I really like my 12" Apple Powerbook. All I use it for is a web browser and VT100 emulator. But the hardware is lovely and the font rendering is beautiful. One problem, the VGA port. No matter what I did, I couldn't run more than 800x600 with the VGA plugged in.

I finally figured it out. The Apple video hardware detects the resolutions that the VGA display can handle. If you plug the miniDVI dongle into the laptop with no monitor or projector plugged in to the dongle, the laptop can't detect any resolutions and so drops to 800x600. If you plug the monitor or projector into the dongle first, then plug in the dongle, the laptop will detect resolutions correctly. Or you can force it to redetect by selecting the "detect displays" option in the control panel / menu bar.

I still have this problem where it only detects 1280x1024 on the projectors I plug my laptop in, not 1024x768. But my LCD can only do 1024x768. That means if I want display mirroring, I'm forced to use 800x600. Grr. Apple's attempt to make things simple doesn't quite work. Anyone know of a way to override the resolutions?

PS: what the hell was Apple thinking not putting a VGA port on their laptops? I hate the stupid dongle. The 12" laptop is the worst, it's not even a standard DVI port.

tech
  2004-10-06 15:18 Z