macbook pro issues - bootcamp, ati and external monitors
In my new role as a Developer Evangelist working on web technologies for designers and developers, I thought it would be a good idea to break the typical Microsoft techy mold and not have a beefy laptop or tablet to do demos and presentations on. I have decided to use an Apple, a MacBook Pro running Windows XP SP2 thanks to Bootcamp. There, I said it and I don't feel dirty or ashamed inside the walls of MSFT - hopefully it will turn some heads at the next MSDN event I speak at or attend! Blogger extraordinaire Steve Clayton spotted someone walking the halls of MS UK campus with a Mac in a Gucci bag - Gucci is so last season - I use a Crumpler messenger bag to take my new shiny machine about campus.
Anyway, been using it and enjoying the size, speed and weight of the machine for a few weeks with only minor niggles in terms of the hardware/software nuances - one in particular was a show stopper for a future MSDN presenter - I couldn't get my screen to easily push out to an external monitor. Thanks to a fellow MBP owner and our new User eXperience Evangelist (UXE), Jon Harris, we managed to find an elegant workaround - install Catalyst Control Centre from ATI and create profiles for each monitor/situation you may come across for me:
Steps I took to replicate the solution:
1. Plug in an external monitor
2. Open up the standard Windows Display Control Panel (Right-click desktop > Properties). Turn on extended desktop for the second monitor
3. Click Advanced to open up the ATI control panel
4. Click the Displays tab, there should be 4 images on this screen in a 2x2 grid - top left needs to be turned off, top right needs to be turned on and set to monitor 2, bottom left needs to be set to internal display, bottom right needs to be turned off. Extended desktop should now work.
5. Go to ATI and download the Catalyst Control Center package from here. I had issues with drivers and it didn't work perfectly and had a look around ATI and Apple's support sites and there is a version of the CCC with _mobile_ in the download file name - used this and it worked fine.
6. In the CCC>Advanced, there is a Display Manager which allows you to set up a variety of screen set-ups. You can extend, clone, set resolutions on both monitors and force resolutions (which is handy for me with a 1920x1200 Dell widescreen monitor at home)
Hopefully this may be useful for other MacBook Bootcamp users out there...