iMac - How to switch between extended and mirrored desktop

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robjg63

2979 posts

Uber Geek

# 66452 19-Aug-2010 12:40

Hi,

I have a friend who has a (about) 4 year old imac - its a 17" Intel 2.0GHZ model - sorry dont know the OS version.

Its got a problem that seems to have been pretty common where the main screen display is now just a bunch of stripes and completely unusable. I read up that this model has a mini-DVI port and that with the adapter (purchased today) it should be possible to plug in an external monitor and it should just use this external monitor as a mirror.

So - mini-DVI-> VGA dongle is plugged in -external monitor hooked up and turned on - hit the power button and after a minute of so up comes a pretty blue screen and once I moved the mouse around I could see the cursor. Doesnt seem to do anything when I click the mouse or hit the Mac button (probably not the right term - sorry mac people).

So its started using the external monitor as a extended desktop. My question is this - remembering that the main display is broken, how can I set the external monitor to be a mirror? Are there keyboard shortcuts?

Any help appreciated.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

DrCheese

379 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

# 369785 19-Aug-2010 13:16

Do you really want the external monitor to mirror the broken monitor? This doesn't sound right to me.

Go to Settings > Displays, then click on the option to display the icon in the menu bar. When you pull down this menu, you should have the option to mirror or not.

David.

geocom

541 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

# 369790 19-Aug-2010 13:25

if s/he has screen shearing enabled you should be able to see the main screen via any VNC Viewer so that you can make any changes.

If you can not VNC in you could try hitting command(apple) + Spacebar and typing in System Preferences then enter at this point you can move the mouse to the main screen and try dragging about mid top of the screen this will take a bit of trial and error when you have dragged the window across go display

The better method would be the first but the second should work but may take a while

Hope this helps
geoff

Geoff E

robjg63

2979 posts

Uber Geek

# 369791 19-Aug-2010 13:33

DrCheese: Do you really want the external monitor to mirror the broken monitor? This doesn't sound right to me.

Go to Settings > Displays, then click on the option to display the icon in the menu bar. When you pull down this menu, you should have the option to mirror or not.

David.

Um - yes - I want the external display to be the main display because the main display is kaput.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

robjg63

2979 posts

Uber Geek

# 369792 19-Aug-2010 13:33

geocom: if s/he has screen shearing enabled you should be able to see the main screen via any VNC Viewer so that you can make any changes.

If you can not VNC in you could try hitting command(apple) + Spacebar and typing in System Preferences then enter at this point you can move the mouse to the main screen and try dragging about mid top of the screen this will take a bit of trial and error when you have dragged the window across go display

The better method would be the first but the second should work but may take a while

Hope this helps

geoff

Will give the second option a try - Cheers

Rob

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

robjg63

2979 posts

Uber Geek

# 370599 21-Aug-2010 10:05

Thanks for the advice - the second method worked.

Turned out the mac was password protected - so once that bit of information was provided I could see about a 1cm strip of desktop and work out the system preferences menu item.

Couldnt see the resulting window - but after about 15min of 'fishing' managed to haul it over to the second screen and switch on mirroring. I was well pleased. Advised the owner to get a nice 16:9 monitor which they did.

So hooked it up and turned it on and back to square one again - Repeated the above (and swore a lot) and got it turned on again - I'm assuming that osx saw that the hardware (different brand of monitor) had changed - Hopefully it wont go back to default(extended desktop) again!

New monitor (22") + mini-DVI cable aprox <$300

Rough estimate to replace the original panel aprox $700!!!!!

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

Shagy

97 posts

Master Geek

# 378451 10-Sep-2010 07:46

4 years old - CGA ?
i seem to recal that vintage having a known fault with the screens
the fault looked like multiple fine lines running down the screen top to bottom
apple were replacing these faulty screens at no cost

josephhinvest

1275 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 378468 10-Sep-2010 08:42

Shagy: 4 years old - CGA ?
i seem to recal that vintage having a known fault with the screens
the fault looked like multiple fine lines running down the screen top to bottom
apple were replacing these faulty screens at no cost

Yeah it's a pretty common issue with the 17inch iMacs, but it's not a "known" fault in that it's not acknowledged by Apple with a Repair Extension Program or Quality Program.
That said, if its thin vertical lines (single pixel width) then it might be worth give Apple Customer Relations a call, they have in the past covered this repair outside warranty.

Cheers,
Joseph.