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Macintosh Portrait Display M1031

Oberlehrer

Well-known member
Many years ago one of my students gave me a IIsi with the above Portrait Display. I've always liked that combination and used it occasionally as a terminal for a Synclavier.

After putting everything in storage and moving a few times I thought it was time to break out all those oldies again.

The IIsi had suffered a catastrophic battery explosion that effectively made the logic board a total loss. Got a replacement, recapped the power supply (where the caps had clearly leaked) and the IIsi seems to work ok again (with a different display).

The portrait display is acting up badly. It is getting a signal from the IIsi and clearly displaying something. The "picture" also changes during startup, so, yeah...

M1031_1.JPG

If I re-connect the different monitor afterwards the monitor control panel is clearly showing a vertical orientation and the lower part of the screen seems to be missing. So the M1031 is recognized correctly as what it is.

I can't make it work on an 8100 at all. On a 4400 however I can get the following picture:

M1031_2.JPG

I have to set the monitor control panel to 1024x768, 75Hz for this to work; all other resolutions and refresh rates don't result in anything meaningful. It feels odd to me since this is not a resolution for a portrait display at all.

I'd appreciate any ideas and suggestions. I believe this monitor was built by Hantarex.

 

Compgeke

Well-known member
This is a resolution mismatch for sure. You're going to want to try and set 640x870 or it's going to either not work at all or look very off. 

 

Oberlehrer

Well-known member
This is a resolution mismatch for sure. You're going to want to try and set 640x870 or it's going to either not work at all or look very off. 
With 640x870 I'm not getting any useful picture at all on the 4400, just a flickering screen, mostly black.

Also: The upper photo is on a IIsi which actually recognizes the monitor as 640x870 and tries to drive it at that resolution...

 

Oberlehrer

Well-known member
Update: I can also get some sort of picture out of it with 1024x768 and 74.9 Hz refresh but not with any other refresh rates at that resolution. Surprisingly I also occasionally get something out of it at 640x480 and 60 Hz: a constantly and quickly scrolling picture that otherwise appears to be quite sharp and defined (more zoomed in than I would expect perhaps with 320 horizontal). That is not consistently the case, though - most of the time it's clear that there is some sort of picture but it's heavily distorted.

It's as if the sync signals inside the monitor are all over the place.

 

TimHD

Well-known member
I have to set the monitor control panel to 1024x768, 75Hz for this to work; all other resolutions and refresh rates don't result in anything meaningful. It feels odd to me since this is not a resolution for a portrait display at all.
Interesting as 640x870 is the default resolution (though 75Hz is the correct setting) for the Apple Portrait Displays:

https://lowendmac.com/1989/macintosh-portrait-display/

http://web.archive.org/web/20080112161619/http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=4815

See also this article which lists which Macs can use their native video port to run this, otherwise It seems you will need the Macintosh II High Resolution Portrait Display Card

http://myoldmac.net/SELL/apple-portraitmoni.htm

Watch out for the DB13w3 cables as not all are the same (some for are for Sun computers)

 

Oberlehrer

Well-known member
I had used this very monitor on that IIsi before, so I know that this combination works. It also seems as if there were a couple of different Portrait Displays: M0404, M1030 and M1031.

The 13W3 cable is an Apple cable.

The 4400 offers 640x870 resolution but the monitor won't sync to it.

Here's another interesting tidbit: When booting the 4400 with the monitor connected I don't get a useful picture (as described). When I then connect my VGA monitor afterwards it has a hard time syncing (it obviously can't display 640x870) until it jumps to a working resolution (1024x768, I think). It will stay on grayscale though, and the monitor control panel identifies it as "Ganzseitenmonitor" (German for "full page display"). This tells me that the Portrait Monitor (and its properties) is correctly identified during startup.

 
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Oberlehrer

Well-known member
Some more pictures:

640x480.jpeg

This is how the monitor looks with 640x480. It's scrolling quite fast hence I didn't notice the "wraparound" of the Monitor control panel (the right part of it can be seen on the left side of the screen).

Inside:

Hantarex.jpeg

Yes, it's made by Hantarex...

Caps look generally good - not bulged and no signs of physical leakage (of course that doesn't mean that they're ok):

Caps.jpeg

 

TimHD

Well-known member
I had used this very monitor on that IIsi before, so I know that this combination works. It also seems as if there were a couple of different Portrait Displays: M0404, M1030 and M1031.

The 4400 offers 640x870 resolution but the monitor won't sync to it.
That site I linked earlier only quotes the below Macs as being compatible, though I also have an Apple Portrait Display hooked up to my IIsi (mine's a M1030, like yours?). While these are often just extracts from Spec sheets at a point in time (ie the IIsi came out in 1990, though the 475 was 1993!!), I wonder if the 4400 is not compatible and the hardware issue might be with your IIsi's video. Have you managed to get another monitor working on the IIsi?

          ¥ a Macintosh II, IIx or IIci CPU, also Performa 475
          ¥ optional a Macintosh II Portrait Display Video Card (M0119)
         To enhance gray scaling, the Macintosh II Video Card Expansion Kit (M0213) is available as an option

If it's not the IIsi, does the Portrait Display video get better over time? I have a Radius Pivot display that starts as a 'dot' and then slowly widens out to become a full screen portrait display. I suspect some chip or capacitor needs to warm up first, but not done much more to isolate the issue.

Certainly it seems the issue is most likely a hardware one - possibly with the IIsi if not the monitor (the 4400 seems to suggest monitor ok, assuming the 4400 can't get the output Hz right, hence the partial distortion).

 

Oberlehrer

Well-known member
Thank you for your comments and research.

I've found the "Card compatibility an Video Output Tables" Apple Service Source; it lists the IIsi with 16 grays for the M0404 (which I assume is the same as mine):

Card_Compatibility_Video.jpg

It also lists all Power Macs up to the 9500 as compatible. My guess is that this guide is from around 1995 and hence before the 4400 came out. Interestingly the 8100 is also listed as compatible but I couldn't get it to work with the monitor at all (so far).

The IIsi plays nicely with a TFT and an adapter at 640x480, both grays and colors. So I don't really think it's a problem with the IIsi's graphics memory. I don't believe it's getting significantly better over time although I think the partial sync under 640x480 (as seen in the picture above) did not work immediately after turning it on. Perhaps I'll do a long-time test tomorrow.

 
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