Vagaries of Apple's DVI-to-ADC adapter

[Apologies for the bad formatting/wrapping in the original message.
I'm resending with corrected formatting...]

Today at work I finally started the process of actually moving my
data/life from the desktop G5 to the MBP. Along with this comes:

   1] External keyboard/trackball
   2] 20" Apple Cinema Display, with ADC (thank you Steve for that blasted albatross)
   3] Brand-new DVI-to-ADC adapter.
    <http://www.apple.com/lae/displays/adapter/>

My ultimate goal is to have the MBP on the desk, lid down,
effectively working as a desktop. According to the procedure on
Apple's site, this should be a piece of cake. But it doesn't take.
With everything plugged in and the lid down, the MBP wakes up on
click, just like it should. But the external display never lights up.
   <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86286>

According to the adapter's compatibility matrix, I should be good to go.
   <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75286>

Any ideas? I have a feeling there's some switching in the adapter
that doesn't light up correctly when the MBP wakes up and looks to
see who's out there.

Thanks,
Andrew

--
Andrew Laurence
atlaurenuci.edu

Andrew Laurence wrote:
> Today at work I finally started the process of actually moving my
> data/life from the desktop G5 to the MBP. Along with this comes:
>
> 1] External keyboard/trackball
> 2] 20" Apple Cinema Display, with ADC (thank you Steve for that
> blasted albatross)
> 3] Brand-new DVI-to-ADC adapter.
> <http://www.apple.com/lae/displays/adapter/>
>
> My ultimate goal is to have the MBP on the desk, lid down,
> effectively working as a desktop. According to the procedure on
> Apple's site, this should be a piece of cake. But it doesn't take.
> With everything plugged in and the lid down, the MBP wakes up on
> click, just like it should. But the external display never lights up.
> <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86286>
>
> According to the adapter's compatibility matrix, I should be good to go.
> <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75286>
>
> Any ideas? I have a feeling there's some switching in the adapter
> that doesn't light up correctly when the MBP wakes up and looks to
> see who's out there.

Does your ADC connected display have a separate power cord or just the display cord? If the later then the display gets its power via the ADC connector. And the adapter you have doesn't supply such power. I think Dr. Bott sold one. Others likely also. But at $100 or so (maybe much less now) you might consider a new flat panel display.

David Ross

At 3:07 AM -0800 2/19/08, David Ross wrote:
>> 3] Brand-new DVI-to-ADC adapter.
>> <http://www.apple.com/lae/displays/adapter/>
>>
>Does your ADC connected display have a separate power cord or just the
>display cord? If the later then the display gets its power via the ADC
>connector. And the adapter you have doesn't supply such power. I think Dr.
>Bott sold one. Others likely also. But at $100 or so (maybe much less now)
>you might consider a new flat panel display.

        I am pretty sure all ADC displays got their power from the display
cord. The linked page says "The Apple DVI to ADC Adapter comes with a power
supply, power cord and a 2-meter DVI/USB cable." and the tech specs seem to
give it output of 90W.



--
* Johann Beda - contact link: <http://xri.net/=j-beda> *
* Johann's MostlyMac Computer Consulting - <http://mmcc.beda.ca/> *

>Does your ADC connected display have a separate power cord or just
>the display cord?

Yes. The picture at Apple's site doesn't include the separate power
cord, but it has one.
<http://www.apple.com/lae/displays/adapter/>

>If the later then the display gets its power via the ADC connector.
>And the adapter you have doesn't supply such power. I think Dr. Bott
>sold one. Others likely also.

The Apple one is about $100.
<http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=7E4EB91E&nplm=M8661LL/B>

>But at $100 or so (maybe much less now) you might consider a new
>flat panel display.

Yeah, I'm starting to think that.

--
Andrew Laurence
atlaurenuci.edu

On Feb 19, 2008, at 6:07 AM, David Ross wrote:

> Andrew Laurence wrote:
>> Today at work I finally started the process of actually moving my
>> data/life from the desktop G5 to the MBP. Along with this comes:
>>
>> 1] External keyboard/trackball
>> 2] 20" Apple Cinema Display, with ADC (thank you Steve for that
>> blasted albatross)
>> 3] Brand-new DVI-to-ADC adapter.
>> <http://www.apple.com/lae/displays/adapter/>
>>
>> My ultimate goal is to have the MBP on the desk, lid down,
>> effectively working as a desktop. According to the procedure on
>> Apple's site, this should be a piece of cake. But it doesn't take.
>> With everything plugged in and the lid down, the MBP wakes up on
>> click, just like it should. But the external display never lights up.
>> <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86286>

I followed these instructions and they worked for me (MBP circa Dec
'06, 22'-23" Apple Cinema Display not sure which, w/ ADC, same
adapter, keyboard and mouse plugged into display).

It also works if I bring it into the office asleep, connect the DVI
part of the adapter to the MBP then connect then connect the USB
part. As soon as I insert the USB, the MBP wakes up and I get my
screensaver login prompt on the Cinema Display. There are weird
artifacts on the bottom and right where the resolution of the Display
is greater than the MBP's internal screen but as soon as I login, the
artifacts go away.

This is not what I normally do. I use extended desktop so I connect
the DVI, open & wake the MBP, then connect the USB. I don't really
like the big bezel, the "Graphite" era design of the Display, or
having to use the ADC adapter but it's too large and good a screen to
get rid of just for those reasons. If it were "only" a 20" Display,
I'd probably replace it.


>> According to the adapter's compatibility matrix, I should be good
>> to go.
>> <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75286>
>>
>> Any ideas? I have a feeling there's some switching in the adapter
>> that doesn't light up correctly when the MBP wakes up and looks to
>> see who's out there.
>
> Does your ADC connected display have a separate power cord or just
> the display cord? If the later then the display gets its power via
> the ADC connector.

Don't they all? Wasn't the point of ADC to bundle video, power, and
USB in one cable?

> And the adapter you have doesn't supply such power.

Yes it does. The picture on the Apple page doesn't show it but if you
look at the specs on that page (or when I look at the adapter under
my desk) there's an AC adapter.
http://www.apple.com/lae/displays/adapter/

At 10:51 AM -0800 2/19/08, Curtis Wilcox wrote:
>It also works if I bring it into the office asleep, connect the DVI
>part of the adapter to the MBP then connect then connect the USB
>part. As soon as I insert the USB, the MBP wakes up and I get my
>screensaver login prompt on the Cinema Display. There are weird
>artifacts on the bottom and right where the resolution of the Display
>is greater than the MBP's internal screen but as soon as I login, the
>artifacts go away.

Interesting. Your sequence (DVI then USB) is different than Apple's
(USB then DVI). Further, you have your mouse/keyboard plugged into
the monitor, which causes my keyboard to lock up. I suspect my
mouse/keyboard problem is due to the Kinesis keyboard. (My trackball
is plugged into the keyboard's internal hub, so that might also be a
factor.)

When I follow your sequence, I get farther along. This time the
display actually lights up, with the blue "I'm figuring things out"
screen. Alas, it ultimately blanks out and I'm back to square one.

Man, what a pain. How much are new monitors, again?

--
Andrew Laurence
atlaurenuci.edu

An update, and a solution (sort of).

A sharp-eyed colleage correctly surmised that I'd recently installed
10.5.2, and the Leopard Graphics Update 1.0. It seems that there's a
widespread problem with the Leopard Graphics Update 1.0 and external
displays -- displays often don't display at their correct resolution.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1389791
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=432417

I'd installed 10.5.2 and the Leopard Graphics Update 1.0 several days
ago, prior to attempting clamshell mode with the external display.
Given this timeline, I was focused on the hardware aspects and hadn't
considered that software drivers might be getting in the way.

Some folks have used Archive/Install to retro-grade back to 10.5.1,
or 10.5.2 *without* the Leopard Graphics update. Others report that
zapping the PRAM righted things. Others report that using 'Detect
Displays" and calibrating both displays sets things right again.

I followed this suggested procedure:
[1] Shutdown MacBook Pro.
[2] Plug in external display, keyboard, etc.
[3] Power on, close lid immediately (before the startup bong).
Result: Clamshell mode works!

Subsequent testing shows that I can now sleep the MBP, remove
external devices and it correctly wakes and uses the internal
display. It also now correctly recognizes the external devices on
wake, and goes into clamshell mode.

I suspect that forcing it to boot with the lid down is akin to the
PRAM/Detect Displays/calibrate dance, as both routes effectively
force the MBP to probe and figure out its current hardware resources.

Thanks to everyone for the help and suggestions!

--
Andrew Laurence
atlaurenuci.edu

Getting a MBP to work with an external monitor or a digital projector is a nasty experience that Apple seems to be blithely ignoring. It crops up independently of whether 10.4 or 10.5 is installed. There's a thread in the apple discussion forums that deals with it:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=951282

I've got a Dr. Bott gHead II adapter on order - hopefully that will solve the problem. I've yet to hear a good explanation as to why the problem occurs, much less anything from Apple suggesting they're got a solution. Which is more than mildly annoying.

Cheers,

Steve Wickham