I’ve had a Dell 3008WFP for a few years now, connected to my home Mac with a DVI-D cable, and it’s been running just dandy.
So, when I bought a new Macbook Pro for work, I didn’t mind so much that the new video connector was mini-displayport, thus obsoleting my drawer-full of macbook->{various} display converters, because the 3008WFP comes with a kosher displayport connector, that was of no earthly use when I bought it, but means I don’t have to buy Apple’s *very* expensive mini displayport -> Dual Link DVI converter.
So, I bought from ebay a 3-in-1 mini-displayport to HDMI / (single-link) DVI and Displayport converter. The DVI is only good for 1920×1200 resolution – you need either dual-link DVI or displayport for the full 2560×1600. So I plug the connector into it, use the (very robust looking) dell displayport lead and….. 640×480, maximum. Gah!
Cue much faffing with SwitchResX, learning about display EDID settings and… no further forward. There’s forum postings elsewhere of similar issues, sometimes with corrupted EDIDs, but this wasn’t the case here.
Once, and once only, did the mac offer me 800×600 – I thought it might have been a fluke or a magic setting after playing with DisplayResX, but I could get no further. Sigh. Perhaps the Dell implementation was too early to be properly compatible.
On a last resort, I tried a new, single mini-displayport to displayport adapter – (not very expensive from Lambdatek). Aaaand – boom – full resolution offered. The 3-in-1 is obviously a bit too shonky to work at the resolutions required.
So – if you’re googling with a similar problem and have gotten to here – it’s worth trying a new cable !
