Upgraded 10.5.7 & no ext. monitor. I have listed what's been done thus far

Question

Laptop-early fall 2008 macbook. (no upgrades)
Monitor (bought in sept 08 and been working great since)- Samsung 24" 2493HM dvi to dvi (mini)
1. Updated to 10.5.7 on May 15 then shutdown and went to bed.
2. Booted up in the morning and no external monitor
3. Bought new cables, dvi-dvi and the adapter as well but to no avail. Also tried every combo of powering up, booting and switching cables.
4. Brought my computer in to a store and tried 4 monitors and nothing worked
5. Tried the PRAM m’jig
6. Tried resetting SMC
7. Tried safe boot
8. Tried SwitchRex (sp?)
8. Reinstalled 10.5.2 still nothing
9. Wiped out HD and reinstalled everything from my ext.HD to 10.5.6…a few days before I upgraded but still nothing.
Odd thing is, is that I can see the resolutions listed and the monitor self test shows no problems there…hence the trial in the store to confirm that it’s not the monitor.
I’ve been on the phone with apple for a few days and the rep has been helpful and very courteous, but I’m still at square one. They sent off some stuff, I understand it was a log of what was happening those wee hours before this happened.
Please, please, please can anyone help me or suggest anything else I may try?!!

Answer 1

Marlin2 wrote:
I have the early fall unibody macbook, just before the aluminum release. Sorry for the confusion about the display hookup. It's a dvi cable connected to the adapter for the mini-dvi port (I think that's what it's called)
Well, there is still confusion since the unibody and the aluminum MacBook are the same thing. So, you can't have an "early fall unibody MacBook" that was "just before the aluminum release" (since they are the same thing). In any case, I guess you have one of the older white MacBooks and _not_ one of the newer units that use a Mini DisplayPort for the external video connection. If what I surmise is correct, then you really should have posted in the MacBook( black and white) forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1168
In any case, it probably makes little difference since the problem diagnosis and resolution would be similar regardless of which MacBook you have. I guess what you are using to connect to the display is as follows:
White MacBook + Mini DVI-to-DVI adapter -> DVI cable -> computer display
It's beginning to sound like you _may_ have a defective display port on the MacBook. If you've already done a CLEAN install of 10.5.2 and/or 10.5.6 and have reset the SMC and have zapped the PRAM and have tried a second (and known good) adapter and cable and it still isn't working then the graphics port on the MacBook seems to be the only remaining unknown. This assumes, of course, that you've tried all of the above at the same time and on the same configuration of hardware.
However, if you've done some type of archive and re-install of Mac OS X then you may still have some corrupted caches or preferences. In this case you should reference the thread that pancenter suggested. Do this before you try anything else as I've outlined below.
Frankly, you also seem to be a little confused about exactly what hardware and adapters you are using. Thus, I'd take a careful second look at your adapters and cables and make certain that your setup on the computer and display are correct before you assume failure. Also, just because a previous setup has failed doesn't mean you've eliminated everything in that setup as a point of failure. Case in point, it seems unlikely that you tried a clean install of an earlier version of Mac OS X with those other displays at the store. I'm assuming that you tried those displays with the original install of 10.5.7 immediately after the initial failure.
My suggestion would be:
1.) Since your MacBook is still under warranty get Apple involved. Visit an Apple retail store if possible. This is your probable next step (i.e. ignore the below "otherwise").
-- otherwise --
1.) Do a completely CLEAN install of Mac OS X using your original DVD installer disk and don't update to 10.5.7. This can be done on a second, external drive if you don't want to erase what you currently have on the MacBook's internal drive. Do NOT attempt to use this new Mac OS X installation with the display you have at home (Since it sounds like you've already done these steps on your display at home, if not then you may want to try these steps with the display you have at home. But if you do then go back and do a clean install a second time before you go back to the computer store).
2.) Using this clean install (only) go back to the computer store with both sets of cables and adapters and try each in combination with each other on a display that is different than the one you have at home.
3.) Reset the SMC and zap the PRAM prior to each test with new cables/adapters. Do this reset and zap while you have the external display and adapters disconnected. Throw away the cache files as outlined in the post that pancenter provided. Power down both the MacBook and display, connect the display, turn the display on, turn the MacBook on. See if it works, if NOT then go into the Displays preference panel and click the "Detect Displays" button.
If all of the above fails, then you most likely have a defective graphics port on your MacBook. In that case, it's well past time to contact Apple and see about a warranty repair.