Toby framebuffer losing sync

[scott]

I just picked up an old Toby framebuffer (820-0198-A7) to use in my IIcx. The card seems to lose sync every few seconds - I'm trying to narrow down the cause.

I'm using an LCD monitor with a home-made Mac-PC video cable... I can use this cable on other video cards, and the monitor will do 640x480.

Unfortunately, I don't have a CRT (either Mac or PC) that I can try.

I just searched the forum, and found a few posts suggesting the Toby can't drive an LCD monitor... Can anyone confirm/deny?

Am I looking at a compatibility issue, or just a flaky video card?

Thanks

 

[scott]

I finally got my hands on a CRT monitor, and a proper PC to Mac video cable. I tried every setting on my sync-adapter. No luck... The CRT monitor won't sync at all.

I've ordered another Toby, but I'm starting to think I need a real Mac RGB 13/14 inch monitor

 

[scott]

Success!

I picked up an AppleColor M0401 for twenty bucks on Ebay. It works perfectly with the Toby.

 

[LCGuy]

Yeah - Toby card, like Macintosh built-in video from that era tends to not always play nicely with non-Apple displays. Its for this reason as to why I still keep 3 of the Apple Trinitrons (Macintosh Colour Display) around.

 

[H3NRY]

Early Apple displays don't use the same scan frequencies as PCs did, so many multi-sync monitors don't work. A few which were compatible with the IBM PGA card (anyone remember the Professional Graphics Adapter?) would stretch far enough to cover Apple's Toby and other cards. Most LCDs are too new for the TFB and PCs' CGA signals. What Apple never documented is the Toby Frame Buffer could output video at NTSC RGB rates, so with an RGB to composite adapter, you could use a TV for display. If you were lucky enough to have an Apple II RGB monitor, you could use it with your Mac II. There was a shortage of the Trinitron monitors when the Mac II first came out, and I used my Apple II monitor on my Mac II for 4 months until I got one of the Apple High Resolution Color Monitors.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

The IIci's Vampire Video was bad, but not as bad as losing one of three slots to a Toby on a IIcx without it. Lots of folks ran the 13" RGB off the VV and put a real video card in the IIci for a grayscale TPD.

I've got several Tobys to test, but it seems sinful to put an unaccelerated VidCard into a IIfx. But now I can't wait to try a IIfx screen on my TV Tuner Card in the Sonnetized 6360, that's how I ran my Laser 128 back in the day.

It was pretty cool having that running "virtually headless" on what was my Main Mac. After that the 6360 became my plotter server on the switched VGA input of the IntelliColor 20 hooked up to 5 BNC to the G4 at the time. Three computers, two at a time, in window on desktop on my main monitor.