up vote 5 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I have a Mac mini in a somewhat complex home-theatre setup. Often the Mac won't correctly recognize the TV as a display. The TV will just report "No signal". There are two methods to recover from this state.

  1. Unplug the display cable from the Mac and plug it back in
  2. Sleep the Mac and wake it up again.

Both are a bit cumbersome. Is there any way to force the Mac to re-detect or re-initialize it's displays? I've tried Command-F2 and a couple AppleScripts but nothing seemed to work.

link|improve this question
feedback

3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

In the displays prefplane, there is a checkbox "Show displays in menu bar". If you check it, you get this somewhat strange new icon in the menu bar that has "Detect Displays" as its first option.

link|improve this answer
great solution, thanks! – Harlan Jul 11 '11 at 13:32
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

In the displays prefpane there is a button 'detect displays' (But I'm on a MacBook, not a mini with a TV.)

link|improve this answer
The problem is that I can't see the screen to click the button in the prefpane. I've tried scripting it and binding it to a hotkey but had no success. – amrox Feb 26 '10 at 15:03
Ah... I've been using with secondary monitor - the laptop has it's primary built in. Are you able to plug in a working monitor and get the cursor and/or keyboard focus in position? – Justin Love Feb 26 '10 at 15:45
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

Here is an AppleScript someone wrote for 10.4 which may help you:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=59163&view=findpost&p=457644

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.