MacBook – MBP 2011: external displays not detected automatically

displaymacbook pro

My late-2011 13" MacBook Pro generally doesn't automatically detect external displays. At work or at home, I plug it to either a 23" Cinema Display (2005) or a 24" LG display using a Mini DisplayPort / DVI adapter.

Sometimes auto-detection of the display works out-of-the-box (notably, the first time I plug a display after a reboot), but most of the time I need to manually click "Detect Displays" in system preferences.

My two monitors work perfectly, my MDP/DVI adapter works too (confirmed by cross-testing with other Macs, other displays, other adapters). The problem only comes from my MacBook.

Does anyone experiences the same issue?

  • Model: 13" MacBookPro8,1 (late-2011)
  • MacOS: 10.7.3 (11D50 — problem occurs since 10.7.0)
  • Graphics card: Intel HD Graphics 3000
  • Software that might affect the issue: iScreen 3.0.0 (even though the problem also occurs with iScreen uninstalled).

Best Answer

I solved that problem by connecting HDMI cable to another input of my external display. I don't know exactly what's the difference but it works for me.