My quest to see video output

[UnaClocker]

Hey guys. Got my recently restored Mac IIci back together. New caps and a new power supply in it. The PRAM battery hadn't leaked, amazingly enough, though the caps had. Got that all cleaned up while I was replacing the caps. I think it was all successful. The chime chimes, and after a suitable delay, the hard drive starts booting. Unfortunately, I can't get any video out. I've tried 4 completely different VGA LCD monitors, all generic/rebadged units (dell, gateway, etc). I've got the DB15-VGA adapter with the 10 dip switches. And I've searched this forum up and down and tried all the suggestions as well as several of my guesses for the dip switch settings. Seems to be all OFF and 1,4,5 ON being the predominant suggestions. My IIci doesn't have a video card yet. Just trying to see the onboard video for now. No luck yet. Screen stays in power save mode. I did see one suggestion saying maybe the PRAM battery must be installed before video would work? I also saw something about holding down the E key during boot to change video modes? I tried the E key. And I'm hesitant to put a new PRAM battery in as I've also read that it's not that important.

I'd honestly be happy to just buy the period correct CRT that would have gone with this machine if nothing else.

 

[macosten]

Make sure you're restarting after each time you change the switch settings.

If you just so happen to have the same kind of adapter as I do, try turning on 2, 3, 6, and 7, and then applying power. That's what worked for me (check the reviews for other suggestions).

 

[UnaClocker]

Ahhh, 2,4,6,7 got me a distorted grey screen. I'm on the right track. Going to go back through my pile of monitors again. Thanks!

 

[UnaClocker]

Alright. What a half working machine I have. So to get the video to work on my most compatible monitor, I turn it on with 2,3,6,7, and then switch to 2,4,6,7 and hit reset. At which point I saw a mouse cursor and the disk with the question mark.I'd already had to give the hard drive open heart CPR to get it spinning once, so at this point I popped it open again, and unplugged it's power. While spinning it by hand, I plugged power back in and it took off. Good old stiction problem, I remember that back in the day. At which point I got a happy Mac and it started booting. I carefully set the cover back in place over the drive and grabbed my keyboard and mouse. Booted up, it's System 7.0.1. Has 20mb of ram (I wasn't even sure how much ram it had, prior to this, all my sticks are mismatched). It came up in Black & White, oh, and it was only using the top half of the display. And it's running at 1152x870@75hz, according the the LCD's OSD. I tried changing it to 256 colors, but the display went bonkers. Clicking randomly I got it back down to 16 color mode, which works, albeit on only half of the LCD, with a very strange distorted former image below.

I still may just buy a CRT for this thing, but I'm super stoked to have it working. I didn't find anything worth saving on the HDD, so I'll probably leave that disconnected and try to boot off my Floppy Emu for the time being.

 

[Macbuk]

This is the dip setting i succesfully used with my 19 inch Philips LCD and IIci internal video.  Its worth a try .

 

[IlikeTech]

I have that same adapter and use 145 settings.

However, I have a little MEC Multisync lcd which may be more flexible than a normal monitor.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Have you looked up the specs on your LCDs? If they're standard, 60Hz VGA only panels without multisync capability they're just never gonna sync with IIci output.

 

[Cory5412]

Is there some reason a IIci would be unable to output 60Hz 640x480? Every other Mac I've ever used with one of those fixed-mode adapters has been able to output that mode.

IIci is fixed sync, so one of the dial-wheel or DIP switch adapters is the best bet.

Fixed 640x480 VGA LCDs aren't particularly common, but those DIP switch adapters and thusly wired VGA cables have worked for a couple such devices I've had over the years (namely: nView nSight projector) with, at the time, a Mac LC. Plus I know my fixed-sync adapter worked with my friend's IIci back in the yore of my childhood.

The trick is just finding the combination for 640x480@60 on any given adapter and setting that. I don't use any of these adapters right now, but I suspect that's what "1, 4, 5" refers to on the cited type of adapter.

 

[Gorgonops]

Is there some reason a IIci would be unable to output 60Hz 640x480? Every other Mac I've ever used with one of those fixed-mode adapters has been able to output that mode.

It may well not support it. My vague recollection is that support for VGA-spec monitors was something that Apple introduced with the Macintosh LC. The IIci predates that so it would be perfectly reasonable to expect it only works with the 67hz composite-sync standard Apple used with the original Mac II video cards.

 

[UnaClocker]

No worries. I went ahead and ordered an Apple Color Plus 14" CRT on eBay. Known good and comes in the original box. I don't mind having a period correct display sitting on top of this thing.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Neither the IIci nor the IIsi can output a 60Hz signal IIRC. Multisync monitor or panel required for the vampire video Macs outside of the period Apple CRT solution.

 

[Cory5412]

I'll have to research the IIci/IIsi issue at some point. I have a IIsi, and the requisite adapter, and a couple modern high-end LCDs that will tell me what refresh rate is being fed to them. I'm not in a place where I can pull all those things out at this exact moment and give it a try, however.

Given that when the IIci launched, Apple didn't generally sell any affordable Macintoshes, I can easily see why none of their documentation from the time reflects this capability, if it exists. The LC and subsequent systems were much more focused on being budget friendly, and as such support for "regular PC monitors" was made explicit.

I'm around 95-99% sure that my friend (this would be, in, like, 1998) my friend brought his IIci and a VGA adapter over and we used it on my ho-hum regular PC monitor at the time. Granted, this was, you know, literally 20 years ago and I was literally a child and it would've been an event that happened just a handful of times before us garage-sale hoppin' kids acquired different equipment.

By the time I had my first IIsi, which was probably in 2000, I also had some Apple monitors, so I almost certainly never used that particular system with a VGA adapter. This would be good wiki fodder, presuming of course it's not already there and I just didn't look, so I'm going to pin this thread to that one.

I went ahead and ordered an Apple Color Plus 14" CRT on eBay. Known good and comes in the original box.

Very nice! It's always good to have an Apple display around anyway. The old fixed-sync Apple displays work up through some early G4 models, using adapters or specific cards, but not on PCs and not on anything newer.

 

[UnaClocker]

I'd guess that the reason it worked with a CRT 20 years ago is that was around "peak" CRT era. The PC monitors had gotten really nice by the end of the 90's, with only a few more years left to go before they were obsolete. Most any 17"+ could run at 75hz, especially at 1152xsomething or less. I'm half kicking myself for not having saved my last 21" CRT. I remember running that puppy at 1600x1200@75hz It was a beast.. hehe, oh well.

 

[Gorgonops]

I'd guess that the reason it worked with a CRT 20 years ago is that was around "peak" CRT era.

This. Unless your monitor was more than about six or seven or so years old in 1998 there's a very good chance it was sufficiently flexible to digest Macintosh video. Technically speaking in the late eighties through the nineties there was kind of an informal divide in the monitor market between "True Multisyncs" which claimed to be capable of digesting almost anything (including digital RGB, CGA/EGA/PAL/whatever frequencies below basic VGA resolution, and every sync protocol known to man) and mere "multi-frequency" monitors that only supported a more limited subset of fixed modes. (IE, in the most limited cases they might be like IBM's 8514, which only supported 640x480@60hz and 1024x768@43hz interlaced, but by 1990 or so 800x600 had become such an ad-hoc success they'd usually at least also support that at either 56 or 60hz.) Monitors in that latter category would have problems displaying Macintosh-native video modes, but by the mid-90's even the cheap monitors were usually capable of syncing with them because at that point the distinctions between the two had mostly disappeared. Support for composite/sync-on-green was admittedly still somewhat patchy, but it wasn't really rare either.

(I suspect at this point they'd shrunk the necessary multisync detection-recovery circuitry down to a single off-the-shelf chip or two, so if the manufacturer happened to use capable parts it came along for free. Also, since Apple had legitimized using third-party monitors with the LC it would actually be in the monitor manufacturer's interest to toss in the capability to work with "any" Macintosh if it didn't cost them much, because otherwise you're going to have to deal with the support headaches of trying to explain to disgruntled customers why the monitor you're selling as "Macintosh Compatible" doesn't work on this short list of older machines.)

 

[Cory5412]

The monitors I had were $0, quite small, hand-me-downs intended explicitly for the PC market. I never saw them do anything other than 640x480@60, but I never connected them to PCs that could do better than that.

The point of contention in my memory is more about whether or not the thing I'm thinking of ever happened, as opposed to, if my friend wouldn't just have brought over his own monitor as well.

 

[Gorgonops]

Okay. It is on the record, though (Apple KBs, Gamba's old site, etc) that the only monitors the IIci supports with its internal video are the 512x384 12" color, color or monochrome 640x480@67hz, and the single-page portrait. Stumbled across a table that specifically said it didn't work with Apple's oddball "Basic Color Monitor", which was this weird one-off they specifically sold for LCs which is VGA standard 640x480@60hz. (It's a head-scratcher why they would even bother with that, I can only assume the engineering investment was limited to pasting a sticker to it.) If it doesn't work with the "Basic" monitor it's not going to work with VGA.

 

[Cory5412]

which was this weird one-off they specifically sold for LCs which is VGA standard 640x480@60hz. (It's a head-scratcher why they would even bother with that, I can only assume the engineering investment was limited to pasting a sticker to it.)

I believe the Basic Color Monitor was introduced in 1992 alongside the Performa 600, it cost $500 if I'm remembering correctly, which is even less than what the 12" RGB launched at, albeit two years earlier. Several of Apple's displays were re-badges, and the actual engineering and manufacturing on most were outsourced.

Okay. It is on the record, though (Apple KBs, Gamba's old site, etc) that the only monitors the IIci supports with its internal video are the 512x384 12" color, color or monochrome 640x480@67hz, and the single-page portrait.

I'll admit, this discussion would've been shorter if someone had led with that.

 

[Gorgonops]

I'll admit, this discussion would've been shorter if someone had led with that.

Well, if we want a related mystery to ponder I suppose it's an interesting puzzle as to why the IIci, which according to the various sources was introduced in September 1989, includes support for the 12" RGB monitor as EveryMac says that came out alongside the original LC in October 1990. Apparently someone was thinking ahead.

 

[Cory5412]

But not too far ahead - given that we know the LC supported VGA.

My guess is Apple figured nobody in 1989 buying a new $6700 computer was going to try to run it with a $500 display.

That said, the other thing to consider is whether or not the IIci works with the older monochrome 12" 512x384 display. (or, the newer one that was restyled to go along with the LC, for that matter.) That might be where the support for the color 12" display comes from.