Compatibility issue with G4 MMD (ATY RV250) and Apple Studio Desplay 17"

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Hi all, My 17" Apple Display doesn't work above OS 10.3.3. And i need to resolve this problem. I've been told that i may need to change the card (ATY RV250) but i was wondering if i can get around it with a firmware update. Has anyone else had this problem?

Would be greatfull for some advise!

Alex.

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urbankato said:
Hi all, My 17" Apple Display doesn't work above OS 10.3.3. And i need to resolve this problem. I've been told that i may need to change the card (ATY RV250) but i was wondering if i can get around it with a firmware update. Has anyone else had this problem?

Would be greatfull for some advise!

Alex.

--
G4 1.25Ghz Dual (Mirror Doors) 2G Ram * Mac OS X (10.3.3) *

My machine at work is also a MDD, running Mac OS X 10.4.7 with a 17" studio display from Apple (CRT screen with ADC connector), and I never heard of an issue with those screens not being able to be used with anything above 10.3.3
 
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Avalon said:
My machine at work is also a MDD, running Mac OS X 10.4.7 with a 17" studio display from Apple (CRT screen with ADC connector), and I never heard of an issue with those screens not being able to be used with anything above 10.3.3

I know this is a strange problem and very frustrating.. I spent nearly 2 hours on the phone to Apple care and they had no idea why it was happening!
Is your graphics card The same? In the system profile of mine it says it's the ATY RV250 which is apparently the ATI Radeon 9000 Pro with 64MB of DDR SDRAM .
 

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Your Video Card is the Radeon 9000 AGP. Most of the MDD's came with that very card and they run Tiger just fine. I seem to remember something only about some of the CRT ADC monitors having problems with the Apple ADC to DVI converter box. Otherwise I have never seen your problem. Is that ADC CRT monitor plugged straight into the ADC port on the ATI card?
 
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dtravis7 said:
Your Video Card is the Radeon 9000 AGP. Most of the MDD's came with that very card and they run Tiger just fine. I seem to remember something only about some of the CRT ADC monitors having problems with the Apple ADC to DVI converter box. Otherwise I have never seen your problem. Is that ADC CRT monitor plugged straight into the ADC port on the ATI card?

Yes it is. There is also a DVI port on the card but i don't have the right adapter for it so not sure if that could solve it or not.
 
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urbankato said:
I know this is a strange problem and very frustrating.. I spent nearly 2 hours on the phone to Apple care and they had no idea why it was happening!
Is your graphics card The same? In the system profile of mine it says it's the ATY RV250 which is apparently the ATI Radeon 9000 Pro with 64MB of DDR SDRAM .

Yes, the graphic card is the same, the stock Radeon 9000 Pro, no 3rd party software added whatsoever.
The 17" Studio displays are not compatible with the DVI-to-ADC adaptor, and as you have an ADC connector on your card anyway, spending over 100,- for that adaptor would be nonsense anyway.

Just out of curiosity, did you even try to use it with anything else than 10.3.3?
I really wonder where you got that information that those displays can't work with anything more recent...because it's not true.
 
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Avalon said:
Just out of curiosity, did you even try to use it with anything else than 10.3.3?
I really wonder where you got that information that those displays can't work with anything more recent...because it's not true.

Yeah I've tried instaling up to 10.4.0 and the monitor just won't work on that or anything between 10.3.4 and 10.4.. monitor's power light flashes 3 times consecutively and nothing else. I know that other set-ups the same like yours work fine, this is the frustrating thing!
But the fact that you have the same graphics card i'm sure is of some help because in that case surely a Firmware update can sort it. If my set-up works fine with 10.3.3 and yours works with 10.4.7 then it has to be a software conflict right?

BTW,
Sorry i didn't point this out earlier but just to make it clear, The monitor i have is the one in the glass enclosure and it's LCD with ADC connector. Here's the tech spec from apple's search by serial number..
http://support.apple.com/specs/displays/Apple_Studio_Display_17_LCD.html

Apologies but i just realized we may be talking about a different monitor!
 
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Well, you're right, I actually meant the CRT screen. :cool:
But still the 17" TFT is even less old than the CRT, and I really never heard of the 17" TFT not being compatible with a specific system, especially more recent one's.
I'll check it up on Apple's service source for technicians.
 
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I downloaded a ROM update from the ATI site which included an update for Radeon 9000 pro mac edition and that was up until 10.3.6 and sadly didn't work.. after updating i downloaded OS Combo 10.3.4 (next one up) and same problem.. Mac starts up and after the blue screen with the loading time bar the monitor dies and the power light flashes three times consecutively. I looked up the power light flashing 3 times consecutively in the G4 manual (again) and it says that..
"If you see a repeating sequence of three short flashes, the monitor is detecting input in the wrong video format. Check that your monitor is compatible with your graphics card and that you've installed the correct monitor software."
I also checked the serial and part numbers for the graphics card and it is an ATI made card and the ROM update i downloaded was the only update there was for Operating sytems below 10.3.6.
I Know there are systems working with the exact same configuration as mine.. what can be happening?
Any thoughts??<br><br><span class=otherinfo>G4 1.25Ghz Dual (Mirror Doors) 2G Ram * Mac OS X (10.3.3) * G4 Laptop 1.25 Ghz 768 Ram OSX 10.4.Latest</span><br><br><span class=otherinfo>G4 1.25Ghz Dual (Mirror Doors) 2G Ram * Mac OS X (10.3.3) * G4 Laptop 1.25 Ghz 768 Ram OSX 10.4.Latest</span>
 
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Avalon said:
I'll check it up on Apple's service source for technicians.

Thanks.. I'm not far from throwing the computer, monitor and myself out the window!! :eek:neye:
 
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The monitor does work in Safe Mode though... Might this narrow it down to anything? I'm not entirely sure what safe mode does.
 
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Avalon said:
My machine at work is also a MDD, running Mac OS X 10.4.7 with a 17" studio display from Apple (CRT screen with ADC connector), and I never heard of an issue with those screens not being able to be used with anything above 10.3.3

Hi Avalon, Do you know off hand or can you check what your current version of firmware is for your graphics card with the same set-up? I'm not sure if you can know what it is but maybe worth asking!?
 
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Hi urbankato.
I checked at Apples service source, and there is no compatibility issue between your screen and your card.

And if it works in Safe Mode, it seems to me that the screen resolution seems to be wrong when booting normally.
Did you try reseting the PRAM (startup, press and hold apple+alt+P+R until you heard the startup chime 3 times)?
What you can also try is getting into Open Firmware mode (hold apple+alt+O+F while starting up).
Once there (grey background with black text) type the following, each followed by a return:
reset-nvram
set-defaults
reset-all

Sometimes when there are messed up values there, the screen doesn't get correctly recognised.

Not sure if it'll help, but worth a try.
 
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Avalon said:
Did you try reseting the PRAM (startup, press and hold apple+alt+P+R until you heard the startup chime 3 times)?
What you can also try is getting into Open Firmware mode (hold apple+alt+O+F while starting up).
Once there (grey background with black text) type the following, each followed by a return:
reset-nvram
set-defaults
reset-all.

Neither has worked sadly. :eek:neye:
 
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Hi All, I'm very pleased to announce that i solved the problem. I thought i would let you all know and jot it down here so if anybody else has the same problem in the future then the solution can be found. Basically as far as i can tell Apple stopped supporting monitors with an ADC connection at 10.3.4. Since the Radeon 9000 pro mac edition has both ADC and DVI i was able to get around it by buying the ADC to DVI adapter and hey presto!
 

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