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    Dual displays

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by TNWoodwright, Dec 31, 2007.

  1. TNWoodwright

    TNWoodwright Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have a 19wb LCD hooked to my macbook. It has 2gig of memory. What I was wondering is why when you run the cursor over the monitor it doesn't pick up on that monitor. You have to click on it first to get it to acknowledge its there. Its annoying when you have your browser in one window and mail in another all you get done is click around. I actually thought adding the memory would help this. It seems like all its done is load the page slightly faster. When you go to the SM it says its only using 512 as far as I can tell. Course I'm no expert :) And it hasn't helped my typing :(
     
    TNWoodwright, Dec 31, 2007
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  2. Budding

    Budding Notebook Virtuoso

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    How have you hooked the monitor to the Mac? I'm assuming you are extending your desktop onto the external?
     
    Budding, Dec 31, 2007
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  3. trueintentions

    trueintentions Notebook Evangelist

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    How are you connected? I have an external monitor, and it hooks up with my Macbook just fine...
     
    trueintentions, Jan 1, 2008
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  4. hollownail

    hollownail Individual 11

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    Your saying that when you your cursor is on the 2nd monitor, it doesn't actually display it? Or that you have to click once when it's on the 2nd monitor for it to actually apear?

    I'm confused at what this means: "...all you get done is click around.".

    Or do you mean that when you initially hook up the monitor, the display doesn't appear right away? If that is the case, make sure of course, that the monitor is turned on before you connect it. Then if does not detect it within a few seconds after connecting it (btw, are you using DVI or DVI->VGA?) then go to Sys. Pref. and then Displays. Under the displays menu, click on detect displays. I add the Display pref to my menu bar so I can easily make changes like that.
     
    hollownail, Jan 1, 2008
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  5. TNWoodwright

    TNWoodwright Notebook Enthusiast

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    The display is connected to the Macbook DVI. It works fine. I use both at the same time. The only annoyance is when going from one screen to another. You have to click on that screen to get it to recognize where your at. Rather than the cursor automatically picking up on which display you are using when its hovering over that display.
     
    TNWoodwright, Jan 3, 2008
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  6. system_159

    system_159 Notebook Deity

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    Are you running applications full screen in the separate monitors? When moving from one application to another you have to click on the new application in order to activate it.

    Try minimizing all your applications and click on different folders or files that are displayed on the two screens and see if your problem is the monitors or switching between apps.
     
    system_159, Jan 4, 2008
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  7. hoolyproductions

    hoolyproductions Notebook Evangelist

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    I remember seeing your OP and thinking "how can you click on the screen if it doesn't recognise you are there", but I think I just figured out your problem...

    Do you mean when you move from one screen to the other, you can still see the cursor but you have to click on the application window before it acts on it?

    If so, that is normal, and is also the case when working with just one monitor. The click is to tell the OS that you want to use the other application, it has nothing to do with being on a separate screen :)
     
    hoolyproductions, Jan 4, 2008
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  8. hollownail

    hollownail Individual 11

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    Hrm, if hooly is correct in his interpretation of what your problem is, then yes he is right. I do not believe OS X has a activate window on hover setting. I'm not sure if it the OS X gui has that ability. It's standard on X Windows and most other Linux GUI's have that option.
     
    hollownail, Jan 4, 2008
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