OT: Severe Mac Mini problem

[Thomas McGrath III]

Terry,

This could be one of two things. Either the mini does not have enough 
vram to handle the larger projector requirements and as such will not 
display at the larger size no matter what you do OR because of the way 
it is being connected the mini keeps defaulting to a lower resolution 
and you don't have any 'visual' way of changing it back once connected.
If it is the first way you should call an apple store near you and find 
out how much vram is in the mini and if you can upgrade it.
But, if it is the second issue then I would plugin the projector first 
and then boot up the mini and see if that does it in that order. (I 
assume you have tried a few ways and you may have tried this already. I 
have a G4 laptop and if I plugin in a projector that is 'already on' 
into my laptop 'then' turn on the laptop with the lid closed it 
defaults to the outside projector and after it is booted up my screen 
on my laptop is not even on. This way the video card is saying hey we 
got something connected that is not our monitor so let's just use that. 
- this saves memory in my laptop and actually gives me higher 
resolutions to use. Sometimes I have to hit the reset all button on my 
projector to get it to re-cycle through the available ports ( video A 
and or B/ S video/  computer 1/ computer 2/ etc.) or I can hit the 
'port' source selection button to cycle through them). Whereas if I 
turn the mac on first then plugin the projector it will 'always' try to 
use both and that can only happen if I have enough vram to drive both. 
I do have enough memory but some projectors require more than others 
and as such some of my bigger ram hungry apps do not want to display as 
well and then I do this and just use the projector and it's 
requirements. )

I do not know if the mini can do this since it is not a laptop but it 
is worth a try before spending the money on the vram. Also, as a side 
note it could be that your PRAM is keeping the 'old' size stored and 
you might want to try resetting the pram and see if that works. To 
reset your pram you would hit ⌘ + Option + P + R upon startup of the 
mini.

Try this series of events in order (exactly):
Mini - Off
Projector - Off
Cable - disconnected

Turn on projector
connect cable
turn on mini
wait (long enough for projector's internal memory to retry the 
connection - or if you have access to the projector then cycle through 
the video/computer port selection buttons until you get back to (I 
assume) Computer one (1) and the projector should say something like 
connecting or resolving port etc.)
(if it works your done)
if not then turn them all off and disconnect the cables ( there is a 
low voltage over the cable that tells the projector to do certain 
things on startup)
then
turn on mini reset pram while doing this
connect cable for projector
turn on projector
wait (long enough for projector's internal memory to retry the 
connection - or if you have access to the projector then cycle through 
the video/computer port selection buttons until you get back to (I 
assume) Computer one (1) and the projector should say something like 
connecting or resolving port etc.)
(if this works your done)
if not then hit F7 or fn-F7 to see if mirroring is on or off.
if it still does not work then turn everything off again.
but leave cables connected
wait 10
turn on computer
wait 10
turn on projector
wait 10 (long enough for projector's internal memory to retry the 
connection - or if you have access to the projector then cycle through 
the video/computer port selection buttons until you get back to (I 
assume) Computer one (1) and the projector should say something like 
connecting or resolving port etc.)
(hit F7 or fn-F7)
Still nothing? Then turn everything off but leave cables connected 
again.
wait 10
turn on projector (long enough for projector's internal memory to retry 
the connection - or if you have access to the projector then cycle 
through the video/computer port selection buttons until you get back to 
(I assume) Computer one (1) and the projector should say something like 
connecting or resolving port etc.)
wait 20
turn on computer (Reset PRAM  again)
wait 20
(hit F7 fn-F7)
Still nothing? If the system starts to show and then switches 
resolutions again then you probably do not have enough vram to support 
the higher resolution for this particular projector and you should 
upgrade that.

HTH
Tom (who has hooked up hundreds of projectors with different macs and 
pcs for over 15 years now and seen all kinds of crazy things)

On Mar 14, 2005, at 12:39 AM, Terry Vogelaar (de Mare) wrote:

> But then it detects the unknown screen and defaults to the unsupported 
> 800x600 resolution, so the screen turns blue. Because the Mac Mini 
> only can use 1 screen at a time, I couldn't think of a way to change 
> the settings without being able to see the screen.

Thomas J. McGrath III
SCS
1000 Killarney Dr.
Pittsburgh, PA 15234
412-885-8541