Switching your Primary Monitor - SOLVED

EDIT : Of course, I solved this right after I posted the question. In the System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement panel, you can drag the menu bar to the second monitor.
Hello all,
I was wondering if there is a way to switch which monitor Tiger uses as the primary monitor in a dual monitor setup. I have a PowerMac G5 with a video card that has an ADC port and a DVI port. I currently have an Apple 17" monitor in the ADC port and a 17" CRT monitor in the DVI port.
I have been considering buying an Apple 20" monitor to replace the CRT. If I have a 20" monitor though, I'd want it to be my primary monitor, however Tiger is using the ADC port as primary.
I know I could buy a DVI to ADC adaptor for the 20", then buy an ADC to DVI adapter for the 17", but that seems absurd. There must be some way to tell Tiger to use the DVI port as my primary monitor.
Any ideas?
PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0, 4 GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.3) FCStudio / AJA IO LA
Message was edited by: Adam Raney

So I just tried setting it back up with my original monitor at home and now I'm still having the same problem.
The computer will boot into XP and I will actually see the XP desktop for a split second, then it will just go black. This is all on my laptop screen, it does not seem to be recognizing my external monitor at all anymore. Any ideas? Thanks!

Similar Messages

Can you switch your primary screen just for aperature

I have a lacie 319 and Apple 23HD.... I use my Apple as my primary when not in aperture. I want my Lacie to be my organize when in aperture and my Apple which has better colors to be my full screen in aperture. Then when leaving aperture I want it to switch.

I should have mentioned you can go to the System Preferences applicaiton and choose the Displays panel. The choose arrange and you can switch the primary and secondary that way.
What you can't do right now is get Aperture to show the browser on the secondary display and the viewer on the primary.

Second monitor randomly becomes primary monitor

I've got a 2011 Mac Mini that is being used in a church for projection. There are a number of secondary monitors connected via splitter boxes. Until recently I was using the HDMI port for the primary monitor and all the secondary monitors were connected via VGA. However, I have just upgraded all the secondary monitors to HDMI (and changed the primary monitor to VGA) but I am getting some strange effects when I connect them. It seems that as I connect and disconnect HDMI monitors the Mac Mini randomly decides to switch the primary monitor from VGA to HDMI. Is there any way to fix the assignment of what is the primary monitor and what is the secondary ?

Hi Brian,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. You can mirror the displays or make whichever display you want the primary in Extended Desktop mode. See this article for details:
How to use multiple displays with your Mac
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5019
The white bar at the top of the left blue box represents the menu bar and determines which display is your primary display. To change your primary display, click the white bar and drag and drop it on the blue box representing the display you would prefer to be your primary display.
Cheers,
- Ari

[SOLVED] Setting primary monitor with TwinView

Good day to you all.
I have been sitting with this problem for surely 5hrs+ and i haven't been able to solve it yet. How the hell do i set up TwinView so that my left monitor becomes the primary monitor instead of my right one?
My xorg.conf is the following:
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 270.41.19 ([email protected]) Mon May 16 23:52:12 PDT 2011
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0"
Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection
Section "Files"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 28.0 - 33.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "true"
Option "MetaModes" "nvidia-auto-select, nvidia-auto-select"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1920x1200"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Device1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "true"
Option "MetaModes" "nvidia-auto-select, nvidia-auto-select"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1440x900"
EndSubSection
EndSection
So basically, Screen0 would be my primary screen, and Screen1 would be the secondary screen and be right of Screen0 but somehow the intended Screen0 becomes Screen1 and therefore is put right to my secondary monitor and my secondary monitor becomes the primary one.
And before you suggest anything, i've tried using nvidia-settings as root and everything, but it still refuses to save the configuration to xorg.conf. And even after saving the nvidia configuration file and putting "nvidia-settings --load-config-only", it doesn't load. All settings are reset and i need to go into nvidia-settings again and redo it manually. Even though it works, it's a bit of a hassle everytime i need to do that, i rather just go into xorg and edit it manually.
Last edited by Median (2011-06-03 15:33:07)

You were correct with not needing multiple screen sections with TwinView, but you do need to specify at least one screen section. Otherwise it won't work.
Anyway, i kinda solved it with your solution by adding those options to the screen section instead.
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection
Section "Files"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 28.0 - 33.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0, CRT-1"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "CRT-1 RightOf DFP-0"
Option "TwinView" "True"
Option "MetaModes" "nvidia-auto-select, nvidia-auto-select"
SubSection "Display"
Modes "nvidia-auto-select"
EndSubSection
EndSection
At least it works fine now! Thanks.

Docked T500 External Monitor cannot switch to Primary

I am attempting to make my external monitor my primary monitor when docked.
The Windows options are greyed out and when I run presentation director I get error messages saying refresh rates and resolutions are incompatible. I know these are valid settings.

You are not going to get any answers unless you specify op sys, what graphics cards, what graphics settings in bios, and if Vista switchable graphics what switchable graphics settings in power manager.
T500: Vista 32, 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM, 15.4" 1680x1050, 500GB 7200rpm, ATI Radeon HD3650 + Intel 4500MHD. T42: XP, 1.7GHz, 2GB RAM, 14.1" 1024x768, 250GB PATA, ATI Radeon 7500.

Windows (7/8/8.1) moves everything to primary monitor after they are powered off.

When using multiple monitors Windows moves all open windows and apps to the primary monitor after they have either gone to sleep or been powered off. I have been looking for 2 months now trying to find a solution. My current setup is running Windows 8.1
with an AMD Radeon R9 285X and the drivers are current. However I just switched from Windows 7 a month ago, and I changed from an NVidia card 3 months ago, all with the same result.
This is getting ridiculous Microsoft. This issue has been reported since 2009 and I have not seen a proper fix yet. Please don't bother telling me to update the drivers, I've done that, with both cards and in both OSs. The only solutions I've read
about involve using questionable hardware measures in order to fix a "feature" Microsoft is imposing on people. With more and more industries moving to multiple monitor setups this seems like a poor decision on Microsoft's part. Somehow, forcing
people to leave their monitors on constantly in order to make them work properly seems a violation of energy star compliance.
The following are just some of the threads that relate to this topic in one way or another, all run my Microsoft and none with a proper fix, only MS saying its a feature, or update the drivers, or some other none helpful answer.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/multi-monitor-problem-on-windows-7/ecefb1e5-22c9-4014-a2ad-dbf56570b25c
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/8a9b5aa7-fe33-4e6d-b39b-8ac80a21fdc2/disable-monitor-off-detection-how?forum=w7itprogeneral
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/579e675f-9246-4205-bfd8-5bfcd1bdf4e6/auto-detect-unplugged-monitor-where-to-turn-off?forum=w7itproinstall

Hi,
As mentioned in this link (and this has been already mentioned in the link posted above)
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Understanding-multiple-monitors
When you disconnect the additional monitor, the original display settings are restored to your primary display. In addition, all open files and program windows are moved to the primary display. The next time that you connect the same monitor, Windows
automatically applies the display settings that you used the last time that you connected this monitor. (same in OS Windows 7\8\8.1)
According to your description, the monitor is automatically disconnected when it has either gone to sleep or been powered off that causes the annoying issue, If possible, I suggest you check whether there's a "source detection settings"
(or something like this) for the monitor, set the monitor always active as a alternative solution.
Yolanda Zhu
TechNet Community Support

Dual monitor - force new windows to always open on primary monitor?

I use my secondary monitor to watch streaming TV in internet browser windows. When I have finished watching streaming TV and the secondary monitor is switched off, Safari still opens new browser windows on the secondary monitor by default (presumably due to the fact that the last active browser window was open on the secondary monitor). This is irritating and means I have to switch the secondary monitor back on to drag the new browser window back to the primary display. The secondary monitor is connected by VGA.
This is a minor niggle, rather than a major issue, but it is irritating nevertheless! Does anyone know if there is a way to force new windows to always open on primary monitor, regardless of where the last active window was?
Any help much appreciated.
Many thanks,
Ben

After many days i found solution:
Run the client and get it set up the way you prefer, or Open your saved RDP file
On the Display tab, choose a non-fullscreen resolution.
On the General tab, click "delete these credentials", if possible.
Click Connect .
You will immediately get a local login dialog. Leave it blank and click
OK .
When you are connected and the remote login dialog appears, drag the window to the desired monitor.
On the remote login dialog, click Cancel . The settings dialog should reappear locally.
On the Display tab, you can now choose fullscreen.
You can now save your session with the Save button on the
General tab, as well as save your login credentials.
Try more times ,worked for me.

App switcher on wrong monitor (Mavericks)

The app switcher (command + tab) appears on the second monitor rather than the main one. Seems to be tied directly to where you have your dock. Grrr. I have my dock on my second monitor. I want the app switcher to be on main Cinema.
I did uncheck "displays have different Spaces". No worky.
Workarounds?

To clarify, App Switcher under Mavericks (10.9.0) is shown on the monitor on which the dock was last accessed. Under Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion, App Switcher was shown on the monitor on which the menu bar had been placed under System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement (i.e. the pimary monitor).
I suspect that the majority of us who are finding this change in behaviour so troublesome are multi-monitor power users who barely ever use the Dock and prefer to have it out of the way on the far left/right with Dock Hiding enabled, and instead of the Dock use a combination of Spotlight, App Switcher & Cmd-Q to open, switch between and quit applications. If you use a similar workflow (as I suspect many multi-monitor users do) permanently having App Switcher on the same monitor as the dock (i.e. one of the secondary monitors) is extremely un-ergonomic - are you listening Apple?
The only way at present to get App Switcher to permanently appear on the primary monitor is to set the dock position to Bottom and then disable the menu bars on secondary monitors by un-checking "Displays have separate Spaces" under System Preferences > Mission Control before logging out and back in to apply the changed preference. This is the solution which I have personally opted for untill Apple (hopefully) fix the behaviour.
I think that either one of the following behaviours would much better serve the majority of multi-display users...
1) The Application Switcher is always displayed on the monitor on which the menu bar has been placed under System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement (i.e. exactly how it was under Snow Leopard, Lion & Mountain Lion)
2) The Application Switcher is displayed on the display with the active (opaque) menu bar.
...or better yet a system preference to toggle between either of the above.
I hate to keep repeating myself, but to anyone reading this - if you want to see the behaviour changed (back to how it was) you're going to have to ask Apple to change it.
<Link Edited By Host>

How can I switch my primary apple ID and not have to buy apps again?

I would like to switch my primary ID to another one because I don't have access to that email address anymore. I have few apps which I bought under that ID which I'd like to keep if possible. Furthermore, I'd like to use the original apple ID for my icloud account and use the new ID for the same device for itunes store. Is this possible? Thanks.

This may help.
How to change the name you use for your Apple ID
http://support.apple.com/kb/HE40

Dual monitor setup - primary monitor blank upon startup

Hello -
This has been vexing me for some time now. I've seen hints of this issue from other people but never the exact same circumstances and never do I see a definitive answer.
I have a dual monitor arrangement on my 8 core Clovertown (first generation) Mac Pro. After shutting the machine down, when I start it back up, the primary monitor almost always flickers very quickly then goes black while the machine boots, and the secondary monitor kicks on. Note - this never happens on restarts or waking up from sleep mode; just after starting up after completely shutting the machine down.
Exact specs are:
The afore mentioned first-gen 8 core Mac Pro (spring 2007), combined with an ATI 4870 graphics card, with the 24 inch Cinema Display LED serving as primary monitor (the one that's useless upon starting up), and my older 23 inch LCD as secondary display. Also worth noting - I'm aware the ATI 4870 is not officially supported in this generation of Mac Pro, however there were so many reports on the web of it working that I did the swap-out myself, and ended up getting the 24 inch LED since I then had the Mini Displayport on the back of my machine.
The only way I manage to get my machine working after starting back up is to restart it several times - literally up to over a dozen attempts sometimes, before the primary display finally does start functioning and I can begin working as normal.
Because there were many reports of the ATI 4870 working fine with this Mac Pro and word of other flickering monitor problems, I thought I'd ask despite the graphics card not being officially supported. Any ideas on how to remedy this problem so I don't have to keep restarting over and over before both my screens eventually work?
Thank you in advance.

So I have the same issue. I run dual 23" Apple Cinema Displays. For a while now the main monitor has had trouble waking up. I have also been unable to put the Display to sleep from the power button on the display. The other monitor seems to go to sleep fine. So when I get it to sleep and it won't start up, I usually restart and everything is fine. Today I can't get that monitor to come up at all. In addition, I have swapped ports on the video card switching the order of the monitors, no change. I also checked in my System Preferences>Display, and the system is still recognizing two monitors. So I am guessing my issue is related to the Display itself. What can be done at this point?

Choose Primary monitor in 2 Monitor setup

Not a biggy but a personal preference. I've been working with the Grid open on the secondary monitor, and Develop on the primary monitor.
I'd actually prefer to have the Grid on my left, and Develop on my right.
This would be doable if there were an option to switch the primary and secondary lightroom screens between the two monitors.
Paul Wasserman

Just an opinion...
It would be easier for the user if we could "swap" the screens in dual monitor mode, as we can "swap" images while in compare mode (1 click).
Compared to:
1. Minimizing each screen
2. Dragging each screen to the other monitor, and then
3. Maximizing each screen...
every time we want to change the information being viewed in dual monitor mode (which, for some, may be quite often).
While this may seem like a small issue, sometimes it's the small issues that can make a difference :-)
Regards, JML

GB chooses to open on secondary monitor, not the primary monitor? It was working fine, then started this.

New Mac Mini running new Garageband. 2 monitors. Working fine, however, all of a sudden GB started to choose to open and not be able to move from secondary monitor. What may have changed and how can I rectify this. I would like GB to open on the primary. All of applications open on primary monitor.

There is some confusing information in your post. You say iMac g5 & 10.6.6. The iMac g5 cannot run 10.6.6. 10.6.6 requires an intel machine.
I'll assume iMac g5.
There have been many reports of capacitor problems with these machines. There are capacitor replacement kits if you want to experiment with a soldering iron.
You could try a new battery.
Since you are having succes running the machine, I'd say it is a hardware problem. I've read a little on the capacitor problem. Seems to fit what I have heard.
google: g5 capacitor replacement kit
Seems rather inexpensive.
http://thecapking.com/applg5.html
& lots of info on repairing on this site. Offers this good suggestion.
"Additionally you may also go to any Apple Retail Store with a Genus Bar, and have the Apple folks take a look inside the G5 and look at the caps on the iMac logic board for you."
http://jimwarholic.com/2008/07/how-to-repair-apple-imac-g5.php

Changing Primary Monitor

Hi All,
I have a G5 Dual 2.5ghz running OSX10.5.2 that came with an ATI Radeon 9800XT video card. I am using 2 monitors, a 17" Apple studio display (DVI connector) and a Dell 24" LCD (DVI-I? connector - it plugs into the ADC port). The Apple display comes up as the primary display with the menu bar and such. The Dell comes up as the secondary display. I want to use the Dell as my primary monitor. How can I tell OSX to make the Dell my primary monitor? I can't seem to find a control for this in Display Preferences. Please advise. Thanks

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
In Apple menu -> System preferences -> Displays, locate the white bar on top of the icon representing one display and drag it to the icon representing the other display. This switches which monitor is primary.

Xorg Automatically Detects The Wrong 'Primary' Monitor

Running KDE on an HP dv9910us with the nVidia binary drivers.
lspci for the video card is:
00:12.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation C67 [GeForce 7150M / nForce 630M] (rev a2)
I have an external monitor that it will detect and configure as the primary monitor on every boot. The fix is simple, I launch the nVidia X Server Settings and check 'Make this the primary display for the X screen' and things switch over just fine, however this needs done at every boot.
I'm sure I could export the X configuration file and that would take care of it, but I would prefer to leave the system to auto-configure each time (it feels right to have it this way). Is there a way to ensure that it will detect the built into the laptop screen as the default?
Instinct is telling me that it is choosing the larger display as the default:
Internal screen: 1440x900
External screen: 1920x1080
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I finally found what appears to be the solution:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=120173
Not sure how I was unable to find that before hand.
Also, there were many files in xorg.conf.d:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1761 Sep 9 13:12 10-monitor.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 193 May 5 23:56 10-monitor.conf~
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 192 May 5 23:56 10-monitor.conf.broken
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1772 May 5 23:42 10-monitor.conf.bak-2012050502
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1959 May 5 23:39 10-monitor.conf.bak-20120505
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1696 Apr 20 13:36 10-monitor.conf.backup
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1696 Feb 11 2012 10-monitor.conf.PERFECT.bak
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1727 Feb 6 2012 10-monitor.conf.working-twinview
How does this directory work? Will all of these files be used for configuration, or just the ones ending in .conf?

Is it possible to use an .mac alias as your primary account in Mail?

We currently have 2 Macs in sync via .Mac; My wifes G5 and my PBook. I am purchasing a 12inch PBook for my daughters 12th B-Day. I would like for her to have access to Mail via her alias email account only. BUT, I do not want her to see the primary acct that my wife and I use. So I guess the question is, Is it possible to have an alias for a primary account on a third computer?
Thanks

JCCR510, welcome to the forum.
The mSATA drive in the computer can only be used as cache and not as a boot drive. This is the way that HP has it setup.
You certainly can buy a SATA SSD and install it. As you can see in my signature below, I have Samsung EVO 840 SSD in my 810-135qe. It works great.
Please click the "Thumbs up + button" if I have helped you and click "Accept as Solution" if your problem is solved.
Signature:
HP TouchPad - 1.2 GHz; 1 GB memory; 32 GB storage; WebOS/CyanogenMod 11(Kit Kat)
HP 10 Plus; Android-Kit Kat; 1.0 GHz Allwinner A31 ARM Cortex A7 Quad Core Processor ; 2GB RAM Memory Long: 2 GB DDR3L SDRAM (1600MHz); 16GB disable eMMC 16GB v4.51
HP Omen; i7-4710QH; 8 GB memory; 256 GB San Disk SSD; Win 8.1
HP Photosmart 7520 AIO
++++++++++++++++++
**Click the Thumbs Up+ to say 'Thanks' and the 'Accept as Solution' if I have solved your problem.**
Intelligence is God given; Wisdom is the sum of our mistakes!
I am not an HP employee.

Switching your Primary Monitor - SOLVED

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for