My new monitor won't show my desktop

Hi all,
I have a nine year old G4 mirror and have recently bought a new hewlett packard wide screen monitor from PC world. I connected my new monitor,switched on and after seeing the apple logo on the monitor during the first minute of the start up it quickly disappeared and was replaced by a red box saying "input not supported". I'm not sure if my resolution is set too high or whether i need to install a driver to support the monitor. Can any one help please?.

Many thanks

Mark

Assuming it is a DVI and you have a DVI connection graphics card, should just plug and play. Can be a problem connecting through a VGA/DVI adapter. Have you tried zapping the PRAM and what does Apple System Profiler say about the display?

Still no desktop

Hi Harry,
thanks for the reply. I've tried resetting the PRAM before the grey screen appears. Since i can see the grey screen,that suggests to me the DVI connection is working. I was careful putting the adaptor on. Like you say,there can be a problem with them. I can't even make the new monitors menu appear to see if there is an option where i can choose between a VGA and a digital DVI setting.

Mark

Have you tried SysPrefs > Detect Displays?

According to Mactracker, your G4 MDD has DVI out, so should you perhaps be looking to use a DVI>HDMI (not VGA), assuming the HP monitor has the necessary connection?

I managed to get back to my desktop after a safe boot and went to the system preferences and detect displays.It recognized my monitor but after a proper end of day shut down i'm back to square one and the monitor telling me the input is not supported.Interesting what you said about the DVI to HDMI cable and it is a HD monitor but it hasn't got a HDMI input on the monitor.I'm running out of idea's now.Thanks for your advice.

Mark

I'm wondering what inputs your HP monitor actually has. Can you provide a picture of the ports, or take a picture from the manual?

Example: I have a Viewsonic LED monitor that has DVI and VGA inputs. My Mini has HDMI output, so I have to use an HDMI>DVI adaptor. As I understand it, DVI is video only, you will need HDMI to get sound as well. Do you really want that? Flat screen monitor speakers are generally ... umm ... tinny, to say the least..

But you should still be able to get an image from your G4 to the HP via DVI. The video card in your G4 may be faulty. Boot your G4 from the OS install disk, and run Disk Utility > First Aid to see if it will pick up any hardware anomalies.

If you want to spend the money & time, you could try replacing the G4 video card with a third-party substitute, eg. OWC ATI Technologies 102-8342302 RADEON 7500 MAC... in stock at OWC.