Using an external display with a MacBook

Posted on October 2, 2006 by Christian

Here are some tips for using a MacBook or MacBook Pro with an external monitor. They range from the painfully obvious (for brand new Mac users) to one I actually just learned yesterday.

When you connect an external monitor to your MacBook (or PowerBook, for that matter), you can combine your MacBook’s LCD and your external monitor to create one big monitor. That means when your mouse pointer goes off the edge of one, it will appear on the other. Open the Displays Preference Pane to configure the resolution and orientation of the two monitors. This type of configuration works well when you want to keep your main work on your larger external display, but still keep things like IM, iTunes, and email constantly visible on the smaller laptop LCD.
Some windows act like they don’t want to be dragged on to your external monitor. If a windows is being stubborn, try dragging it up to the menu bar, and keep dragging, even if stays stuck below the menu bar. Sometimes once you have dragged it far enough that it has room to render the entire window, it will jump to the other monitor (Terminal used to have this problem, but Apple fixed it some time ago). If that doesn’t work, try dragging it from a corner of your monitor. My Adium contact list doesn’t seem to want to live on my external monitor, but I can coerce it up there by dragging up from either corner.
When your laptop is open, you can’t switch to using the full resolution of an external monitor. I have no idea why, but it’s a fact of life for MacBook users. You can use both displays in "extended" mode, or you can mirror your MacBook’s display (which most likely doesn’t use the full resolution of your external monitor), but you can’t switch to using only the external monitor. Very strange.
If you close your laptop, you can actually get the full resolution of your external display. Put your MacBook to sleep, connect your external display and an external monitor, and wake the computer up by pressing any key. You will have full use of your external display while your laptop is closed.
If you really want to have your MacBook open while only using an external display, after following the procedure above, you can open your MacBook, and it’s screen will remain off, which means you can still use the MacBook’s keyboard and trackpad. Why you can’t get into this mode using F7, I have no idea. This is a good technique for allowing some heat to dissipate while still using an external display so the lid of your MacBook doesn’t melt or warp.
You can boot your computer using just an external display. Just connect your external display, open the lid, hit the power button, and close the lid again immediately.
In order to output only to an external monitor, you have to have the power cable connected. I tried for several minutes yesterday to get my MacBook to wake up with an external keyboard and monitor before unpacking my AC adapter from my backpack, and it wouldn’t work. It took me a while to make the connection (no pun intended), but I eventually discovered that with the power cable attached, everything works as expected.

And now for some other random tips:

If you decide to buy the MacBook over the MacBook Pro (I actually like the MacBook slightly better, but that’s a topic for another post), don’t forget to buy a mini-DVI to standard DVI adapter. The MacBooks don’t have standard DVI port — just the mini.
If you have a DVI to VGA adapter, stop reading this right now, go find it, and put it in your computer bag where it should be stored. You’ll thank me the next time you’re in front of a client or an audience, trying to mash a VGA cable into a DVI port.
For the ultimate in multiple-display, multi-computer support, check out Synergy. Synergy actually lets you switch between different computers running different operating systems simply by moving your mouse from one monitor to the next. The first time you see it, you’ll swear it’s magic. Imagine two separate physical computers next to each other with two monitors, one keyboard, and one mouse. Just move the pointer from one monitor to the other, and you’re actually using the other computer. It even let’s you copy and paste between computers. If you’re a Mac user running Parallels, you might not see the point, but you still have to appreciate the technical wizardry.

Anything that I’ve missed? Post it in the comments.

41 thoughts on “Using an external display with a MacBook”

none on October 2, 2006 at 8:40 am said:

“so the lid of your MacBook doesn’t melt or warp”
wow. and you put up with this???

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Christian Cantrell on October 2, 2006 at 10:35 am said:

I made that comment partially in jest. The old PowerBooks were prone to warping. I haven’t heard of the MacBooks or MacBook Pros warping, so I think the problem has been fixed.
But that’s one of the reasons I prefer the MacBook to the Pro. Among many other improvements, it runs cooler.
Christian

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Pingu on October 16, 2006 at 6:52 am said:

I am thinking of getting a 23 or 30 inch apple diplay for use with my mac book pro. I dont really know how it will work, will i be able to plug a keyboard and mouse into the diplay’s usb ports? i would prefer to keep my laptop closed while i work. Thanks

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sKurt on November 2, 2006 at 10:46 am said:

WOW… You may say us folks with Parallel wouldn’t be so hot on the Synergy program… but WOW… I have a MacBook I use at the office and I have a WinBox POS (Point of sale) with touch screen etc. that I have to use to talk to the clients with and having two keyboards, two mice, the MacBook’s Keyboard/trackpad and another Monitor monitering the other computer on the desk, things get cluttered real fast, not to mention I sometimes type on the wrong Keyboard.
Now I have one Keyboard, One Mouse, running both comptuers, and an A/B switch for the other monitor with my MacBook closed, with a laptop fan under it and everything is great.
Your help with configuring the MacBook and Synergy’s help with the keyboard/mouse makes for a nice desk arrangement.
sKurt

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Will on November 12, 2006 at 8:41 am said:

I’m thinking about getting an external display for my Macbook. I currently use a bluetooth mouse and keyboard with my Macook. If I hook it up to the external dsplay, will I still be able to use them with the macbook closed? I’m pretty sure I can, as I can wake it up by clicking my mouse or pressing a key on the keyboard. Can someone confirm this?

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Chris on November 13, 2006 at 6:28 pm said:

Of course, you can enable allowing <> in Keyboard and Mouse preferences, then close the lid. It only works with the power adaptor plugged in though, and I’d really turn this option off if you carry your mac in your bag, and only turn it on when needed. If you email me, i’ll see if i can give you a hand to write an AppleScript to change this setting by clicking a button… but it always worked for me :)

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Matias on November 20, 2006 at 8:38 am said:

Can anybody help me with this setup? I’m using a PC running XP as my main computer, hooked up to a 22″ viewsonic with DVI. I’d like to connect my MacBook to the VGA-input of the screen, but i won’t get full resolution (1680 x 1050) because when my PC is on the screen will revert to that input and the Mac fails to recognize any screen (defaults to 800 x 600). Is the only solution to get a DVI splitter? Also, isn’t there any way to select custom resolutions on this Mac (I’ve had it hooked up to the 22″ with DVI and that worked like a charm…)

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Andy Morton on November 28, 2006 at 2:57 pm said:

Any suggestions for using my 17″ MB Pro with a 30″ Apple Ext Monitor and having the dock and the menu bar on the 30″? Surfing Safari on the 30″ and having to go over to the laptop to use the menubar is lame
AM

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Matias on December 3, 2006 at 12:14 pm said:

Andy: That’s easy, just go into the display settings and drag the menu bar (represented by a white line) to the screen of your preference.

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Trevor Smith on December 3, 2006 at 1:06 pm said:

You write:
“3. When your laptop is open, you can’t switch to using the full resolution of an external monitor. I have no idea why, but it’s a ”
I have never seen this behaviour either with my old PowerBook G4 nor with my new MacBook (Core2Duo). I have an older polycarbonate 23″ Apple cinema display. When I have my laptop open and plug in the monitor to it, the 23″ display runs in 1920×1200 and the laptop monitor remains in its native mode. Every time.
I can choose to manually switch to “mirror” the displays so they are both the same resolution if I want.
I believe I have also used my PowerBook with external projection monitors and had them run in separate (native) resolutions too. Maybe I misunderstood your claim.
You also write:
“4. If you close your laptop, you can actually get the full resolution of your external display. Put your MacBook to sleep, connect your external display and an external monitor, and wake the computer up by pressing any key. You will have full use of your external display while your laptop is closed.”
Here, I’m sure you’re using an external keyboard (as am I) to wake up your MacBook, since it’s hard to get at the built-in keyboard with the lid closed. :-) Just in case anyone was confused.

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Tim Belmore on December 5, 2006 at 6:24 am said:

I am a new MacBook user. Can you tell just what cables I need to connect a 20-inch wide screen (I’m looking at the View Sonic VX2025) external monitor? I am a bit confused by the DVI/VGA discusssion. Thanks

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Anna Ellis on December 6, 2006 at 3:53 am said:

Alright, well, i just got a macbook pro…so im new to mac. When i hook up my 19 inch dell monitor to my macbook it just shows the background picture on my mac? Someone should help me? : )

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D on December 19, 2006 at 9:01 am said:

Anne, this confused me at first as well. It’s working in “extended” mode, so all you have to do is drag windows to one side or the other (I think to the right by default) to get stuff over there.

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Chris hale on January 1, 2007 at 1:19 am said:

I Just bought my mini DVI connector for my Macbook and I am trying to hook up my Macbook to my Samsung HD LCD TV. I can’t get the whole desktop to appear on my Samsung? The dock can barely be seen and I can barely see the taskbar at the top? The resloution also isnt that great. Any ideas?

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Tim on January 1, 2007 at 4:37 pm said:

I want to have a movie playing in full screen on my external monitor while working on my laptop’s built in monitor. Is this possible? I’ve seen it done with Windows computers

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antron on January 12, 2007 at 6:19 pm said:

movies on external monitor vs working on built-in:
yes, but the setup is usually done by the player application.
VLC: just choose your screen from the video device submenu under the “Video” menu. Then change to full screen mode.
Quicktime: choose “Present Video” from the “View Menu”. You will get a choice on which screen you like to present the video.
DVD player: am afraid doesn’t really work but move the DVD player window to the screen of your choice and change to fullscreen. however, you will notice when you use another application on the built-in the DVD player will switch to window mode. i think apple should fix this in the app. otherwise it is good enough to at least monitor some app on your built-in..

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Ilpo Karkkainen on January 13, 2007 at 11:41 am said:

Does anyone know if it’s possible to use two external displays with a Macbook? I have have two 19″ screens at my studio that are being used with the old G4. I would like to be able to hook up my new Macbook as well. Thanks in advance.

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kontorhotel on February 5, 2007 at 12:36 pm said:

I tried today but i didnt work.. Is it not possible to work with a 23″ external display and NOT have my macbook pro connected to a powersuply. My MBP kept on going to sleep when i closed the lid..
help.. please.. (-:

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Soren on February 18, 2007 at 1:37 am said:

#LIPO
Connect the external screen, close the lid, and it will go sleep, Then take a USB device (USB KEY / USB Mouse) plug it in and it will wake up , and show the primary screen at the external. you can even open the lid again and use the keys without the screen-onboard turning on.
It will allways need the PSU, for viewing external.

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Jonas Tegenfeldt on March 4, 2007 at 7:51 am said:

I have a peculiar problem:
When trying to move a file or a folder from within a folder to the desktop on the external monitor, the file or folder instead winds up on the LCD monitor of the laptop (MacBook Pro 2.2).
Simply moving something from one desktop to the other is OK. Also, moving something from a folder to the desktop on the LCD monitor works fine. The problem occurs when I try to move something from within a folder to the desktop of the external monitor.
I have tried two different monitors and the problem persists.
I did not have this problem previously, using a range of different Apple laptops and external monitors.
Is this a hardware problem or can it be fixed through a future OS update or patch?

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Josh Beagley on March 13, 2007 at 11:08 pm said:

I’ve been using a Dell 20″ monitor with a Macbook Pro but the Macbook screen regularly freaks out and goes fuzzy, with multiple lines across it, like bad TV reception. Putting it to sleep or restarting fixes it. Any iddea why this happens? The connection is secure and the computer isn’t being jolted.

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Peter Olivetti on March 15, 2007 at 11:07 am said:

Anyone have issues with macbook 13 and viewsonic 20″ display? My macbook always forgets the viewsonic displays native 1680×1050 and default so a generic 1600×1200. I try various sequences of restarts, open/closed, detect displays… but nothing seems to get the macbook to remember the viewsonic display.

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Vijay Dholakia on March 19, 2007 at 12:23 am said:

I am using macbook with Viewsonic 20 inch VX2025wm without any problem at native resolution of 1680 by 1050.

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Charlotte Bath on March 19, 2007 at 12:34 pm said:

I have just ordered a new (2 GHz/2GB memory/80GB Hardrive)macbook along with a mouse and Keyboard as i want to have a desktop set up aswell. im pretty much clueless as to how to set this up and what monitors i can have. ideally i would like to have a dual display as im going to be using pro Tools and Logic music production software which has to main windows that need to be accessed regularly. i am unsure of whether my mac can cope with the two monitors and also what monitors i should get. Any advice on how i go about setting this up would be greatly appriciated. If the dual display is not possible then any suggestions for a large monitor would be great! cheers

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A.J. Price on March 19, 2007 at 5:54 pm said:

Today I got my mini-dvi cable, and hooked my macbook up to my 42″ westinghouse monitor. I figured out how to get the display fully on my TV, however the right side of the monitor is fuzzy, and I can’t see the top-right apple symbol. The TV is centered when I watch TV always, don’t see why the monitor should be different. Any suggestions?

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A.J. Price on March 20, 2007 at 4:51 pm said:

Problem persists, worst thing is it seems as though my television will not allow me to justfy the screen while it is not connected to a VGA source. Am I out of luck?

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Ted Andrusyszyn on March 25, 2007 at 9:33 pm said:

I jsut purchased a X2gen monitor that has both VGA and DVI inputs. I also purchased a DVI-I Integrated Dig/Ana Dual cable dvi-dvi to hook it to my MAcBook Pro. I get no signal with the direct DVI cable but works fine with the DVI-VGA adapter. Shouldn’t the DVI – I Cable work, and with better resolution??? CAn anyone help? Do I have the correct DVI cable???

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Jonas Tegenfeldt on April 5, 2007 at 11:54 pm said:

Concerning comment posted by Tegenfeldt March 4 at 0751am.
The solution was simple. I shifted the primary monitor to the external screen. In other words, I made sure that the Finder menu bar and the Dock shows up on the external monitor instead of on the internal monitor of the laptop. Now, everything works great.
/JT

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Prakash on April 9, 2007 at 10:51 am said:

Thank You. This really helped me out

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alex on April 10, 2007 at 5:50 am said:

Is there a way to have two menu bars ?
Alex

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Atlas on April 13, 2007 at 6:30 pm said:

I just baught the mini dvi to dvi and a dvi to vga but it does not work on with my external monitor. i have a macbook.

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Derek on April 19, 2007 at 1:54 pm said:

I have a friend who’s daughters Mac Book 15″ died. We hoped it was just a hard drive, but turns out the Monitor is bad. In a dark room you can see a real faint display (shining a high power flash light at the monitor at an angle makes it a little easier to see). I once saw an article about removing the LCD and just using the Mac Book with an external display. The article was about a hack to the code to force the Mac to alway output video on the external monitor port. Can anyone tell me where to get information on removing the LCD (and have the Mac Book work) and how to force the external display to be always on?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Derek

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Derek on April 19, 2007 at 6:30 pm said:

OK, got my friend to bring in the laptop. Details are the same except that the model is a Powerbook G4 15″ 1.33 GHz model.

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Steve on April 25, 2007 at 11:41 pm said:

Hi. I am currently running a 19-inch samsung external monitor from my black macbook with 1 GB RAM. I notice my computer runs considerably slower when I’m using it compared to when I am not (mouse clicks, program response time, loading time is slower). I’m wondering if there is a direct link between memory usage and using an external monitor. I also have an external sound card and USB hub connected to my macbook. However it seems the system resources are more drained by the monitor.
Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!

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Lee on May 16, 2007 at 12:11 pm said:

Hi, I’ve got my macbook hooked up to my Toshiba HM95 DLP 46″ HD TV via the mini DVI to Video adapter. The screen looks good, but not great. I’ve switched the display to run at 1024 x 768, but the TV only recognizes the resolution at 480i. Is there anyway to increase the output of the Macbook to something higher than 480i? I do some online gaming (World of Warcraft) and when I use the macbook’s display the picture is crystal clear, but when I use the TV as the monitor, I have trouble reading some of the in-game text. Is there anyway to make my mac send out an HD signal? Thanks!

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Kevin on May 25, 2007 at 8:16 pm said:

Thanks for this post! I just hooked up my 23″ cinema display but couldn’t get the full resolution working or closing my lid and using just the external monitor. Now, I’ve got both working on my Macbook!

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se on June 2, 2007 at 10:56 am said:

Guys, check here
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3493567&#3493567

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Howard Lovatt on June 12, 2007 at 3:01 am said:

Great post, very helpful.
When I switch from the larger external screen to the laptop some of the windows are off the edge or too big. Particularly the windows that are off the screen edge are a pain.
Is there a way to get the screen to lay out the windows so that at least they are all on the screen.

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Brandon on June 16, 2007 at 1:53 am said:

I have a macbook pro and an old sony monitor, but the monitor wont sense an input whereas the macbook senses the monitor. the monitor is just blank. can anyone help me please?

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Andreas on June 20, 2007 at 1:06 am said:

Why is such a pain to switch simply to external monitor only?
When i’m at home i wsnt only work on my 23″ extrenal monitor with the macbook display turned off… In windows (bootcamp) you can choose this simply with the GMA driver, and even save different display arrangements…
(btw when i close and reopen the lid usb mouse&keyboard connected don’t work anymore…..)

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roj on June 20, 2007 at 6:51 am said:

I have same problem like steve. My macbook runs slower when I used my external monitor. any suggestions?

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