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PCI G4 Sawtooth s-video card help

AlBDamned

AlBDamned

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Mar 14, 2005
2,641
15
Hi All,

I'm having trouble getting the s-video to work on an old Rage 128 VGA card in my project G4 Sawtooth.

The card itself is a PCI card from a Power Mac G3 Blue and White. It has VGA, DVI and S-video. I've downloaded the latest ATI drivers and everything, the VGA output works (haven't had a chance to try the DVI yet) as a second screen.

An ATI 128 Rage pro AGP is driving the main screen, but the S-video just doesn't work when I try connecting it to my TV: s-video> video > Scart.

It's not the cable set-up, as it works fine coming out of my 1.67 Powerbook.

When I "detect displays" on the Sawtooth, with the TV plugged in, the the TV screen flickers but doesn't show the screen.

Has anyone got any suggestions at all?

FYI I'm running 10.4.6 on this thing.
 
Was that stock? The card in my B/W only has VGA...

If it was stock, you may find the answer in the apple.com support section, they have searchable documents that might cover the issue. If you bought the card from a store and it was a Mac ready card, then you can probably find out by searching around the site of the card maker (or dropping them an email). If it was a flashed PC card, then you may be out of luck (I run a flashed card in my G4 and my S-video is currently dead, at least until I figure out how to unlock it, if that's even a possibility--much different card, though). The people over at strangedogs might be able to help in either case, but especially if it is the latter:

http://strangedogs.proboards40.com
 
That has to be either the Rage Pro card from the educational model Blue and Whites, which isnt supported under OSX, or a Radeon Mac Edition or Radeon 7000 or 9200.

The Rage Pro that has the TV in and OUT does NOT work right at all under OSX and actually normally will not work with a monitor hooked up to its port either.
 
Thanks guys.

I think it could well be a resolution problem with the TV. I can't determine what the card is though. The main one I'm using for the monitor is an AGP ATI Radeon 7000 Mac edition, or so says ATI drivers in Sys. Preference (as per the links provided by Spinne1.

This card has a VGA and ADC port.

However, the card with the S-video/DVI/VGA port is a PCI, ATI Rage 128 VGA (?). ATI drivers in system preferences says it can't identify it as anything else.

FYI, the Blue and White it came from wasn't an education model but a professional, built to order machine. (Cost abot £5k in total, with a 21 or 23" ADC, about 7 years ago).

I'm going to play around with the resolutions this evening.

Also, I bought a 10" IBM VGA monitor on eBay, to use as the head of this thing. It works fine when being used as part of a two monitor set up. You have to set the resolution on the little one to 640 x 480 @ 60Hz.

Only problem is, if you take out the big monitor - a 17" LCD sharp which I keep nicking off my flatmate - and reboot the machine so you can only use the 10 incher, the screen goes haywire and says "video not supported".

I can't get it to save the 640 x 480 settings. Very annoying!!
 
The card might be an XCLAIM series video card - I believe they had s-video out and supported video capture. They are based on the Rage architecure, but probably require additional software to work properly (and might not be fully functional under OS X). Check ATI's website for drivers.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
The card might be an XCLAIM series video card - I believe they had s-video out and supported video capture. They are based on the Rage architecure, but probably require additional software to work properly (and might not be fully functional under OS X). Check ATI's website for drivers.
Click to expand...

it could definitely be one of these XCLAIM cards. Apple's site says this card came as part of an AV Bundled Blue & White G3. However, I've got the latest drivers. Will have ot check back once I've played more with the resolutions.

Does anyone have any suggestions wit the 10" screen problem noted in the previous post?

Cheers
 
AlBDamned said:
it could definitely be one of these XCLAIM cards. Apple's site says this card came as part of an AV Bundled Blue & White G3. However, I've got the latest drivers. Will have ot check back once I've played more with the resolutions.

Does anyone have any suggestions wit the 10" screen problem noted in the previous post?

Cheers
Click to expand...

When you shut down, which monitor do you have set with your menu bar? If it is the 17" monitor, then that is your problem. When you start up the computer without the 17" monitor, it tries to send the resolution to the 10" monitor that you had for the 17" monitor, which won't work. [Or it may just set a standard default in the absence of the 17" monitor, which is not 640 x 480 at 60hz. Which is the case? I'm not sure.] To get it to work, hook up both monitors and slide your menu bar by clicking and dragging the menu bar on the little picture of your monitor layout in the Displays preferences. Moving the menu bar makes the 10" monitor your "main" monitor. Then, shut down, unhook the 17" monitor and then restart. It should restart with the correct resolution.
 
spinne1 said:
When you shut down, which monitor do you have set with your menu bar? If it is the 17" monitor, then that is your problem. When you start up the computer without the 17" monitor, it tries to send the resolution to the 10" monitor that you had for the 17" monitor, which won't work. [Or it may just set a standard default in the absence of the 17" monitor, which is not 640 x 480 at 60hz. Which is the case? I'm not sure.] To get it to work, hook up both monitors and slide your menu bar by clicking and dragging the menu bar on the little picture of your monitor layout in the Displays preferences. Moving the menu bar makes the 10" monitor your "main" monitor. Then, shut down, unhook the 17" monitor and then restart. It should restart with the correct resolution.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I've done it in the exact order you say above, but when there's two monitors plugged in (17" and 10") I have set the 10" monitor as the "main" monitor with the menu bar etc.

The thing is, when I restart with both monitors, it seems to shift between them and it starts up with the 10" as the main and the 17" as the second. That seems to work fine.

However, if the 17" isn't plugged in, the 10" comes up with the grey Apple screen, clockwises round, but then goes to "unsupported video" again and can't come out of it.

What this says to me is that the 10" monitor is without doubt supported by Tiger, but in this situation, it can't boot up using the 10" as the main screen.

I have no idea why this might be :confused: :eek:
 
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I've now managed to get the video card recognised. It says it's an ATY RV100.

Any further thoughts on the s-video not working at all?
 

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AlBDamned said:
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I've now managed to get the video card recognised. It says it's an ATY RV100.

Any further thoughts on the s-video not working at all?
Click to expand...

I have the same exact info in System Profiler for my second video card and mine is a Radeon 7000 PCI version with 32 mb of vram (which is confusing as you say the second card for you is a Rage 128--perhaps they both show up in System Profiler as an ATY RV100?). My s-video works fine. Either your software is not set right for the second video card, or your TV is somehow not compatible with the signal being sent (seems very unlikely). Beyond that, I don't know.

Try using a regular full size TV set with the s-video signal off the second card. What happens?
 
spinne1 said:
I have the same exact info in System Profiler for my second video card and mine is a Radeon 7000 PCI version with 32 mb of vram (which is confusing as you say the second card for you is a Rage 128--perhaps they both show up in System Profiler as an ATY RV100?). My s-video works fine. Either your software is not set right for the second video card, or your TV is somehow not compatible with the signal being sent (seems very unlikely). Beyond that, I don't know.

Try using a regular full size TV set with the s-video signal off the second card. What happens?
Click to expand...

I was wrong when I called it a RAGE 128 card. I'm trying a couple of different cards for the VGA monitor and got a little mixed up. However, I think you're right, this one is likely identical to yours - a Radeon 7000 PCI version.

Recently I've tried using this card as the only card and running both the VGA screen and the full size (21") TV screen. The VGA screen works fine like this so that part of the card is definitely working).

I've also tried using a separate card for the VGA screen..

Nothing much doing on the TV with either option. In ATI preferences (on system prefs), when you detect displays, the TV flickers but doesn't show the screen.

I do think it's just a system setting as there is some sort of signal getting through, but I just can't figure it out.

Is it possible just the s-video port is faulty? It definitely wouldn't have been used before I got hold of it so it would never have been tested at the beginning of its life.
 
resurrecting this again but I've had some progress.

Basically I've tried another video card and get the same result - just a flickering screen. So that means it's not the card(s).

But, the cable I'm using is a 7pin s-video to composite (then to scart) that came with my powerbook. As said, PowerBook to TV is fine.

However, on the Power Mac, if the TV is plugged in and you go to system profiler, the TV isn't even recognised as a connected display. But, if I use a 4-pin s-video to scart cable that I've got, the TV is recognised in profiler but it still doesn't come up as a second screen (because the PM needs the extra 3 pins to work properly). So that means...

Does anyone know of a good 7pin S-vide to scart cable that would work with a Power Mac G4? Increasingly I think it's the cable and more specifically the adapter that's the problem.
 
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