[juliano]

hello all

im pulling my hair out here

i have a dual 1ghz g4 apple mac and i just bought a 20" apple cinema screen

it does not seem to be working ?

i have the ATY 250 graphics card which is same as a ATI radeon 9000 pro i belive

looks like it has a ADC and DVI-D connector on the graphincs card

is this a firmware of software issue or maybe even connector issue ?

someone please please help

thanks juliano

[MichiganRich]

Start from the beginning. All the Dual G4's work fine with the 20" Apples here at the photo studio. What OS, what have you tried?

[juliano]

hello and thanks for the reply
im running o.s. 10.3.4. on panther
im using the dvi lead from cinema screen to connect to dvi socket on the back of the g4
i have added no extra software and changed no settings (if i need to that might be the problem)
i have been running a apple 15" studio display from the socket next to dvi which i think is a adc.
should the display run from the adc socket like the 15" studio display ?
or should it run from the dvi ?
thanks for all your help
juliano

[jamil5454]

Is it the clear plastic cinema display or one of the new Aluminum 20" Cinema displays? If it's an Aluminum display, you'll need to hook it up via DVI. If it's the older type, you'll need to hook it up via ADC. It should work. While you're at it, I'd recommend you upgrade your Panther version to 10.3.9 (latest).

[juliano]

Originally Posted by jamil5454

Is it the clear plastic cinema display or one of the new Aluminum 20" Cinema displays? If it's an Aluminum display, you'll need to hook it up via DVI. If it's the older type, you'll need to hook it up via ADC. It should work. While you're at it, I'd recommend you upgrade your Panther version to 10.3.9 (latest).

this is the aluminum version
i cant update to panther 10.3.9. because i have hardware that only runs up-to 10.3.4
i have hooked it up via dvi already the monitor is on and screen stays black
i get nothing
i was at a friends house that had this running on a imac g5 only this morning
this is driving me round the twist slightly
thanks for your help
juliano

[chefpastry]

I'm not sure if this will work, but try connecting it to a monitor that works. Then change the resolution and refresh rates to one that's compatible with your new cinema display. Then re-connect the new monitor.

It may also help if you reset the PRAM.

Good luck.

[reader50]

Is the 15" still connected to the ADC port? ie - do you have two monitors running, with the menu bar visible on the 15" monitor?

It is likely the video card is defaulting to a resolution/refresh rate that the 20" monitor does not support. If you can reach the menu bar on the 15", go to System Preferences -> Displays. Click on the "Gather Windows" button, so the Displays dialog for the 20" monitor will be moved onto the main monitor behind the main dialog. This will allow you to switch resolution & refresh settings for the 20" monitor.

[juliano]

Originally Posted by reader50

Is the 15" still connected to the ADC port? ie - do you have two monitors running, with the menu bar visible on the 15" monitor?

It is likely the video card is defaulting to a resolution/refresh rate that the 20" monitor does not support. If you can reach the menu bar on the 15", go to System Preferences -> Displays. Click on the "Gather Windows" button, so the Displays dialog for the 20" monitor will be moved onto the main monitor behind the main dialog. This will allow you to switch resolution & refresh settings for the 20" monitor.

if i boot up with both monitors plugged in the 15" display has no toolbars or menus
if i connect just the 15" monitor i have hardly any options on system prefrances/display setting to change anything ?
also i can see the refresh rate and its locked..you are right kind of defaulted
wont let me change it ?

[juliano]

Originally Posted by chefpastry

I'm not sure if this will work, but try connecting it to a monitor that works. Then change the resolution and refresh rates to one that's compatible with your new cinema display. Then re-connect the new monitor.

It may also help if you reset the PRAM.

Good luck.

hi
i have reset the pram and that made no diffrence
here is a question releated to changing the resolution
i have have 3 choices for low resoloution when i connect the 15" screen
also the 'refresh rate' is locked i cant change it ?
all i get is a pop up page with no options apart from these
'colours' then 'refresh rate' which is locked and set to 'N.A.' then i have 'detect displays' 'show displays in menu bar' and 'number of recent modes'
i cant see anything else to change a setting ?
somebody help me help me please please as james brown would say

[reader50]

The display prefs are stored in a file in your Preferences folder. We've tried deleting this file before when people had your kind of problem, with little luck. Still, try this. Locate the displays preferences file:

~/(your home folder)/Library/Preferences/ByHost/ com.apple.windowserver.(random character sequence).plist

Drag it to the Desktop, then shut down. Connect the 20" monitor (leave the 15" connected) and reboot. If you're lucky, both monitors will come up.

If not, time for the next trick. We're going to try hacking the preferences file to manually set the 20" correctly. Please note that hacks are risky, and it's not my fault if your system doesn't boot afterwards. Proceed at your own risk.

If you can't start up OK after this (if the hack fails) you will likely need to reinstall OSX. You'd use an Archive install, and check the boxes to preserve user & network settings, so your data would remain safe. Still, reinstalls are a pain, so don't try this unless you can budget the time to recover if the hack fails. On the plus side, the 20" is much more likely to be recognized correctly when a fresh OS install boots up.
note - If you are comfortable with the Darwin commandline, you could also boot in single-user mode after a hack failure, navigate to your Preferences folder, and delete the windowserver plist file. Then reboot instead of reinstall.

Shut down, disconnect the 20" monitor, and boot up. The next trick requires Property List Editor, which is part of the developer tools. If those are already installed, you're good to go. If not, whip out your Dev Tools Install disk and do the deed.

Doubleclick on the com.apple.windowserver.(random character sequence).plist file in your Preferences folder. The new one the system created after the reboot. You can delete the one that you dragged to the desktop earlier. The file will open in Property List Editor.

Toggle down the "Root" property.
Toggle down the "DisplaySets" property.

You will see a list of DisplaySets numbered from zero. The DisplaySets are your monitor settings, for each combination of monitors the system remembers. Lower numbers are the more recent combinations. You'll probably see '0' and '1', with '0' being the current (15" only) combination. Open whichever one shows as having "2 ordered objects" instead of "1 ordered objects". This will most likely be DisplaySet '1'. You want to edit the DisplaySet that has both monitors, in order to make sure the 20" preferences are included.

So you've toggled down the DisplaySet that has two entries. You'll see them listed as '0' and '1'. You will almost certainly want '0' since you already know the menubar appears on the 20" monitor when it's plugged in. But check both displays anyway, '1' will most likely show your 15" settings. "UnmirroredWidth" and "UnmirroredHeight" will give the current horizontal/vertical resolution of your 15" monitor. "RefreshRate16.16" gives your refresh rate in Hz times 65536.

Assuming you recognize one of the monitor settings as belonging to the 15", close that setting and open the other monitor setting. Doubleclick on the Value entry for each of the following entries and type in the values shown here:

UnmirroredWidth -> 1680
UnmirroredHeight ->1050
RefreshRate16.16 -> 3932160 (that is 60Hz x 65536)

Close the 20" settings and reopen the 15" settings. You need to fix the monitors display arrangement to avoid overlapping displays. Overlap is likely since you will have changed the resolution of the menubar monitor. So make sure these values are set for the 15" monitor:

OriginX -> 1680
OriginY -> 0

Save the changes by quitting Property List Editor (you don't want PLE or OSX to cache the changes). It will offer to save changes, let it. Now, don't shut down the normal way. If you do, the windowserver will overwrite your edited file with whatever it has in memory. To preserve your edited file, do a hard shutdown. Hold the power button in until the system shuts down - usually about 5 seconds.

Plug in the 20" monitor and reboot. This bootup is likely to take a little longer, in order to run a disk check after the abnormal shutdown. If you are lucky this time, both monitors will come up. Congratulations, and welcome to the Hacker's Guild. Please don't try hacking any defense facilities without a lot more experience.

If the 20" is still blank (or the system doesn't boot), let us know the results. We'll try to help.