Installing A Widescreen LCD Monitor (with DVI) on Mac OS X and Windows XP: a HOWTO Guide

Printed 9-Feb-2007
Updated 11-April-2009

Some things should be simple. Other things just... aren't made properly. I've got over 20 years of experience with computers, dating back to 1982. I like simplicity, thanks. I'd also like to think that I understand a thing or two on computer hardware and software, and how they work together in the practical world. But enough about me... I'm here to talk about how those simple things sometimes aren't so simple at all. Two examples, one simple and one not.

I bought a new widescreen 22" LCD monitor with a DVI connector from Samsung, and when it arrived I was very excited to plug it in and start using it. My typical environment, for the purposes of this article, consists of at least three computers: an Apple Macbook Pro laptop (Core Dual 2.0Ghz), a Thinkpad T42 laptop running Windows XP (1.8Ghz Pentium-M), and a standard server running OpenBSD. Okay, let's get started. The simple way goes first.

EXAMPLE 1: OS X

Installing a DVI monitor on my Apple Macbook Pro (very easy)

Step 1: plug in the monitor and DVI cable.

First I made sure the monitor power was plugged in. I plugged the DVI cable into my Mac, and it instantly sensed the monitor. The screen on the Macbook Pro flashed for about a second, and then my new 22" LCD came to life.

Apple automatically set the resolution to 1680x1050, exactly what it should have been. So I started using the new monitor and continued on with my day. Hurray! On the Mac, there is no step two...

Update: if you have any problems on the Mac, it will be because of video memory. If you don't have enough video RAM, you probably have an older Mac (pre-Intel version, most likely) and won't be able to display the full resolution. There's not much you can do about it except upgrade your video card or buy a newer Mac.

EXAMPLE 2: Windows XP

Installing a DVI monitor with Microsoft Windows XP (a long, frustrating, and annoying experience)

I honestly thought it would be almost as easy as the Mac - what a fool I am! But don't let me get ahead of myself... here is step-by-step what I had to do to get this monitor working properly on that business operating system, Windows XP.

Step 1: Plug in the monitor & DVI cable.

This is the same thing I did with the Mac. It was the only step required to get the Mac working; I didn't even need to change the resolution of the screen. With Windows, I plugged the DVI connector in and nothing happened. Of course, I needed to now select the external display on the Thinkpad, so I did this. The Thinkpad even has a nice little wizard to walk me through this. I selected the external display, told the wizard to use the DVI connector, and tried to set the resolution... but 1680x1050 wasn't available as an option, so I just clicked next. My new 22" LCD monitor did power up, but the screen looked all fuzzy and it wasn't the proper resolution. I went into the Windows Display Properties inside the Control Panel and tried to select the proper resolution, but the closest I could find was 1600x1200. Hmm, I must need a driver to enable the correct resolution.

Step 2: Install the monitor's driver.

The monitor came with a CD-ROM for Windows containing a special driver. Great. Of course, my Mac didn't even need any driver disk, but no matter... it only takes a minute to install a driver, right? Hmm... not always. I put in the disc and the installation program ran automatically. I selected which type of monitor I have from the list, and the driver seemed to install fine. Then I went to the Display Properties inside the Control Panel again, but I still couldn't use 1680x1050, the native resolution of my monitor. So, it was time to reboot.

Step 3: Reboot.

I rebooted Windows, which took about five minutes, and waited for the display to come up properly, now that my new monitor's driver was installed. It didn't come up properly. The screen was still fuzzy, and the resolution was all wrong (something like 1024x768 on the LCD monitor).

Step 4. Check your settings.

I went back into the Display Properties inside the Control Panel and tried to select a resolution of 1680x1050, which is the native resolution of my monitor. The closest option was still 1600x1200. I clicked Advanced and manually checked that the driver was installed, and that Windows was using the new driver. It was. So it made no sense to my why I couldn't select the proper resolution. I thought that perhaps the DVI connector on my laptop wasn't working properly (because the DVI connector is only found on the Docking Station, and not on the laptop itself)... so I removed the laptop from the docking station and connected it to the analog VGA port. I then told the monitor to use VGA instead of DVI, for my testing purposes, and the screen came up but was still blurry. So, what to do?

Step 5. Re-install driver, trying the VGA one.

With my new configuration using the analog VGA, I reinstalled the driver that came with the monitor. This time I selected the analog VGA option, and the driver installed fine. But I still couldn't select 1680x1050 in the Display Properties, so I thought maybe I need to reboot again.

Step 6. Reboot (again).

I rebooted using the new VGA driver, the VGA connector, and no docking station, and expected the monitor to come up in the proper resolution this time. It did not. Five minutes later, after it finished booting, I went into the Display Properties again, but still couldn't see 1680x1050 as the possible resolution. It was at this point that I knew the problem had to be somewhere else. Having wasted quite a bit of time on this already, I went back to my Mac and got some work done. I'd look at the Windows Problem again later, when I had more time.

Step 7. Search for new video card drivers.

Hours later, I had more time to look into this problem. I thought it might be the video card... so I went onto IBM's website and looked for new video card drivers. Sure enough, there was a slightly never version of the driver available. I had to first find the version already installed (available through IBM's Thinkpad Configuration tool), and compared this to the one on the website. The update didn't specifically mention additional support for DVI monitors, but I thought I'd install it anyway.

Step 8. Download new video card driver, install, and reboot (again).

This step didn't take a long time, it was just annoying. I downloaded and installed the new video card driver, and then rebooted - which took about five minutes. In the meantime, I made myself a cup of tea. Finally, I thought I was onto something.

Step 9. Reinstall monitor driver.

With the new video card drivers installed and working, I thought Windows would boot up into the proper resolution this time. But silly me. Remember, to test the problem of why it wasn't working, I had also installed the VGA driver for my monitor, and Windows was expecting to use that. So when Windows came up and my monitor looked fuzzy, I reinstalled the monitor driver (a third time, now). Probably I didn't need to reinstall the driver yet again, but I wanted to do it again with the DVI driver, just be sure... one can never take drivers for granted. Then I went into the Control Panel and the Display Properties to manually select first the correct monitor (DVI), and finally, select the proper resolution of 1680x1050. It worked!!

Step 10. Take a stress break.

After hours of work and three reboots later, my PC finally worked properly with my new 22" LCD widescreen monitor. After so much frustration of hunting down the problem, I needed a break.

A quick recap

On my Mac, which was about one year old, I just plugged in the monitor and it worked first time. No reboots, no need to manually select anything. In about one minute, I was done.

Only my PC, which was about two years old, I simply followed the above ten steps, and over the course of about five hours and three reboots later, it worked. As I stated at the beginning, I've got many years of computer experience behind me. All my friends call me when they have computer problems with their PCs. I just shudder to think how the average person would have been able to do all of the above on their own PC (without the help of one or two support people). Some things should just be simple... not Windows-style complex and frustrating. Sheesh.

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