[SSebeny]

Hi,

I have a PowerMac G4 (933 Mhz, QuickSilver 2002 model). It came with an nVidia GeForce 4 MX graphics card in the AGP slot which has ADC and VGA ports. I have had an Apple 17" LCD attached to the ADC port on it for years, and recently I wanted to attach a second display (HP w2408) via DVI rather than VGA. After investigating various PCI graphics cards with a DVI connector I passed on them since they wouldn't support Quartz Extreme. Therefore, I decided to purchase basically the exact same nVidia GeForce 4 MX card which was already in my G4 except a version which had a ADC & DVI port on the card rather than the ADC and VGA ports that the existing card has.

Unfortunately, after installing the new card, only the display connected to the ADC port seems to be working. The card shows up in the Apple System Profiler properly, and it even list both displays attached. However the display attached to the DVI port will only list "No Input Signal" on screen. This is what Apple System Profiler shows:

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX:

Chipset Model: GeForce4 MX
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
Slot: SLOT-1
VRAM (Total): 32 MB
Vendor: nVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0172
Revision ID: 0x00a5
ROM Revision: 1121
Displays:
Apple Studio Display:
Display Type: LCD
Resolution: 1280 x 1024
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Not Supported
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
HP w2408:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200 @ 60 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Not Supported
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why I might not be getting output to the second display attached via DVI? I've tried various resolutions & refresh rates via System Preferences, etc. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks.

[reader50]

The GeForce2 MX 32 MB only supported 1 display at a time. The GeForce2 MX with TwinView (64 MB) supported 2 displays -- but one had to be via VGA and one via ADC/DVI. Reference: QuickSilver graphics options

Try unplugging the ADC monitor, see if the HP becomes available. You could hunt up a Radeon 9000 Mac Edition, it supported dual digital monitors. Or add a PCI video card for the 2nd display.

The GeForce4 MX supported dual monitors at the same time, but one needed to be VGA. The GeForce4 TI came with ADC + DVI. Later cards support dual monitors and came with various port combinations.

Moving thread to Peripherals er, Consumer Hardware and Components.

[SSebeny]

Originally Posted by reader50 

The GeForce2 MX 32 MB only supported 1 display at a time. The GeForce2 MX with TwinView (64 MB) supported 2 displays -- but one had to be via VGA and one via ADC/DVI. Reference: QuickSilver graphics options

Thanks for your reply. However, the the link you gave was for the QuickSilver G4 Towers, not the QuickSilver 2002 G4 towers which is what I have. The appropriate link for my case would be: QuickSilver 2002 graphic options. And in this case we are talking about the GeForce4 MX, as I stated, not GeForce2 MX. The card included with the machine was the "NVIDIA GeForce4 MX graphics card with 64MB of DDR SDRAM and ADC and VGA connectors" mentioned on that page, and I replaced it with a NVIDIA GeForce4 MX graphics card with 64MB of DDR SDRAM and ADC and DVI connectors which was (apparently) only a BTO option through the AppleStore for Education at the time back when this machine sold. Here is a link to the graphic card I bought.

Originally Posted by reader50 

Try unplugging the ADC monitor, see if the HP becomes available.

Yep, I've tried that. It was no help.

Originally Posted by reader50 

You could hunt up a Radeon 9000 Mac Edition, it supported dual digital monitors.

Well, this card that has BOTH DVI & ADC connectors definitely claims to support dual digital monitors. The identical card (except w/ ADC & VGA) which I took out of the machine, definitely supported two monitors - albeit one digital and one analog. I almost bought a Radeon 9000 actually, but then I went for this GeForce4 card instead, since it was basically identically to what I already had except for having ADC&DVI instead of ADC&VGA, so I went with the more "familiar" card.

Originally Posted by reader50 

Or add a PCI video card for the 2nd display.

I didn't do that because none of the PCI video cards for a G4 tower with a DVI interface will support Quartz Extreme. Actually, I guess someone made a hack peice of software to enable Quartz Extreme for PCI cards in Tiger, but it caused a lot of instabilities in the OS or something, and I can't find a current link to download it.

Originally Posted by reader50 

The GeForce4 MX supported dual monitors at the same time, but one needed to be VGA.

Yes, that is true of the GeForce4 MX card that shipped with the G4 933 QuickSilver 2002 model. That is the card which originally came with my machine. But in the educational channel they sold a version BTO that had ADC & DVI, and it is one of those cards which I just bought on eBay.

Originally Posted by reader50 

The GeForce4 TI came with ADC + DVI. Later cards support dual monitors and came with various port combinations.

Moving thread to Peripherals er, Consumer Hardware and Components.

If anyone else has any ideas, I'd greatly appreciate the help troubleshooting. Thanks!

[SSebeny]

N.B., it has been pointed out to me that this card which I bought that was sold as a BTO option for the education models of the QuickSilver 2002 G4 towers was also the default card installed in the consumer Mirrored Drive Door models which followed. Still not working though.

[reader50]

Blame my late-night reply for the 2MX error. From the 2002 specs page, note the graphics card details. Especially the #1 note below.

1. The ATI Radeon 7500 and NVIDIA GeForce4 MX cards support one ADC display and one VGA display simultaneously. The NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti supports one ADC display and one DVI or VGA display simultaneously.

I was wondering if you'd been sold a flashed PC card with insufficient video ROM, but the above note explains it.

The hack utility you are thinking of is PCI Extreme which worked OK for Jag and Panther. With the advent of Tiger Apple made changes. QE would work on AGP cards or PCI cards, but not both at the same time. Which made the hack useless for most people likely to use it.