Intel iMac Monitor Problem

[ThkAsBrk]

Esteemed Colleagues,

My workplace has an Intel iMac with a frustrating problem.
Upon booting the machine, the LCD display flashes a proper
view of the login screen for about 1 second
but then goes dark. When an external monitor is attached
the external monitor works perfectly fine -- the
only trouble being that the external monitor is not currently
set to "mirror" so it is impossible to log in and access the
machine. The IT dept at the institute has a monopoly on
repair of computers and so the quick answer -- take it to
Apple is not all that easy.

Is there a way to:

1) set the iMac to mirror display upon booting up by some
clever key combination?
2) set the machine to mirror by remote access and command
line methods?
3) mirror by changing something using target mode?
4) or the obvious...somehow login using the real estate
provided by the external monitor.

Also has anyone seen this problem with iMac displays?


An Intel iMac I think 2.16 Intel Core 2 Duo processor running Tiger.

Thank You

 

[TEG]

The first suggestion I would give would be to restart holding the "shift" key. This will take some time. Then restart.

Does the login screen have you enter a user name and password, or is it with icons that expand with a password field? If the former, can you not simply enter user name - tab - password - enter to login. Then bring up the Monitor Preference Pane by using Option-Brightness. Then try to change to mirroring either by the window that shows up on the second screen, or by attempting to find the hidden window and drag in onto the working screen.

TEG

 

[ThkAsBrk]

Tried Safe

I tried to boot using safe mode...fine but there
is still no way to access the login dialog box.
(Safe mode does not fix this -- likely to be
hardware related?)

We have the iMac set up for User icon/password
which makes it hard to just blindly click on
an icon and hope to log in.

When I boot up the machine there is a split
second in which the log-in window is visible
but it is too short to see where the cursor
is and click a specific icon...I have tried.

Again, no way to control mirroring remotely?


Thank You

 

[TEG]

Not really. But if it is the icons, you should be able to start typing the user name and it will be selected, then hit enter, then enter the password and hit enter again.

Also, if you can get a hold of the Hardware test Disc you may be able to test the hardware. Or if you are still under Apple Care, calling Apple may be a better solution to troubleshooting the problem and making sure it is a hardware problem. Then you can tell the IT department and they can get it fixed.

TEG

 

[fcanas]

"Again, no way to control mirroring remotely?"

Here's a tool that could help the problem, although hopefully you have resolved this in some other way by now. It might be useful to those looking for help in the future though.

MirrorDisplays