Bought a G4 450MP Radeon with the 17" ADC Apple Studio Display. When running in resolutions up to 1024x768, everything is fine. When I kick it up to say 1280x1024 or 1600x1200, the display "vibrates" enough to be annoying.

To troubleshoot, I hooked up an old Optiquest Q71 (17") to the VGA port and successfully ran it up to 1280x1024 at 60Hz without the screen vibration (doesn't go higher than that).

I have seen something similar where I work when we have computers plugged into the same circuit as DC motors - I know I don't have anything else plugged into this circuit. Could this be caused my the G4? Should I be asking this of an electrician? Is this inherent with this monitor?

s'fit

Well, there is a definite lack of shielding in the 17" ASD... this might cause issues with your general environment. This would make sense due to the fact that as resolution increases it also becomes more sensitive to any interference.

Tinfoil acts as a pretty good shield to interference. try loosely wrapping your monitor with tinfoil and see if the situation persists.

As retarded as I felt wrapping my monitor with tin foil, I gave it a whirl. No dice. Thankfully. "Yes, this is my brand new $3500.00 computer system," I'd explain. "Oh, the tinfoil? My monitor gets the shakes without it...".

The monitor sits by itself on a wooden desk with the mouse and keyboard. The G4 sits on the floor underneath. There are no peripherals hooked up to the G4 or USB ports of the monitor - normally there are but for troubleshooting sake, I've removed everything from the area. There are no florecents in my house at all. The computer sits by itself on its own electrical circuit. I've run it on different outlets in the house. My last resort is to haul my gear to a family member's house - which is a royal pain - that monitor is not light - and can't go in it's box because the box doesn't fit in my car...ARGH!

I went down to the local CrapUSA this evening to see if their monitors exhibited the same problem. They didn't. I have a feeling this is related to the wiring in my home. This should be fun...

-s'fit

Heading towards total insanity....

After doing some research on the web and on Apple's site - it sounded like 1 of 2 things - either magnetic interferance or noise on the electrical line. I knew it wasn't magnetic because there is nothing around the monitor. I found APC makes a line conditioner that protects against surges, spikes and also noise on AC lines. Found one at Microwarehouse and had it shipped overnight ($90.00 unit - $30.00 S/H !).

Guess what? It's actually worse than before! I am going slowly insane and the headaches occur very often now. I suppose I am going to have to find someway to transport this monster out of here to another location to try things out...

-s'fit