G3 iBook external display not working

[jdcurry]

Hello,

I picked up an iBook a couple months ago; I'm trying to output VGA to a secondary monitor. I purchased an adapter off eBay (mini VGA to VGA); the OS (9.2) seems to see it (and it knows the name of my monitor (HP 27er)) but nothing displays on the other screen. I'm not sure if my computer monitor(s) are too new or maybe its a bad adapter or VGA cable... not really sure. The HP is the only monitor I have that has a VGA input, so I may need to check out some local thrift shops or something in search for an older monitor. I have not tried other VGA cables, but I have a plethora of them in a storage unit. Historically I haven't had many VGA cables fail on me so I was waiting to rule that one out.



I tried using the SwitchRes software to see if forcing different screen resolutions on the HP monitor would work (those that may not be natively supported by MacOS9/iBook) but I still just got a black screen in the end.




Specs of the HP monitor per the user guide:


So I plugged that information into the setup wizard in SwitchRes, clicked 'start test' and the HP monitor remained black.



...But it seems like the iBook detects something... which I think is a good sign? Switching between the resolutions doesn't change anything on the HP monitor.




I have also tried a VGA to HDMI adapter to hook up to a newer LG monitor and that also didn't work. I'm not sure if other adapters exist for the iBook that would work instead of mini VGA, but I'm assuming what I'm doing is the best way to go... I'm not sure if there is a Firewire to VGA or USB to VGA that is also MacOS9 compatible and doesn't run poorly...

Thanks for your time,
Josh

 

[rjkucia]

Have you verified that the monitor works with VGA with another computer?

VGA to HDMI (etc) adapters will not work here, unless it's an active analog-to-digital converter box. Any passive adapter will only work with specific hardware that's designed for it - the mini VGA port will only output a VGA signal.

 

[jdcurry]

Have you verified that the monitor works with VGA with another computer?

VGA to HDMI (etc) adapters will not work here, unless it's an active analog-to-digital converter box. Any passive adapter will only work with specific hardware that's designed for it - the mini VGA port will only output a VGA signal.

Thank you for the quick reply.

Yes, I was able to connect to the HP monitor with my Acer laptop using a USB to VGA adapter since it doesnt natively have a VGA port.

 

[rjkucia]

Interesting - I'd say it's either the adapter or the laptop, then, but it's weird that it's detecting the monitor. It even knows the manufacturer/model, so it's transmitting data, which I wouldn't expect if either of those things were broken.

To clarify - does the monitor say "no signal" or something like that? Or does it seem to have a signal, but just with a blank screen?

 

[jdcurry]

Interesting - I'd say it's either the adapter or the laptop, then, but it's weird that it's detecting the monitor. It even knows the manufacturer/model, so it's transmitting data, which I wouldn't expect if either of those things were broken.

To clarify - does the monitor say "no signal" or something like that? Or does it seem to have a signal, but just with a blank screen?

The monitor acts like there's no signal... its just a blank screen. I had to manually change the sleep function because it kept turning itself off during troubleshooting. Yet the laptop seems to ping it and identity the make & model. Very strange. I wasn't sure if maybe the iBook could only transmit certain refresh rates that maybe only work with older LCD & CRTs (something along those lines) and didn't work well with newer monitors..