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Posts: 312
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I don't think that the connector or the cables are bad because the same connector and cable works with the older monitors. The picture, when it works (for 2 seconds), is nice, clear and bright. Brighter than the old HP monitor. It really does seem to be a sync or as what some are telling me, a clock timing issue. This Best Buy does not seem to sell the Apple Mac Mini. It only has Mac Pros and iMacs, iPods, Time Capsules and Airports, along with Apple mice. No Mac Mini or AppleTV, etc.
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I guess I'm with modelamac at this point-- see if you can get the restock fee waived-- bring your mini in and show them what happens?
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There shouldn't be a restock fee on an exchange for a defective item (the monitor), which is what it sounds like.
Have you tried the monitor on a different computer?
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Also - try using this monitor with another computer that does natively support 1600x900.
Or maybe boot linux on your mini?
g=
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I've seen similar problems before, mostly with G4s running 10.5.x when connected to large LCDs. The Mac seems to lose the display and the display flicks off and on in exactly the same manner as when "Detect Displays" is clicked. It usually goes into a cycle of flicking off and on right after a cold start or wake from deep sleep. Power-cycling the monitor -- sometimes power-cycling it a few times in a row -- usually fixes it until the next cold restart or deep sleep. Preventing deep sleep is a fairly reliable kludge to prevent a recurrence in such situations and dropping into thousands of colors may also help keep the monitor online.
My office had a MBP hooked up to a low-end Dell 24-inch that occasionally displayed a similar problem, except that the screen went to black instead of blue-and-then-black right before the monitor went to sleep and it didn't get stuck in a cycle -- the monitor just went dark. Usually right after the login screen popped up. A shorter cable seemed to reduce the number of incidents. The 10.6.1 update seems to have fixed it.
I have a theory that both issues relate to signal-strength. Different cable lengths and high quality cables might make a significant difference in the frequency of the event.
Since you're running 10.6.1, I think your problem might be more like that of the G4s rather than the MBP. For that kind of video problem, the "fixes" that I've found are just workarounds that rather than curing it simply reduce the number of incidents. If you aren't the type to live with a kludge, you're probably best off returning the monitor.
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The only computers I have left in the house are 24" iMacs, more Mac Minis and some really old Lombard G3 Powerbook, two Cubes and an eMac. I just discovered that as a Premier Reward Zone Club member, that I will not have a restocking fee. I will ask the Geek Squad people there if I can bring in my Mac Mini to recreate the problem. If they say yes and see what it is not doing, then maybe they will come up with a solution or just let me take another 20" monitor home to see if the first one was defective. Thanks for all of you who helped offer up ideas and suggestions. I've already boxed the monitor back up and am going to head to Best Buy later today. No more odd resolutions for me. The next monitor will be one that uses a standard resolution for its native setting. I've blown money on SwitchResX and DisplayConfigX and still have a monitor that will not work for me. I just contributed to the small developer Apple Macintosh software community and Kagi. :-) Oh well ...
