbacks, so my learnings can be used by others.

Mac Doesn't See External Drives on WinPC, PC Doesn't See Mac

I'm trying to transfer some files that are on an external drive connected to a Windows PC to my new Mac Pro.
On the Mac, in Finder, I can see the PC, but I can only see it's internal Hard Drive; the external drive don't show up in Finder.
On the PC, I'm not seeing the Mac Pro at all. In Tiger, it seems to me, there was check box under the "sharing" preferences for "Windows sharing," but I can't find that in Leopard. So, the PC doesn't see the Mac at all.
It does suddenly dawn on me that I could just detach the external drive that I'm trying to copy from the PC and plug it into the Mac, but... that would be too easy. I would still like, at least, to be able to see the Mac from the PC.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
--PS

My recommendation is to format the drive as FAT32 via OSX's Disk Utility, this will allow you to read/write from both the Mac and PC environment.
Like I said, I don't think that's the issue, because my MacBook shares everything with the PC just fine (except the externals on the PC). And of course, I don't want to reformat the external drives until I've got the data off of them.
I just checked, and Tiger has a "Windows sharing" checkbox under the "Sharing Preferences" that allows the MacBook to show up in "My Network Places" on the PC. The problem I'm having is getting the MacPro to show up on the PC; the Pro has Leopard, and there's no "Windows Sharing" in Leopard that I can see.
Thanks again,
--PS

New dual mac pro using fcp studio doesn't see external crt monitor

I recently invested in a system to re-edit film and set up my system...dual editing up is fine I put my larger dell monitor through the 3870 which is in bay one and the browser comes up on the 2nd monitor connected to the 2600 in bay 2.
The problem is I can't get my EXTERNAL VIDEO out go to the crt monitor...this is connected by svideo that's on the 3870 which my primary monitor is connected to. Under "video playback" there's no option to choose "apple firewire" the only thing on that menu is the "digital cinema desktop preview" and only those choices, the same under my audio/video settings under the "final cut pro" menu. Theres no option I see on here either for mirroring under the playback menu either am I looking in the wrong place?
This appears to be a software issue as I'm not seeing the other options under video playback to even recognize the dv connection to my primary monitor...I've seen commentary in other logs to try deleting preferences but which ones?
The crt monitor is seen under my apple hardware, I can move things in and out of it...only in final cut pro I can't get external monitor on it...and when I choose this cinema choice the picture comes up on my main monitor but only as a still it doesn't seem to allow me to choose "all frames" in any case.
My main concern right now is to get this external monitor to be read by final cut PLEASE HELP thanks!

Got the "apple firewire ntsc" choice to show up even if grayed out and "missing" under "audio/visual" menus by recreating choices in Easy Setup under "final cut pro" MENU thank GOODNESS because I was reading horror stories on here about this under another thread with someone trashing preferences, reinstalling and the works and still not getting it to show up...on my search now for an analog/digital converter up at b&h...find it odd that the s video connector wouldn't show the crt monitor when I put both displays through the 3870...I switched it back to see if it worked again when only the one dell monitor display was there and there it is again mirroring the screen display on my desktop...just can't be seen as an "external monitor" in fcp...couldn't find anything specific in the shane ross threads to this. I'm sad the program doesn't just see the s video connection though the 3870 though my computer does fine and will query up at b&h in regard to what might be affordable as far as a digital/analog converter. It's also weird in itself that when I put the two dell monitors on the one card my computer no longer could see the s video crt connection...makes no sense. Will report in later as to what I discover up at b&h as I'm sure there's a world of people out there using this sony crt monitor still even into the upgrades with computers and software so I imagine therein lies the solution. Thanks again and I'll report in as to what hardware might be suggested for me.

Time machine doesn't see external hard drive on network

I have a pair of external hard drives connected to my iMac, which is connected to my 2WIRE modem/router via Ethernet. I'm using one of them as a Time Machine drive. For the past couple years, I've been backing up the laptops in the house to that Time Machine drive without fail.
Now none of the laptops (a MacBook and an iBook) won't see either external drive connected to the iMac, even though the iMac has file sharing turned on (as it always has) and both laptops are connected to the iMac via the Finder. Both laptops can see the iMac and the external drives connected to it via the Finder, but in Time Machine, when I try to select my Time Machine drive, nothing appears in the window.
I was having a problem with the Time Machine drive and had to wipe and reformat it, but I don't understand why Time Machine won't see the other external drive either, even if there is a problem with the TM drive. I recall Time Machine picking up all available hard drives as possible backup destinations, as long as they're also seen in the Finder.
The iMac has been having some OS X issues. The Finder will crash sometimes, and I have no choice but to hold down the power button to shut it down and then start it up. When it starts, it takes longer than it normally does, I assume because it's checking and/or fixing some things. However, those issues have been going on for a long time (I think I need to reinstall OS X in it, since Disk Utility finds nothing wrong; also, the hard drive in the iMac crashed about 2 months ago and I put a new one in; I then restored the TM backup to it, and the OS X issues have persisted, which tells me it's software-related, not the drive).
Also, the iMac backs up to the Time Machine drive just fine. Of course, the TM drive is connected to it locally, whereas the laptops have to get to that drive via wireless file sharing.
I did try plugging one of the external hard drives on the iMac into my MacBook, and Time Machine saw it immediately, so my guess is the issue must lie with my router and/or the iMac, but I don't know what to check next. I've restarted the iMac, I've restarted the laptops, I've turned TM on and off on the laptops, and I've turned file sharing on and off on the iMac; none of those things reestablished the connection.
I suppose I could just go with external hard drives for the laptops, but my wife moves her iBook all over the house, so I know hers won't get backed up regularly. That was the nice thing about the system I had in place, which I realize wasn't as elegant as a Time Capsule.
Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

That should say "Now none of the laptops (a MacBook and an iBook) will see either external drive..." I hate typos.
Anyway, after rereading my post, I'm starting to think I just need to reinstall OS X on the iMac, given the other issues it's experiencing. Any advice for doing that would be appreciated, if that's indeed the solution. Thanks.

MacBook Pro 13 doesn't see external monitor

Hello!
Today I put my macbook with an external monitor to sleep. After I woke it up, the macbook can't see my external monitor anymore.
What can be the problem & solutions?
Thanks in advance!

Still need help. When I put my cable in the macbook the screen goes blue for 2 seconds and nothing happens, no image on the external display

Airport Disk Utility Doesn't See External Drive, But Airport Utility Does?

Hey! I am a recent Apple convert and just got a brand new MacBook and Airport Extreme. I am trying to get my Maxtor OneTouch 320GB HDD to work with the Extreme, but to no avail. The Airport Utility sees my HDD, but the Airport Disk Utility doesn't? Any hints/tips on how to fix this problem? Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

All I can think of is that the drive is formatted in NTFS which I have heard cannot be read by the AEBS(Airport Extreme Base Station), but I am confirming this right now in a different message. If you can copy the files, format your drive in HFS+(the Mac's standard file system), then reload the files. See if it works and reply back.

Migration Assistant doesn't see external HDD (NOT a Time Machine)

Mid-2010 MBP running 10.6.8 died... HDD was alright so I put it in an enclosure and USB-'d it to my brand new MBP running Yosemite.
The new MBP sees the "Macintosh HD" within Finder just fine and individual files are transferable.
However Migration Assistant gets stuck forever looking for the drive. How do I fix this?
Thanks in advance!!

Yes, I could, but I gave up and just re-created all of the users and groups and reset folder permissions manually.

W540 doesn''t see external TV connected to miniDP/Thunderbolt

I''m trying to make my new Thinkpad W540 recognize the Samsung TV I'm connecting to it's thunderbolt connector. Nothing works. Both in Windows 7 and Kubuntu 14.04. Both 64 bit. All drivers are updated. Bios is 2.13.
Tried both with the on board Intel card and the Nvidia card.
Bios setup can't disable Nvidia but I can choose advanced or standard mode. Both fail.
Port is working since when I connect the cable the TV reports "no signal" instead of "no cable". Also When I connected an Apple lightning to VGA and then to a projector - it worked (in Linux).
I don't mind disabling the Nvidia if that's what will solve the problem - but from what I tried even if I use the Intel card I get the same results. what am I missing? I'd prefer a Linux solution but windows is acceptable as well
Nvidia Card is Quadro K1100M. No dock is involved. Using a miniDP to DP with an iMac works without a problem as well.
thanks for any help.
Dror

I had the same problem: Couldn't add native resolution -- same X Error of failed request etc etc.
Found arandr from AUR. It's graphical a frontend for xrandr, except it works. Xrandr couldn't add that resolution, but arandr could...
Anyway, arandr has a neat feature of exporting the command that changes the resolution. For me it's:
xrandr --output VGA-0 --off --output DVI-I-1 --mode 1600x900 --pos 0x0 --rotate normal --output DVI-I-0 --off --output HDMI-0 --off
While not a solution, you might want to have a look.

External display... just doesn't work

Hi all,
I have been scouring forums for this problem, but it seems to be relatively uncommon, so I wonder if I am just missing some very basic steps or something.
I have an HP LP2065 monitor that works fine with my PCs. I just got this new macbook, and to use the monitor I got the Apple VGA to mini DVI connector. When I connect the monitor the macbook can detect it (right down to model number) and it lets me choose mirroring, resolution, bitrate, etc. Each time I do so it even enticingly goes black for a while as if something is actually happening. But throughout all this the monitor does not detect any display, it just tells me to "Check Video Cable" and then goes to sleep after awhile because it's not getting any info.
Weird things also happen such as the macbook not waking up properly or showing a black screen when I turn it on, until I unplug the monitor.
Any ideas? Thanks!

Hello. Your problem is common. I use an HP SB21. The Macbook does appear to have some compatibility issues with certain brands of external display.
Please see this thread for a solution that worked for me: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1731505&tstart=0
I hope it works for you. Goodluck.

MB doesn't see external display

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