What is the best monitor/resolution for this G4?

[MtnExile]

I have a G4 Quicksilver 2002, OS9.2.2, 1gig of RAM, with an Nvidia GeForce2 video card and 64mb of VRAM.

I currently have a 17" Sony that is older than my high-school son, and works perfectly. It's just...small. I'd like to get a larger monitor. I've tried a couple of larger-format monitors (both Acers), and the same thing happened both times: in OS9, the only resolution I could choose was 640x480; and in OSX Leopard, the screen just went black after booting up.

I was told by the seller that this particular card will support up to 1920px wide resolutions. So far, it only supports a single monitor, and no higher than 1280.

Does anyone have any insight into what might be going on?

[Protools5LEGuy]

It seems like you haven't the nVidia extensions activated or the old ones.

Are you trying an OS9 install version not from here?

Some VGA extenders force the resolution to be 640x480 or 800x600. Check the VGA cable.

Is your graphics card Apple OEM or an PC one?

[IIO]

it definitely supports 1920x1200 in both OS9 and OSX.

if you buy a new flat screen today, not all resolutions might be shown properly (mainly in OS9) - the shareware switchres will allow all defaults of a monitor (and more) again. 

[MtnExile]

I probably should have given more information to begin with.

First of all, this is my first post here. I only discovered this site today.

I bought this particular G4 off Ebay for $90. Seemed like a good deal. I have two other G4s that have Radeon video cards, and neither of them will support a larger monitor.

When I bought it, it had a single hard drive with OS 10.5.8. I had a local outfit install a second hard drive and install 9.2.2 on it, and since I'm discovering more and more issues it looks like they did a piss-poor job of it and I'll have to take it to a second computer store to see if they can do a proper job (I can't myself...I'm not a computer expert by any stretch of the imagination...I just use them).

Anyway, the new installation didn't include any nVidia extensions -- or none that I can see in OS9, anyway. In checking the system profiler in Leopard, I see this:

Chipset Model: GeForce2 TwinView
VRAM (Total): 64mb
Resolution: 1280 x 1024 @ 75 Hz

...so I guess that's the answer, except that I don't know if that's taking into account the monitor that's actually plugged in right now, or that's the inherent limitation of the video card itself.

Sorry to be so ignorant. You should see me trying to fool with PHP...it's even worse.

[IIO]

it is the particular combination of the monitor and the OS what causes the problem.

the geforce2 video card itself supports far more than 1920x1200. if you connect with an analog cable you can theoretically drive monitors up to 2048x1536 with this card.

as you might have noticed, there are no monitor drivers for MacOS (as there would be for windows) – so, like i mentioned, please try this extension in order to find more available resolutions when using a modern monitor.

[Protools5LEGuy]

As you might have noticed, there are no monitor drivers for MacOS (as there would be for windows) – so, like i mentioned, please try this extension in order to find more available resolutions when using a modern monitor.

Great! http://www.madrau.com/SRXv3/html/SR2/shareware.html

SwitchRes 2 was Shareware

    Yes SwitchRes2 was once distributed as a shareware.

    However, since MacOS 8 or 9 are not often used any more, the shareware model has no meaning any more for this tool.

    To remove the annoying nag screen and all limitations, you can use the following code:

        User Name: Everyone
        Serial Number: 50F90212C7CADEDA

    Please also note that I don't provide any support any more for this version.

[MtnExile]

Thanks for the SwitchRes recommendation. I have another problem with this G4: it isn't allowing me to mount any external drive through either Firewire or USB, so I can't actually install SwitchRes yet (I can download it, but not unstuff it because I can't copy over the Expander utility). So it's back to the shop to get that fixed first.

When I finally have a chance to try this out with a new monitor, I'll post again to let everyone know how it turned out. Again, many thanks.

[supernova777]

the geforce2 should be able to do up to 1920x1080
it definately goes to 1680x1050

i have a geforce2 card that i took from my quicksilver and i reprogrammed it to work in a windows 98 computer.. and
i hacked the driver to support 1680x1050 by editing the .inf file

[MtnExile]

Okay.

It's been awhile, and there have been other problems (related to the crappy install job the first Mac group did on the newly installed hard drive), but everything is up and running now. (Almost: new post coming on the troubleshooting forum).

It turns out the problem was simple, and Protools5LEGuy was right all along: the clowns that installed the new hard drive and OS 9 didn't bother to use the proper install disks (assuming they even had them), only a truncated, basic operating system without any video extensions whatsoever. Once I tracked down and installed all the proper nVidia extensions, it works perfectly with the monitor I bought (which is a Dell 24-inch running at 1920 x 1080 and looking much better than my old 17-inch Sony).

Thanks to everyone who helped. Now, on to the next problem...