Mac incompatable monitor?

[stolzy]

I just bought a Samsung 22inch SA100 monitor, advertised as 1920x1080 resolution, but it will only work in 640x480, 832x624 and 1152x870.

Unfortunately none of these resolutions (except 640x480, for what that is worth) are available in my Macbook (or, for that matter, any other computer I ever saw).

Samsung technical support say its not their fault the monitor doesn't work with a Mac and I should speak to the retailer. The retailer says the monitor works as per the manufacturers spec and its not their problem.

Anybody have a suggestion before I return it by a reverse defenestration manoeuvre tomorrow?

 

[ianf]

connected by VGA directly? It should send it's supported resolutions to the mac when it's connected. Is the VGA lead a known good one?

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_display_identification_data

i tried the suggested switchresx program to try and 1:1 my telly and didn't get too far. 1920x1080 should be standard enough.

is it a recent mac on a recent os?

 

[stolzy]

connected by VGA directly? It should send it's supported resolutions to the mac when it's connected. Is the VGA lead a known good one?

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_display_identification_data

i tried the suggested switchresx program to try and 1:1 my telly and didn't get too far. 1920x1080 should be standard enough.

is it a recent mac on a recent os?

Thanks for chipping in (I was in Ashford today as it happens).

The video out on the mac is a mini-DVI connected to an apple DVI-VGA adapter and them by the cable that came with the monitor (which feels a bit rubbish to be honest) - maybe I should try another).

Its a late 2006 black macbook running 10.7.5.

I have another 1900x1080 monitor that works fine with the MacBook.

 

[ianf]

I'd give switchresx a whirl, there's a likely free beta version.

http://www.madrau.com/

If it can't offer any other resolutions out of the box, the monitor might not be sending edid properly.

See https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2536671?start=0&tstart=0

switchresx can dump the reported edid as an exported text file.

If it doesnt have one you can take it back as bollox, and get a proper digital monitor