Recently, I bought an Apple MacMini (late 2014), which is the latest version. Out of necessity, I’m forced to use 2 monitors. I have 2 Philips Brilliance 239C monitors.
The biggest problem, as shown in the image below, is that the MacMini only has one HDMI port and no VGA port (old adapter trick). Genius solution: buy a MiniDisplay Port (Thunderbolt) to HDMI adapter… This problem can also affect MacBook Pro and MacBook Air users.
Masterstroke. I have 1 HDMI + 2 Thunderbolts: you can connect up to 3 monitors! And indeed, it works. I bought the adapter on Mercado Livre, and 5 days later I had my new MacMini and its 2 monitors “working.” Nice! I went to lunch, and when I came back—
Dude! Not cool. When I woke my Mac from lunch nap, my screen came back like this. It’s the famous “flicker” or “flickering,” in the good and ol’ english: a damn annoying screen flicker!
I didn’t know if it was The Matrix or War of the Worlds, but the fact is it wasn’t fun. I fiddled with the cables, swapped the adapter (bought two), and the flickering stayed. I turned the monitor off and on again, and it went back to normal.
And so, my life went on for almost 30 long and dreadful days. The usual: cable → adapter → swap → curse → hit → power off.
It was one big flicker fest. I got irritated and cursed the Mac, the cables, Philips, my wife, and, of course, Apple. In a burst of frustration one fine morning, I decided to ask Saint Jobs for help. I woke up, left the chore unfinished, put on a black turtleneck, worn jeans, and my gray New Balance 993. Just missing the round glasses. I prayed to Saint Jobs to enlighten me, or else I’d buy a Dell with Windows 10. Blasphemy!
I’m dragging this out… The solution is stupid and shows the foolishness creeping into Apple.
Solution: Download the program SwitchResX (http://www.madrau.com/srx_download/download.html) and bingo! Problem solved! Open the program and it will adjust the resolution and refresh rate to stop the flickering.
In my case, since both monitors are the same, I opened the settings of the main monitor (HDMI) and copied those settings to my secondary monitor (MiniDisplay Port / Thunderbolt).
Now, a serious note. For those who live and breathe technology and need reliable equipment lasting 3 to 5 years, Apple has always been a safe harbor. However, since Steve’s departure, the releases have been disappointing. Devices with pathetic SATA drives, unimaginable software and hardware failures. No, this is not my Apple. I started with the Apple ][, and yes, there were tons of problems back then. But since the 90s, we’ve come to expect more from Apple.
I hope this post helps you all.
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