Problems Usingt External VGA Monitor Through KVM Switch

I have my ThinkPad x201 connected to a KVM switch along with three other machines. The KVM is attached to a monitor with a resolution of 1920x1200.
Does the ThinkPad have to be rebooted with the KVM switch attached to the VGA port and with the switch set to the THnkPad?
I plug in the VGA connector with the KVM switch set to the ThinkPad. I then press fn-F7 and get four choses: Computer Only, Duplicate, Extend and Projector Only. I only want to display on the external monitor but Projector Only does not seem to be the correct choice although it does switch to the monitor it also puts up a message box saying the projector was not found. When I go to change the resolution I am offen limited to 1680 x 1050. Other times I can set it to 1900 x 1200.
When I switch the KVM to another machine I hear a tone from the ThinkPad that indicates something has changed. Then when I switch the KVM back to the ThinkPad I briefly see the display on the monitor at a lower resolution and then the monitor goes dark and the ThinkPad screen lights up.
I have also tried Extend mode with the output set to go only to the monitor. Again, if I switch the KVM away from the ThinkPad I hear a tone from the ThinkPad. When I switch the KVM back to the ThinkPad I again briefly see the display on the monitor at a lower resoulution and the the monitor goes blank and the ThinkPad's display lights up.
Is there a way around this behavior that will stop the ThinkPad from switching its output or can an external monitor only be used if it is directly connected to the ThinkPad?

I am also having the same problem with a ThinkPad T420s and a Trendnet TK-409 KVM. This KVM has worked for so many other laptops and desktops, I find it difficult to believe the ThinkPad would not work with a KVM - particularly this one. Any suggestions and help would be highly appreciated. Thank you.

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Hi buddy,
Have you already tested it with factory settings? I mean the preinstalled Windows from Toshiba with all drivers and tools. If you have the Toshiba recovery disk you should boot from this disk and install Windows with all drivers and tools.
Furthermore you can switch between external and internal monitor using FN+F5 key combination. Does this work?

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Has anyone else come across this issue? The monitor is a Sun 22" CRT, its actually a rebadged Sony and goes under the driver name GDM-5510.
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Yes, you are right, I did not tested it with another cable yet, and its a cheap VGA one, but it does not do this on on a very cheap budget laptop. Maybe the VGA port on the Thinkpad is very sensitive. Its running on 60 Hertz. I only have 50 and 60 to choose. And I always run on the highest.

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Cheers!

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Apple Rules,
Did you make sure to download the firmware update (if you PowerBook G3 is a firewire model) before upgrading.
List of available firmware updates
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The iMac running 10.4.11 thinks that there is an external VGA monitor attached to it. The iMac also assigns this "ghost VGA monitor" as the main screen. Every few minutes the screen will flicker from blue, to black and to white before resetting itself. This flickering will continue at random intervals thereafter. Under the Display settings there is no option to turn off mirroring or to arrange the screens.
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I don't think there is a way to undo the firmware update, until the installer from the developer has an uninstall option, or there was an uninstall program included with the install program. You can download it again and see.
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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
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<home folder>/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver...plist
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Should I use a VGA-USB or VGA-HDMI converter?
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Hi,
To get a third independant Display you need something like this...
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Your post is incredibly hard to read, font is way to small.
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So the question is did you install Windows on your Mac? It doesn't look like it from the Option key boot and the list of available Boot Devices you posted.

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Model: HP ENVY TouchSmart 15-j052nr
My laptop doesn't have VGA port and I didn't realize this when I bought this laptop. Can any suggest how to connect my laptop to external VGA Dell monitor ? Some forums are saying you can buy USB to VGA cable or HDMI to VGA cable but at the same people are complaining it is not working. Can someone give good information and links to cables or adaptops that WILL WORK for sure with this laptop.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi,
HDMI to VGA cable won't work, you need a converter to convert from digital to analog. The following device is one example:
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=AC1638
Regards.
BH
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External VGA Monitor flickering

Hi, I own a t520 and from day one, my external connected VGA monitor Samsung has some flickering. Its hardly noticeable but in dark colors like black you can notice it.
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Yes, you are right, I did not tested it with another cable yet, and its a cheap VGA one, but it does not do this on on a very cheap budget laptop. Maybe the VGA port on the Thinkpad is very sensitive. Its running on 60 Hertz. I only have 50 and 60 to choose. And I always run on the highest.

[SOLVED]Battle for Wesnoth and external vga monitor

Hi all, i have my hp pavilion dm1 1010el hooked up to a 19'' external monitor via vga cable. When i plug it in, i use xrandr to mirror my screen, but when i try to launch battle for wesnoth, my external monitor becomes gray and wesnoth starts into LVDS (the laptop monitor...)
how can i fix this thing? it only happens with wesnoth, usually i can open things wherever i want
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Last edited by samuele.mattiuzzo (2010-04-30 10:38:35)

You could use xrandr to disable your notebooks "monitor" and only activate the external 19" monitor. This should force battle of wesnoth to run on the external display.
Gaming with dual head can sometimes be a problem. I am running a dual head combination (19" and 15" TFT) with a AMD HD4670 and radeon opensource drivers. When gaming I start a short shell script before launching the actual game to enable only the 19" display. Afterwards I use another shell script to set to dual head.
Edit:
This is my "singlehead.sh"
xrandr --output VGA-0 --off
xrandr --output DVI-0 --mode 1280x1024
This is my "dualhead.sh":
xrandr --output DVI-0 --mode 1280x1024
xrandr --output VGA-0 --mode 1024x768 --right-of DVI-0
HTH,
D$
Last edited by Darksoul71 (2010-04-29 22:06:15)

Problem with iBook G4 and Belkin KVM switch

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iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Well, I managed to figure out the problem. I called Belkin, and they suggested unplugging everything and then plugging it back in. And, wouldn't you know, it worked. I'm not sure why, but I'm not complaining. So, if anyone else runs into this same issue, try this.

"No Signal Input" on external VGA monitor

About a year ago my 4 yr emac that I gave my dad starting having the video on the built in display go out periodically. When it started happening more and more, rather than get a whole new computer, we purchased a 22 widescreen VGA monitor and hooked it up via a mini-DVI to VGA adapter. Everything was great and worked perfect. Just last week all of a sudden the VGA monitor is displaying "No Signal Input" The emac is starting up and making all of the correct sounds, but no picture at all.
I've tried booting from a disk and that was unsuccessful. I've connected the monitor to a different computer (old Dell laptop) and the monitor displayed fine.
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The next thing I was going to try was to reset the Parameter RAM.
Any other suggestions?
My monitor also has a DVI input. Should I try connecting to it instead? (although I'll have to buy a new adapter for DVI).
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Hey Kat,
What are the odds that the Mini-DVI to VGA adapter just went bad?
That could happen. If you jiggle the plug you might get it to come back. I just had that problem on an iMac G4.
Richard

External vga, monitor recognized, still no display

I have a L R60 9461-DXG, with Win7 (32bit) running very fine.
Now trying to use an external monitor (L171p) but nothing works.
While in boot and in combination with Fn+F7 the display doesn't come up (staying in power saving mode).
In Win7 the external connected monitor is recognized and displayed as a L171p, enabling the monitor is possible but again the display doesn't come up.
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Please help.

Not necessarily, but the probability of receiving a solution from other members, who are also using a similar setup, is most likely better here.
edit; grammar
Message Edited by andyP on 06-15-2009 10:36 PM
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Connecting to PC Monitor with KVM Switch

I'm still setting up my new MacBook Pro laptop. I thought it would be nice to take advantage of my 21" PC monitor while I'm at home, so I purchased my first KVM switch.
I plugged everything in as instructed, and it appears to be working at about 75%. In other words, I can use my mouse and keyboard with my PC just fine, and when I click the Scroll Lock key twice, the monitor shifts to Apple mode; it has the same bluish background my laptop does.
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So my KVM switch is obviously almost working. I just have to convince my laptop to ignore its built in monitor and display everything on my PC monitor, not just one empty folder. Can anyone tell me what's going on, and how to fix it? Thanks.

Though for 10.3 this will work for 10.4
Printing to a printer on an XP PC from a Mac running 10.3.x (alternative method)
http://www.ifelix.co.uk/tech/3009.html
If you don't want to use guest access then
Device URI: smb://XPusername:XPpassword@<IP address>/<the share name of your shared printer>
instead of
Device URI: smb://guest@<IP address>/<the share name of your shared printer>
should also work.

Problems Usingt External VGA Monitor Through KVM Switch

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