please help: mac mini has fuzzy display + displays image to large

[SuperNYK992]

I just turned on my mac mini today, and on my Samsung LCD monitor i see that is it blurry. also the edges of the screen are cut off i.e. the apple logo on the task bar's stem is cut off.

i thought this was just the monitor, but i switched it to my old sony CRT and it is exactly the same. i made the picture smaller with my controls but it just makes the cut off picture smaller, which means its the computer.

is my video card shot? or is there some obvious fix which isnt posted on apple support? please help

thanks in advnace

[LukeA]

Try running Apple Hardware Test from the DVD that came with the Mac mini.

[genomeman]

I find that as soon as i go into the screen resolution settings on mac, that it defaults back to standard settings, you may want to check the refresh rate of your mac in the display settings and make sure its set correctly.

other than that make sure you have the latest updates, and as a last resort try totally reinstalling its probably a software problem.

i am unsure how you view drivers or reinstall them on mac, although there is probably a way.

[toothpaste]

I find that as soon as i go into the screen resolution settings on mac, that it defaults back to standard settings, you may want to check the refresh rate of your mac in the display settings and make sure its set correctly.

other than that make sure you have the latest updates, and as a last resort try totally reinstalling its probably a software problem.

i am unsure how you view drivers or reinstall them on mac, although there is probably a way.


Check the resolution settings as was suggested, but in OS X we don't have to reinstall drivers or view drivers the way windows users have to.

I was going to suggest that you plug your lcd back in to make sure that the resolution setting on the monitor are correct as well.

It is also a possibility that the video card might be failing. But as always, try to troubleshoot the easiest and most common possible causes for this.

[genomeman]

[QUOTE=toothpaste]Check the resolution settings as was suggested, but in OS X we don't have to reinstall drivers or view drivers the way windows users do


although this is a good thing, as i can attest as an ex windows user, i have recently also had to reinstall the whole machine to get some faulty hardware working on mac because i havnt been able to find a way to reinstall just a corrupted driver.

Is there any way in future to just repair the problem and not start again?

hope you get things sorted btw

Also ive just had a thought which is unlikely but cheaper than the alternative if this is it. Could the hdmi to monitor adaptor be broken? it might be worth replacing this or borrowing one from a mate if you can. see if that changes matters

[toothpaste]

How about using the DVD to run diagnostics on the system? I haven't had issues with my machine so I was never forced to try it, but I believe that OS X just like any other OS should allow the install media to be used for recovery as well.

[genomeman]

the diagnostics will tell you something is wrong but it doesnt fix it. mainly the only option is to reinstall osx over the top, nothing but a full restore worked for me!

[toothpaste]

^^does that apply to hardware and software issues?

[honeybee1236]

I just turned on my mac mini today, and on my Samsung LCD monitor i see that is it blurry. also the edges of the screen are cut off i.e. the apple logo on the task bar's stem is cut off.

i thought this was just the monitor, but i switched it to my old sony CRT and it is exactly the same. i made the picture smaller with my controls but it just makes the cut off picture smaller, which means its the computer.

is my video card shot? or is there some obvious fix which isnt posted on apple support? please help

thanks in advnace


When I had a problem with my Mac Mini displaying correctly on the screen it turned out to be that the monitor settings had changed the screen resolution settings. I just reset it under system preferences. If you haven't tried it then do this first.

[LukeA]

When I had a problem with my Mac Mini displaying correctly on the screen it turned out to be that the monitor settings had changed the screen resolution settings. I just reset it under system preferences. If you haven't tried it then do this first.
Then repair permissions.

[SuperNYK992]

thank you so much for all the suggestions


prior to posting the topic, i had tried unpluggin the monitor, and hooking my mini up to a different monitor (The monitor that i use is a Samsung SyncMaster 940bw LCD, the different monitor was a Sony Trinitron CRT) it produced the same fuzzy and cut off image.

I tried pluggin the samsung lcd back in, but its exactly the same, i tried changing the resoluton, the same thing(default is 1440x900(the ony res which doesnt look streched, and 60 hertz refresh rate(the only one availible). nothing changed.

my computer has also been crashing. every time i leave it on overnight.

i will try the test now.