Home Forums Peripherals & Multimedia Peripherals Replacing monitor on G4: help please

One of the office Macs needs a new monitor, it seems.

The Mac is a Power Mac G4 MDD. The current monitor is an Apple Studio Display which is on the blink, literally. The power light on the monitor blinks in a sequence which Apple Support says is a backlight error.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2811?viewlocale=en_US

The first time this started I reset the PRAM, error went away for a couple of weeks. Now it returns more frequently, but I am not suprised: the monitor must be ~10 years old.

There seem to be three options:

1. Replace Apple Studio Display. This is not possible because it is obsolete. I cannot source one on the internet anywhere.

2. Replace monitor with another non-Apple one.

3. Replace entire computer, which wouldn't upset me much since it is so noisy and only cost £200 from Amazon. However, this is the most expensive and work-making option. A new Mac would cost 10 times more than option (2) and I'd have to load all our software and data on to it.

Considering option (2), then.

I have ordered a flat screen 17" Dell from a UK website and it will probably arrive tomorrow. I have researched the fact that it has a VGA connector and thought I would be ok with a VGA > DVI adaptor which I already have, to plug it in to the MDD Mac.

However I have just pulled the MDD away from the wall to inspect the back, and also looked at System Profiler.

The MDD has an ATI/Radeon 9000 Pro Graphics card, into which the (current) Studio Display is plugged in the ADC slot. I have looked at the DVI > VGA adaptor and it will not fit either socket on the Radio card.

QUESTION: Which adaptor should I now buy, to make the Dell screen plug in to the MDD's card? Until I buy one, the replacement screen will be unuseable. Does anyone out there know what will mate a VGA monitor with a MDD Mac?

Question 2: Does anyone out there have any idea how long the Studio Display will last, now that it's started blinking like this? I have no idea how urgent this is. Sometimes it does not blink at all, sometimes it starts its blinking cycle and the bottom of the screen is darker. It seems that this is when it has been on for a while.

I hope that all makes sense, and that someone can help me identify a suitable adaptor which I can then search for on the internet.

Many thanks.

This seems a bit strange: if the monitor is having hardware problems, it shouldn't matter what you're doing with the MDD's PRAM.

As for your three options, if the monitor is going south, I'd go for a replacement monitor. That one could be used with another Mac as well, should you later want/need one.

As for an adapter to VGA: the easiest way would be to use one of the standard ADC->VGA adapters that Apple shipped with each an every MDD. It seems that you didn't get one with your used MDD, but these adapters often show up on ebay.
On the other hand, the Radeon 9000 Pro that Apple shipped standard with the MDDs has a normal DVI plug that fits every DVI->VGA adapter I've seen. The plugs on the adapter should be male on the DVI side and female on VGA.

Yes, I thought that, and that's why I included the official Apple Support link for this scenario. It worked, too, at first.



All the other office Macs are iMacs and hence have built-in monitors........



No, we didn't get that adaptor with the Amazon-purchased MDD. These adaptors are very rare (and expensive) now and I HATE eBay!



That fits my surmise so I've just bought one off Amazon. They only cost £2.50 or so.

The Dell monitor has arrived, I unpacked the box. To my surprise there is no power cable included but I found a spare one in my box of tricks. There were no assembly instructions either but I found some on the internet. (The internet is wonderful, one can find nearly everything one wants/needs/thinks of.)

Many thanks for replying, Mike. When the adaptor arrives (Monday?) I'll install the monitor. Fingers crossed.

Incidentally, to confirm my years-long theory that They Can Hear You, since I started to research a replacement monitor+adaptor, the Studio Display has behaved itself perfectly. This also happened with office network printer and various other bits of kit in the past.

Best wishes

I see that I wrote that on Sept 24: the Apple Studio Display survived for another couple of weeks perfectly happily but today was acting up again.

I have just installed the DELL screen, adaptor, power cable and USB extension cable and it immediately sprang into action. The Mac very efficiently recognised that we'd taken out one display and introduced another without me having to tell it. How unlike the old days, eh?

Meanwhile we now need a new keyboard for this tower Mac. Will start another thread.