I've got a MacBook with a broken display that I'm using as a desktop with an external monitor. My "main" monitor is a Planar 24" 1080p display that works fine with HDMI. However, I have an older 19" AOC monitor/TV that refuses to work with this MacBook. It will display the desktop for about 30 seconds before the display goes black. The blue light stays on, indicating it is still receiving the HDMI signal, and the backlight stays on, but the screen is completely black with no mouse pointer visible.
However, the Displays pref panel can detect it just fine and it will allow me to change resolution and rotation. They have no effect on the black display at all. If I swap the ports/cables going to the displays (one is a native HDMI cable, the other is a Thunderbolt-to-HDMI cable), I get the same result - Planar works fine, AOC goes black. If I connect a PC to the AOC monitor over HDMI it works just fine. The only other input on the AOC is a VGA D-sub connector, but my MacBook has no analog video outputs.
The AOC is a weird resolution (1440x900), but even if I adjust the Display pref panel to a different resolution like 1280x800, it still stays dark. Any idea why this monitor works fine with a PC but my MacBook Pro chokes on it?
EDIT: Got a clue...the AOC is identified as a "Zoran Matrix" by OS X. This thread doesn't look very encouraging: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5036202
However, the Displays pref panel can detect it just fine and it will allow me to change resolution and rotation. They have no effect on the black display at all. If I swap the ports/cables going to the displays (one is a native HDMI cable, the other is a Thunderbolt-to-HDMI cable), I get the same result - Planar works fine, AOC goes black. If I connect a PC to the AOC monitor over HDMI it works just fine. The only other input on the AOC is a VGA D-sub connector, but my MacBook has no analog video outputs.
The AOC is a weird resolution (1440x900), but even if I adjust the Display pref panel to a different resolution like 1280x800, it still stays dark. Any idea why this monitor works fine with a PC but my MacBook Pro chokes on it?
EDIT: Got a clue...the AOC is identified as a "Zoran Matrix" by OS X. This thread doesn't look very encouraging: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5036202
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