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Apple Studio 21 inch CRT....dang

OleLila

Well-known member
I waited and watched on ebay and craigs list to find a nearby 21 inch blue and white studio CTR display for a B&W G3 tower . After about 18 months, against the odd I think, I found one in fantastic condition and bought it. It worked with my blue and white g3 without a hitch for about 2 months. Then... I attached an external firewire drive and every time I plugged it into the G3, system 9.2 would lock up...the g3 would not reset even when holding down the power button on the tower....so I unplugged it....a couple of times. Once on re-powering  the monitor and the computer made all of the right noises but only a grey screen...no mouse, maybe a minimal lightness but still dark grey,  no  faintly visible images. The monitor LED is yellow when turned on but then is green after G3 booting and degassing noises...just like always . The G3 tower does fine on a different monitor. The monitor behaves the same (grey with green LED) on a laptop and on the laptop using the monitor control panel the monitor is recognized.....just no picture. It even makes the degassing sound when it's turned on or even when I wake the computer (presumably) from sleep. I've googled but cannot find any information specific to this monitor. What is a good, not dangerous, next step to fix this 80 pound  beauty?

 
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Paralel

Well-known member
So plugging the firewire drive into the G3 caused some kind of anomaly to appear in the monitor? Wow, that is odd.

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
Great find, I always wanted one of those monsters. I wonder what the rep is for that monitor. IIRC the 17" version is infamous for failing flyback transformers. Mine died from whatever the common fault was and I don't remember the symptoms offhand. There's probably a thread about the 17" B&W CRT somewhere hereabouts.

@techknight  Do the CRT Studio Displays have the automagical discharge bleedoff (resistor?) feature and if so, how long should you wait before cracking the case?

 

OleLila

Well-known member
No...the firewire drive caused the G3 to freeze.....to break the freeze I unplugged the power to the G3 (the monitor was plugged into the G3 power supply).

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
Ouch! Not necessarily the cause of the failure, but that's why it's good to have any soft power system (or anything else for that matter) plugged into a surge protector with an on/off switch for a forced powerdown. Pulling plugs should be avoided at all costs.

 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
When they're shot, they're shot. the 21" version's a little big for a MacQuarium. My 17" shell is full of all kinds of junk, waiting for me to build the tank for my plastic fish.

 

OleLila

Well-known member
I had tried this monitor on and off with G3 tower and G4 laptop probably 25 times in the last 2 weeks and nothing. Yesterday on Ebay, there was a 20 inch LCD monitor that would fit in place of the trinitron , but before ordering I was going to try once more to adjust the brightness and the contrast controls. I hooked the 21 inch monitor to a G4 laptop and it came on as a second screen. Colors looked great, brightness was fine, controls worked ...no problems, once. I powered down and hooked it back up to the G3...now back to all the right noises but grey screen. On  the G4 laptop, the monitor makes all the right noises, the G4 detects the monitor as a second screen, the brightness contrast control panels pop up when the button on the monitor is pressed, the monitor USB ports work...but grey screen.

Is it possible to get to the video control board and get it out without having any contact/risks with the CRT? When you look at the service manual for the monitor, the CRT is pretty well shielded from the board. I'm wondering if a recap of the video board would be an option but am not wanting to be careless with a huge CRT.

 

Johnnya101

Well-known member
You can also yank the cord while its on as another precaution (Someone confirm this please). Ive done it and it worked. Not sure how safe it is...

 

techknight

Well-known member
I am wondering if it isn't one of the digital ICs going bad, or more importantly one of the RGB Video muxes. the OSD is generated by an IC internal to the monitor, and it gets gated out to the video amplifier IC, so does the incoming VGA signal. They merge together somewhere and that "merge" point is where the failure is. 

Or, more importantly, it was made in an era where capacitors were all counterfeit and complete garbage. It may be a victim of that as well. 

Your user profile shows your in Eastern Tennessee, I am in western north Carolina so there may be a chance I can fix it, if I can sneak in some time. 

 
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