AppleColor monitor not syncing

[CelGen]

I have an AppleColor 13" monitor (this one) and so far it is refusing to sync with third party video cards.

First I tried with the RasterOps 24 XLi

You can see the horribly torn mouse but otherwise the image isn't properly synced. This should work because the monitor supports 640x480.

Then I tried a Supermac Spectrum/24 III

Better, but there is still a sync problem. Pressing the space bar like the dispaly says changes the resolution. None of them work and this card too supposedly supports 640x480 too.

Finally I tried the generic Macintosh II video card.

Not a single problem. I could use the card if I wanted to but it's an awful card and both of the two previous cards wipe the floor with it.

What's going on exactly? Refresh rates not correct? I'll drag out my bin of NuBus cards and try out any more video cards I might have but the RasterOps I was hoping to use.

 

[CelGen]

Uptate:

The only other cards I found that also worked with the monitor was the Radius PrecisionColor 24X, Emachines Futura SX, and Supermac Spectrum/24 V. The rest of the dozen cards I own either displayed nothing or showed the same out of sync symptoms.

This also says that at 640x480 the RasterOps also runs at the required 66.7hz refresh rate but then why is my sync still screwed?

 

[CelGen]

Nothing?

Come on. I'm obviously have something set wrong. Both the card and the monitor support the same resolution and refresh rate.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I've got a $4.00 "as is" "High Resolution" :lol: AppleColor RGB Monitor that I keep my work shoes on top of . . .

I'm continually amazed that twenty-something year old FixedRez Apple CRTs still work at all! Gotta be vertical or horizontal scan rate adjustment issue, I would think. The cards are more likely to be fine than the Monitor. Somebody that knows how to run a sillyscope could probably explain how the edges of the analog signal wave forms are shifted, rounded or borked in some unspeakable way. Be grateful that the monitor is working at all with any card combo.

My uneducated guess would be that the slop being fed by some of the cards is just catching the edge of the slop the monitor thinks it's supposed to be looking at for synchronization.

Adjust the monitor to eat the slop in the middle of the trough and all the little piggies will happily be makin' bacon! )

I should play with mine to see if it's still alive, I chopped the bottom off of it and the top off a 6xxx desktop to mate the two as a TrinitronTVtunerMac, but it was almost as fugly as the real MacTV, so I never even tried to work out the cooling issues.

If I'd known that High Resolution meant 640 x 480 when I found the thing, I would have saved the $4.00! :

 

[CelGen]

So you think that with time the ability to lock a signal in the monitor has wandered out of spec enough that it means it will work with some monitors but not others?

Well I got a scope hanging around I could poke with but I could more accurately see what the sync frequency is with a counter I have. I just need to find where I put that damn power cable HP used.

It's critical that I get this monitor to behave, otherwise it's a sore thumb in the Absolutely All Apple system I'm working on.

 

[CelGen]

Figured it out.

I put the card in the mac as a slave and booted and opened the monitor control panel with another card. Even with multiple PRAM resets the screen resolution had not defaulted from an ungodly high resolution 1280x1024 or something). After Dropping it back down to 640x480 I swapped cards and it booted up with a solid picture on the card.