Home Forums Peripherals & Multimedia Peripherals The torture of 3rd party monitors

No mac 27" - so Mini... and....

Asus 27" arrives and no intuitive way to get screen to the base.
Wont go on..... 20 min lady who can't speak English, then 20 more on hold. Boxed up for return.

LG same day delivery from Best Buy, easy assembly monitor tilts to the ground, but not upwards.. boxing up for return...3 hours lost time on garbage monitors and counting... torture.

Please keep us informed on what you try and what finally works.

Why is an upward tilt necessary for the LG? For eye level?

Thanks Ira, yes will go into a Best Buy store today... see what have live. (may even submit to getting the 24" we'll see) The mini arrived, have no unboxed it.

The LG tilt was really down... not a hair, very weird.man, and fixed.....even my $100 cheap Viewsonic I got 10 years ago still have for my laptop watching TV in kitchen tilts up and down in nice way. (though very pasticy)

Darn, that Asus 27" , $500, nice looker and turnedin disc, left/ right, but could not for life of me attach the screen to the base. I call their, number hoping in 5 min someone would tell how to it, and grueling 15 min with lady can't speak a word English, and getting serial number and deflecting ignorance, and then transfers me another long grueling hold.. Done..hung up could not take it... Sad. How could company put all time and work into a good monitor and not make the attachment of that intuitive?

My LG monitor adjusts up and down for height (although it has to be pulled up or pushed straight from the foot, to prevent binding), Tilts forward and back where the stand attaches to the monitor, and even pivots clockwise or counter-clockwise a few degrees and IIRC the stand connects to the monitor with four phillips head screws. I thought it is a relatively common mount but it may be a case of our having a lot of LG monitors.

Joe / Ira thanks, update. So boxed the LG returned to local UPS.

Then later day went into a Best Buy and bought same exact monitor as it's only one in store 27" and it worked there!. But this one did adjust... seems two philip screws need to be inserted, totally non intuitive and you would never guess -- sales guy agreed, should be sticker on back about that. So here it is now home, not plugged it in yet. $300 on sale

I wish it turned rotated side to side, the ASUS does that $500, and that is boxed up ready for return. The ASUS facebook team said they might help me but never called, and don't care. PIty , as seemed nice, impossible to put screen on Asus, though, no support unless take full day off and are well rested.

Joe: LG comes with huge white block called switching adapter, can't even guess what it is. The LG II returned I think had cables for Type A, but new on got LG, not there, missing? ; but don't need those right? Best use HmDI, why would ever need Type A? 2 ports on back of the LG type A (it did have the hmdi, and type C cable thankfully not missing)

Final question, Joe, you think LG will be plug in play? Later I have calibration too just got by Color Checker (x rite), but hoping LG is just plug and play easy, for printing, viewing etc. There 30 page manual.. oh boy... and shudder thinking about contact LG with questions... And.. now think about it, keyboard which controls raising- lowering brightness no longer work correct? Have to find that on the LG? (don't see any button anywhere on LG ro adjust anything...)

The online manual says: " monitor drive, on screen control drivers recommended), and then website says they dont have them
https://www.lg.com/us/support/product/lg-27UP80B-W.AUS

Update, Facebook team sent manual for Asus, and so pulled it again out box, and go figure, was able to snap arm onto base.. Goes up and and down, swivels/ turns, and has more buttons on front than LG so now test both.. Asus 200 more, but those comfort features are better before turning either on..

Glad it is working for you. I was going to say that none of my monitors has a button, switch, dial, or control of any kind, and none are needed. Control and calibration is easily accomplished through System Preferences > Displays (and one or two other preference panels) or the keyboard.

Update, thanks Joe, think staying with Asus... so Ira, I recommend that so far over LG, for design, alone... swivel, turns, and buttons on front.... Have LG here bit longer in case... Doing migration now....Thanks

Joe taking peek no system prefs displays, I'm on Viewsonic, laptop. I don't see anything about controls in there...

System Preferences > Displays offers settings for Resolution (display size in pixels), Color Profile (including multiple standard profiles and an option to calibrate the color), and screen rotation (Horizontal or vertical).

System Preferences > Accessibility > Display offers settings for contrast, reduced motion, menu bar size, pointer size and color, etc.

F1 & F2 on the keyboard control brightness.

"F1 & F2 on the keyboard control brightness."

Joe don't think work with 3rd party monitors, F1, 2 brightness keys not working with old Viewsonic use with laptop, and not working with new Asus. (should they?)

Asus good, but defualt native resolution mail text to large, so have to choose next box down, lower to see normally.

Having lot instability with email oh well... sending/ receiving, normal glitches after migration. Word/ Excel needs to be activated, but they don't say how... etc

One weird thing, is screenshots. 6 seconds it took to make on older 27" ; yet instant on the new M1 Macbook air. Looking forward to fast screenshot, but alas, still 6 seconds to make on new Mac Mini.

Drive X only bringing up Mac HD, none of externals, none. One external is indeed plugged right into back of Mac Mini -- still not showing in Drive X. Two others are now in hub as only two type A port. But even hub should show in drives X?

Agree Joe, kind slight bummer, the '"new" computer says 2020 in about Mac, sucks right? I guess for resale, you just tell the world you got it in 2022 not 2020.

Don't notice many speed bumps yet, what for example would you notice in speed? (I don't do video editing... etc)

(btw, not whining, very appreciate of great tips Joe, clearly time to bail on that 27" with pre warning, thanks again.)

Nevermind on the arcane screenshare question, apple tech solved it: "Utilities, drag screenshare to dock, screenshare option, arrow, uncheck “show floating screenshare”"

Also, mail issue I think calming down.....

There are brick and mortar stores too. I think most would be willing to take a monitor out of the box and make sure that it could be properly assembled before you leave the store. I've also found that some stores will match their online price if you ask.

Which Asus model are you using. You mentioned the number for the LG, but not the Asus, and they have quite a few that are 27". Thanks.

PA279CV ASUS Ira, yes, let me know what think.. Seem more robust than LG. Much better swivels and turns.. worth extra $ think.. Lets see...

Final questions Joe:

Drive X, eject physically, externals, as they recommend, still none externals show up, not even one plugged into the Mini. DriveX has terrible support to none so hope you can help.

How/ Can get the F1, F2 keys working again on external monitor?

Just to clarify your problem, have you installed SATSMARTDriver?

(I fully agree with you about DriveDx support!)

For one reason or another, I quit using the brightness keys years ago in favor of the Displays pane in system Preferences, and generally find the Auto adjust brightness wprls tp my taste.


Reinstall DriveDX. DriveDX uses to access S.M.A.R.T. date on USB drives that needs to be reinstalled.



Your iMac is a 2020 model and there is no 2022 model. If you tried to sell me a 2022 Mac mini, I would report you to the police for committing a fraud. It is a specific hardware design and configuration and may be sold for several years.


The first place I notice speed enhancment is in the length of time it takes to load a large application or file. You also might see faster web page rendering times, but too often that is limited by the speed of your internet connection, independent of processing speed. While it is not so obvious to the user, the speed with which data can be moved between the processors, memory, and storage is the reason an M1 with 8GB of memory can effortlessly handle tasks that would challenge Intel Macs with 32GB of memory.

Joe thanks

1- other F keys are working but love 1 and 2 any guess how to get them working?

2- Drive X any uninstall do first or just send it to trash?

3- "Your iMac is a 2020" what saying isnat pity, you cannot think of it as 2022 computer but instead a 2 years old computer for resale vale etc.

4- speed ironically, see way more beachballs, now when open finder window, or some icloud folders perplexing.

Uses what, and what needs to be reinstalled?

I had to install SATSMARTDriver (a separate instalation..."other version") before DriveDx could see my external.

Joe know what ARtie saying? I have no idea what saying... I've never installed a Smart anything aware of...

When I first installed DriveDx I was unable to access my external until I installed the driver...SATSMARTDriver.

Drive X was working perfectly with all external for several months until two days ago after Migration to Mac Mini... so??

I wonder if the problem is an incompatibility with your M1 (or is it an M2), but I don't see anything pertinent on their website.

My only suggestion is that you try installing the freestanding driver that's linked to on their website, but it wouldn't hurt to try uninstalling and reinstalling as per joemike first.

ARtie, the DRive is working fine for internal, just not externals. If you have that link drivers please send. Do you need to special uninstall ie of preference first? Just drag app to trash?

Anyway just trashed app, reinstalled it that did solve issue. Only works with internal drive and none 3 externals. I never downloaded separate anything but if have link.

You can d/l SATSMARTDriver from https://github.com/kasbert/OS-X-SAT-SMART-Driver.

Click on the highlighted item, and then click on "Download" on the next page. You may have to go to System Prefs > Security & Privacy > General to allow installation.

I've got no idea if it'll help, but it can't hurt to try.

As I said earlier, when I first installed DriveDx it couldn't see my external until I went through this procedure.

Before go unknown sites and download software never had to before to work with DriveX, we'll see if Joe pipes in..