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Mac mini late 2012 dual monitors

L

leendertstruik

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 29, 2011
22
2
Hi there,

I have an Mac mini (model late 2012) and an LG 34 inch display and an LG 65 inch TV. Ive tried to connect them both on my Mac mini but it doesnt seem to work correct. What ive tried is:

1. Connect the LG 34 inch display with a thunderbolt cable from the thunderbolt port of the mac mini to the thunderbolt port of the LG display (works perfectly)
2. Connect the LG TV to the HDMI port of the Mac mini (works perfectly)

Then i want to use the tv as a second monitor and connect them both at the same time. Then both screens start to flicker and flash heavily but just a part of both screens. The top part of the TV and the bottom part of the 34 inch monitor.

I also have a LaCie Big disk with 2 thunderbolt ports so i tried to daisy chain both screens. Thunderbolt cable from mac mini to LG monitor, thunderbolt cable from LG monitor to LaCie and mini displayport adapter to HDMI from the Lacie to the LG TV. But its exactly the same problem. Ive searched a lot for a solution but i cant find one. Changed my color profiles, looked ad my spaces in Mission control, reset the VRAM mem of the macmini, booted in safe mode. Nothing seems to help. Hope someone has the solution for me. Thanks in advance
 

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HI: I have two monitors running with absolutely no problems.
an EIZO hooked up thru HDMI and my old Apple cinema thru Thunderbolt port

Cheers Elo
 
Do you have another monitor you could get a hold of to use for a test? If so, i would suggest trying to run the setup with the two monitors and see if that makes any difference. Could not be the problem, but that is a pretty big tv and the mini might be having trouble with the pure size of it. Not to mention the fact that the monitor you have is quite large as well. Again, not positive it's your problem, but it could help.
 
Thanks for helping me to solve this :)
Jep i do have an other monitor, just a small 15 inch one. I connected it and your right, no trouble at all. Maybe the resolution is just to high for the mac mini? Cause when i use "Mirror displays" its working fine and using the resolution of the tv.
I was thinking maybe its the complete different ratio of both screens that cause the problem? It looks like the tv is showing a part of the dock of the main monitor...
 
leendertstruik said:
Thanks for helping me to solve this :)
Jep i do have an other monitor, just a small 15 inch one. I connected it and your right, no trouble at all. Maybe the resolution is just to high for the mac mini? Cause when i use "Mirror displays" its working fine and using the resolution of the tv.
Click to expand...

That was my guess as well. That is a very nice TV so it could very well be just too much for that card in the mini to handle. Either way, glad you have an idea of what's going on.
 
leendertstruik said:
Thanks for helping me to solve this :)
Jep i do have an other monitor, just a small 15 inch one. I connected it and your right, no trouble at all. Maybe the resolution is just to high for the mac mini? Cause when i use "Mirror displays" its working fine and using the resolution of the tv.
I was thinking maybe its the complete different ratio of both screens that cause the problem? It looks like the tv is showing a part of the dock of the main monitor...
Click to expand...

Different ratios shouldn't matter. I've done it before.

My guess is that the 2012 Mini's really only support 2560x1600 on thunderbolt and 1920x1080 on HMDI. That's a total of 6.2M pixels. Your 34" display is almost 5M just in that one alone. My guess is that you are pushing the GPU beyond its limits (at least in OSX)...

What if you output your HDMI connection at 720P to your TV? Does that solve the problem? This is just for checking to see if reducing the pixels being pushed resolves the issue or not (720P really wouldn't be all that useful).
 
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OP:

Could you be "running out of video RAM" ?

This might depend on how much "regular" installed RAM you have.
 
Fishrrman said:
OP:

Could you be "running out of video RAM" ?

This might depend on how much "regular" installed RAM you have.
Click to expand...

Yeah, at 16GB of system RAM, my '12 Mini is allocating 1024MB for video RAM on OSX 10.9.5. I know at 4GB it's less, don't recall if it increases at 8GB[?], maybe to 768.

Driving dual 1920x1080 displays on my setup isn't an issue: one on HDMI >> DVI, one on TB/DP >> DP_HDMI_ADAPTER >> DVI

(Currently running a 1920x1080 and a 1680x1050 while I use the other 1080 on a PC related project :) )
 
@paulrbeers: thanks, i tried different settings on my tv, even as low as 1600x900 but that does not change anything. Then i tried to change the settings of my monitor and as soon as i put it on a resolution of 2048x858 everything is fine and works perfectly, even if the tv on 1080p. As soon as i change my resolution to something higher then 2048x858 it start to get bad again.

@ Fishrrman: i have 16GB of ram, the max for this mac mini (see screenshot)

@D.T.: 16GB of ram, so i cant add anymore
 
Aint that 34" higher resolution than 2560*1600?

I have the same Mini with 16GB and a 2560*1600 on the display port and another 1920*1080 on the HDMI is no problem..

But if you exceed this you will probably run in to trouble..
 
Wahlstrm said:
Aint that 34" higher resolution than 2560*1600?

I have the same Mini with 16GB and a 2560*1600 on the display port and another 1920*1080 on the HDMI is no problem..

But if you exceed this you will probably run in to trouble..
Click to expand...


Jep the resolution is 3440x1440. If i turn it back to 2048x858 then it runs fine but not on full resolution.
 
leendertstruik said:
Jep the resolution is 3440x1440. If i turn it back to 2048x858 then it runs fine but not on full resolution.
Click to expand...

Max support is about 6 mega pixel screen size.
Your setup goes above 7 mega pixels in full resolution.

Your 34" should be able to do 2560x1080 as the 29" 21:9 does.
 
Wahlstrm said:
Max support is about 6 mega pixel screen size.
Your setup goes above 7 mega pixels in full resolution.

Your 34" should be able to do 2560x1080 as the 29" 21:9 does.
Click to expand...

Ok to bad it doesnt support 7 :( Well its not running fine on 2560x1080, only resolution is 2048x858 or lower...
Besides that if i turn of my tv and go back to full resolution on my monitor the same problem start, only a reboot solves it, so everytime i want to use both i need to reboot after, not really practical...
 
leendertstruik said:
Ok to bad it doesnt support 7 :( Well its not running fine on 2560x1080, only resolution is 2048x858 or lower...
Besides that if i turn of my tv and go back to full resolution on my monitor the same problem start, only a reboot solves it, so everytime i want to use both i need to reboot after, not really practical...
Click to expand...

You can always Google "DIY thunderbolt eGPU" and make your self a nice little project :)

I´m in the same boat..
Quite frustrating to have a perfectly fine computer that´s 2,5 y/o and already obsolete when it comes to running a modern display.
 
Wahlstrm said:
You can always Google "DIY thunderbolt eGPU" and make your self a nice little project :)

I´m in the same boat..
Quite frustrating to have a perfectly fine computer that´s 2,5 y/o and already obsolete when it comes to running a modern display.
Click to expand...

haha your gonna do that? If you do, let me know how it goes :)
 
Wahlstrm said:
I was thinking about it but until it comes a more plug-n-play friendly TB-PCI-e case I´ll just watch the the others play :)

But back to your screen. The 34" works OK on it´s own, no issues?
It´s not officially supported so I did´t want to buy one in fear that it would not work..
Click to expand...


Looks pretty awesome, the youtube video :)
Jep screen works perfectly on its own, no issues at all. If i connect it to my 2012 macbook air it works perfectly too. I just wanted to test it so i bought one like a month ago cause the Apple thunderbolt screens are really out of date. Im really happy with it so i decided to keep it :)
 
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