OS X instl; now monitor won't work!

[G2Jim]

I'm new here, so hopefully this is the right forum for a combined hardware/software problem.

I was running OS 9.1 just fine on my PowerMac G3 beige desktop and a ViewSonic EF70 17" monitor. I wanted to use DSL so I tried to install OS X. After a lot of trial and error, I ended up having to reformat my hard drive, do a clean install of OS 9.1, then OS X. My monitor works just fine with OS 9.1, but doesn't fire up at all using OS X. I tried using my old Performa 12" monitor, which does work with OS X, but when I get to the Setup Assistant Welcome screen to enter basic information, it's all too big for the little monitor and I can't enter information or click on the continue button. I've tried removing all peripheral devices and all non-apple PCI cards. Still no luck.

Any suggestions to get my Viewsonic monitor to work with OS X?

 

[MacBandit]

Unfortunately beige G3s aren't completely supported under OSX. If you have what they call a revision A Beige G3 with the Rage II graphics chip you are kind of out of luck unless you install an after-market video card.

 

[G2Jim]

Thanks MacBandit. I'll need to decide whether I want to put more money into this G3 or maybe take this opportunity to move up to something newer.

 

[idea_hamster]

I think that the Beige G3's were the last of what are called "old-world" Macs. I ran into this when trying to install Yellow Dog Linux onto my old G3 -- not impossible but it did turn out to be more complicated.

It seems that there was a pretty significant change in the way the Mac treats its firmware and the OS which didn't completely make it over to OS X -- which was the reason behind the Linux choice originally.

FYI -- the G3 is still running 9.2 pretty much, which is where I suspect it'll stay for good. Oh, well.

 

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by idea_hamster
I think that the Beige G3's were the last of what are called "old-world" Macs. I ran into this when trying to install Yellow Dog Linux onto my old G3 -- not impossible but it did turn out to be more complicated.

It seems that there was a pretty significant change in the way the Mac treats its firmware and the OS which didn't completely make it over to OS X -- which was the reason behind the Linux choice originally.

FYI -- the G3 is still running 9.2 pretty much, which is where I suspect it'll stay for good. Oh, well.

You've pretty much hit the nail on the head. With the advent of the B/W G3s the firmware moved from on chip ROM to something that is loaded into RAM. Also with the B/W came the Rage 128 video cards which was the first of the new generation of graphics cards and the point when Apple moved completely to card based graphics rather than on board graphics.