B/W G3: loses video signal at login?

[munckee]

I have a b/w g3 running os9. The login window offers two options, guest and admin. I don't have the admin password and as soon as I log into the guest account, I get an error on my monitor that says something like "this signal is incompatible in this mode". Everything up until then displays correctly.

The computer is hooked up to my dell monitor via VGA cable. Anyone know why this is happening or how to fix it?

[x86]

Do you happen to have another monitor? Possibly a more modern one? It sounds like your resolution is too high for the monitor to handle. There should be a way to lower it before you log on, sort of like "safe-mode" in Windows, but I have never used OS 9, so maybe someone else can chime in on that...

[munckee]

Do you happen to have another monitor? Possibly a more modern one? It sounds like your resolution is too high for the monitor to handle. There should be a way to lower it before you log on, sort of like "safe-mode" in Windows, but I have never used OS 9, so maybe someone else can chime in on that...

It's a Dell 20" widescreen (2005, not 2007); I don't think that's the issue.

[frankblundt]

Maybe give zapping the PRAM (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238) a try. :)

Hopefully this will reset your monitor settings to something compatible.

[Makosuke]

I've seen an issue where Yikes! G4 towers will fail to display video if you start them up with certain resolutions. Since they use the same motherboard as the B&Ws, it might be similar. This was under OSX, though, although zapping the PRAM brought it back every time (I may have also had to do an Open Firmware reset, but I don't think so).

There was no problem for me selecting the resolution after startup, but if I restarted at that resolution, no video at all. No fix that I know of.

Also: 20" widescreen LCD on a B&W with OS9... that's something else.

[DZ/015]

If you are using the original video (http://support.apple.com/specs/powermac/Power_Macintosh_G3_Blue-and-White.html) card that came with the G3, I am 99.9% sure it is incompatible with the widescreen display.

[munckee]

If you are using the original video (http://support.apple.com/specs/powermac/Power_Macintosh_G3_Blue-and-White.html) card that came with the G3, I am 99.9% sure it is incompatible with the widescreen display.

I just sold another b/w g3 yesterday that worked fine with my dell. Now that one was a 450mhz, so maybe it was just new enough to work. I update after I get to try the PRAM update.

[munckee]

No luck with PRAM resent. Message reads "1: D-Sub Cannot Display this mode" :confused:
I'm gonna do a clean install and update; we'll see if that clears this up.