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alphaod

macrumors Core
Original poster
Feb 9, 2008
22,191
1,255
NYC
So I have a Mac mini set up with Windows 7 only and then I have that connected to a 27" iMac with the miniDP cable.

At first, during installation, I have no issues; Windows is installed and drivers are done... reboot.

I start seeing artifacts, especially in dark areas (little sparkling pixels of colors--kind of like white noise except it's not everywhere and this is in color), also every few seconds the screen would flicker, and occasionally the screen would change to where the bottom of the be on top (hard to explain, but imagine a movie where the frame isn't centered and you can see the bottom of the previous frame and the top of the current one). I figured it was an issue with the iMac, so I switched back to the iMac and there are no issues. I switch back to the Mac mini and screen is still messed up.

After reinstalling drivers and doing a bunch of troubleshooting, I couldn't find a solution; it even had these issue during the boot menu (where you choose the start-up disk). At that point I redid everything and it was not working.

Finally I joked to myself that the cable was directional (it shouldn't be), but after changing directions, now everything fine! No more flickering, messed display, or pixellation. I switch it back the other way and issues again. So right now I have the cable connected the right way... all is good right? Not really (hence all this).

My resolution is stuck at 1280x720 (which is exactly a quarter resolution). How do I fix this? Pretty much a cable direction swap allows for higher resolutions, but causes the display artifacts.
 
why are you trying to use a brand new 27" imac as an external monitor for a mac mini?.... this makes no sense at all.... I don't think the apple engineers accounted for this.... er... why don't you use your mini via target mode and use the imacs power to do whatever you need to do?
 
why are you trying to use a brand new 27" imac as an external monitor for a mac mini?.... this makes no sense at all.... I don't think the apple engineers accounted for this.... er... why don't you use your mini via target mode and use the imacs power to do whatever you need to do?

Server?
 
why are you trying to use a brand new 27" imac as an external monitor for a mac mini?.... this makes no sense at all.... I don't think the apple engineers accounted for this.... er... why don't you use your mini via target mode and use the imacs power to do whatever you need to do?

Because my parents need a Windows computer for some programs and teaching them how to use Parallels desktop is not as easy as pressing Cmd+F2 to switch between the two computers.

Plus the Mac mini was already sitting in the box doing nothing.
 
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