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I have a Philips 222E display connected via a mini-DP (mini-DisplayPort) to DVI adapter and DVI cable to a MacBook Air (mid-2011).

Every time that the MacBook Air wakes from sleep, the display shows this static:

enter image description here

The static is replaced with the proper desktop image after around 20 seconds, or after a power cycling the display (which could take only 10 seconds but is highly annoying just the same.)

Things I tried and their results:

  1. A different display (LG) - no static.
  2. A different computer (Mac Mini) - no static.
  3. Different adapter and DVI cable - static remains.
  4. When booting the MacBook Air (not rebooting) - no static.
  5. When disconnecting and reconnecting the 222E to the MacBook Air - no static.
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  • I've seen this as well with my MacBook Pro, but rarely. I disconnect and reconnect the display cable. As you say, it's annoying. Apr 27, 2012 at 14:48
  • disconnecting and reconnecting causes the arrangement of windows across displays to get screwed up, so it's out of the question for me (far more severe than a few seconds of annoyance)
    – GJ.
    Apr 27, 2012 at 16:03
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    I see this as well with a Mac mini late 2012 on an external display connected with a Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adaptor (and I don’t see it on my other monitor connected via HDMI->DVI). This isn’t a fix, but an easy way to restart the displays without reconnecting them is with the keyboard shortcut Command-Control-Eject, then press any key or click the mouse. Nov 26, 2012 at 3:37
  • I have the same issue with a MBPr'2014 and a Samsung SyncMaster P2570 monitor. I do not have this issue with a different monitor (Dell 2410 if I recall correctly). AppleCare says they're "reporting the issue to engineering, and also recommend reporting the issue to Samsung" Aug 19, 2014 at 13:40
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    Weirdly, the shortcut is actually Control-Shift-Eject. I don’t know why I posted Command-Control-Eject, but I don’t think that’s actually a thing. I’m glad it was helpful to you, though, @Giacomo1968! Feb 29 at 15:26

4 Answers 4

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I've been investigating a little bit and would be good for you to have a try with this steps. The steps are written for a different type of display, but you can get the idea:

  • Under "SIZE & POSITION" menu, go to "Image Size" and set to "Screen Fit"

  • Under "SETUP & RESET" menu (down on the second page with my model), go to "Auto Source" and set to "Manual"

  • Finally,still under the same "SETUP & RESET" menu page, go to "PC/AV Mode" and set to "AV"

Bingo! Now when the computer wakes up from sleep, the screens are going back on like a charm!

Here's the source:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/13221480#13221480

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I have this same wake from sleep problem with an M2 Mac Mini connected to a 1080p DVI monitor via an HDMI-DVI cable. I tried 2 cables.

A temporary hack was to press the Esc key to make the screen black. Then press any other key to wake the screen.

A more permanent solution was switching to a USB-C DVI cable. I used a 4 ft one from UPGROW. So I would suggest using the Thunderbolt or USB-C ports on the Mac instead of HDMI.

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  • This question is about a MacBook Air (mid-2011) so there aren’t any Thunderbolt/USB-C ports. There are USB-A (USB 2.0) ports and an old school Thunderbolt port; but nothing like a USB-C form factor. Feb 24 at 22:52
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According to Zev Eisenberg’s comment from 2012:

 “I see this as well with a Mac mini late 2012 on an external display connected with a Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adaptor (and I don’t see it on my other monitor connected via HDMI->DVI). This isn’t a fix, but an easy way to restart the displays without reconnecting them is with the keyboard shortcut Command-Control-Eject, then press any key or click the mouse.”

Further clarified 12 (!!!) years later in a follow up comment in 2024:

“Weirdly, the shortcut is actually Control-Shift-Eject. I don’t know why I posted Command-Control-Eject, but I don’t think that’s actually a thing.”

Knowing that, that is a clean way to toggle display sleep from your Mac’s keyboard. As clearly stated in Apple’s official “Mac keyboard shortcuts” documentation:

ControlShiftPower button* or ControlShiftMedia Eject : Put your displays to sleep.”
(The * is noted as “* Does not apply to the Touch ID sensor.”)

I assume the first keyboard combination is for Apple Silicon-based Macs and second keyboard combination is for Intel-based Macs, but the general idea is the same: Put your displays to sleep and then wake it up and the static should be gone.

Why it happens? No idea. But I can tell you from my personal experience, this used to happen to me regularly on my Intel-based Mac mini which was connected to a Samsung 23" display and I wish I knew this trick then; I had to physically disconnect the HDMI cable for the display to reset when this used to happen.

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I had similar issues (exactly the same static problems) with a device that did not support HDCP negotiation (High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) properly whenever I woke the device up from standby (in my case a Sky+/BenQ monitor combination).

So what's the cause of static? As per this site (though I copy only for the HDCP explanation I appreciate it's not relevant to your devices):

If HDCP is not detected

If HDCP authentication does not succeed, you may see one of the following symptoms:

  • A message may appear on your television stating "This content requires HDCP for playback. HDCP isn't supported by your HDMI connection."

  • You may see periodic bands of static, or full screen static, flashing across your TV screen.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201310

I think when you resume from sleep it doesn't do a full HDCP negotiation again.. but power-cycling the display forces it to.

HDCP can be fraught with all sorts of weird incompatibility issues:

Anyway, the new TV apparently keeps the HDMI connection active when it's powered off; but, it doesn't keep the HDCP handshake active. So, TiVo sees that as a bad HDMI connection, and refuses to show any video signal except for an HDMI error; this shows up on the TV that's connected by component cables. I can get video over component if I turn the TV on or if I unplug the main TV so that the HDMI connection is not at all active, but in the main TV's power-off mode all I get over component is the HDMI warning message.

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/166-lcd-flat-panel-displays/1432643-hdcp-hdmi-power-standby-mode-suggestions.html

It's hard to say which is not following HDCP negotiation properly, but it sounds like either Apple or the monitor manufacturer need to update their HDCP software (check the Philips site for a software/firmware upgrade at least?) to be more compatible with eachother and sometimes the adapters can complicate things too so try to stick with the ports the device expects to see the connections on.

There are HDCP strippers that will fake HDCP authentication so you can then plug into devices that may not support it correctly, but I'm not sure whether it's appropriate to discuss these on this site.

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