External monitor attached to MacBook takes a long time to turn on

I've got a MacBook Pro with a 19" LCD (HPL1906) connected with the dvi-to-vga connector. The Mac is my secondary machine, so I don't have an external keyboard/mouse connected directly to the Mac; I'm using synergy through my primary Windows machine. I've got the Mac set up to wake on lan, so when it's sleeping, I can wake it up from my Windows machine. Synergy will then connect to it within a few seconds, but the external monitor can take up to ten minutes to turn on. During that time, the light on the monitor is flashing, but nothing shows on the screen. When it eventually does come up, it auto adjusts, and then it's fine. I've tried plugging in external devices (like a mouse) during this time, and unplugging/replugging the monitor cable, and sometimes that will work, but not every time. Any ideas why it takes so long to turn on?

Edit: Sometimes if I plug something in to the USB ports - like an external mouse, or an iPad - the monitor will come up within 30 seconds or so, but not every time.

Matt McMinn

Posted 2010-08-17T14:21:23.903

Reputation: 225

Answers

It sounds like the problematic monitor is at it's end. In other words, it's going bad and before long it won't turn on at all. My monitor burnt out a few months ago and it progressively got worse until nothing would appear on the screen at all.

Have you tried the monitor in a normal set up to make sure the monitor itself works properly?

Thomas B.

Posted 2010-08-17T14:21:23.903

Reputation: 410

Yes, in a normal setup connected to either another laptop, or my desktop, it seems to be acting just fine - turns on ok, etc. It's quite possible that it is going bad though, it's about 5 years old now. The second monitor (same model, same age) is working fine though (even though that doesn't mean anything). – Matt McMinn – 2010-08-24T13:05:54.463

Well if it's that old it's not too hard to believe that it's acting flaky like it is. Do you have another monitor you can try in the problematic setup? – Thomas B. – 2010-08-24T16:10:47.740

I did try another monitor, which worked fine, so I think I'm going with busted monitor - or at least soon-to-be-busted. Thanks! – Matt McMinn – 2010-08-25T16:11:32.453

Have you tried using the DVI connector of the monitor for the Macbook if the problem persists? Amazon says it has DVI.

Since the monitor has multiple inputs, do you have it on "auto select" and it just takes ages to check for VGA input? My Samsungs toggle between input every few seconds, maybe your screen doesn't?

Daniel Beck

Posted 2010-08-17T14:21:23.903

Reputation: 98 421