Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Powerbook G4 Titanium 3,3 Tiger LCD faulty
- Thread starter monkeyisland
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I think this happens when you put a late 1Ghz/867Mhz Ti 1280x854 native resolution screen on a earlier Ti model PowerBook3,3 which supported 1152x768 native resolution. Did you swap screen on that machine ?
Done that once, and remember only testing with Tiger, had the same thing... Good to know it works fine with Linux
Done that once, and remember only testing with Tiger, had the same thing... Good to know it works fine with Linux
Yes i changed the screen ah i see how can change the Resolution in the installer or later?I think this happens when you put a late 1Ghz/867Mhz Ti 1280x854 native resolution screen on a earlier Ti model PowerBook3,3 which supported 1152x768 native resolution. Did you swap screen on that machine ?
Done that once, and remember only testing with Tiger, had the same thing... Good to know it works fine with Linux
in preferences there is a option but the screen stays ugly?
Do you mean setting the resolution to 1280x854 in Tiger ? Well, that was long ago and that Ti died since, so can't try again, but I remember I couldn't pass 1152x768 for the screen, hence that weird display. Must be cause of the graphic chip, the PowerBook3,3 has a 16Mb ATI Mobility Radeon , and the 3,5 has the 64 Mb ATI Mobility Radeon 9000...
Don't know if there is a trick to make the 1280x854 display correctly on a 3,3 in Tiger ...
What's new to me is that it displays well in MacBuntu.
Generally, Mac OS X just takes whatever screen resolution is handed off by Open Firmware. As to Open Firmware it's a matter of the FCODE ROM for the ATI card contained in the 1MB BootROM for your Powerbook. Sort of an odd handshake between the FCODE ROM and the EDID of your display panel.
I would say the Openfirmware is having an issue finding the correct EDID for the native resolution of you display panel. To check this boot into Open Firmware( CMD+OPT+O+F at boot time ). Navigate to the AGP node in the device tree, normally something like:
Next get the list of .words from the Rage card:
There should be a word for "show-modes" or something similar, execute it:
This should produce a list of all the valid modes the FCODE ROM and the EDID have configured with you display, one of these modes will have an asterisk next to it, denoting the current mode. There are some other .words that should allow us to change the current mode, such as set-mode, but I've never figured out the exact usage of these words to be able to change the mode Open Firmware is displaying.
Maybe @joevt can help us here?
If Open Firmware is displaying correctly at the native mode for you display panel, or correctly at one of the valid scaled modes for your display panel. Then you are having an issue with the ATI Drivers contained on the installer CD/DVD. That is likely fixable, but would require you to make a custom Installer image, and I'll go into more detail once you eliminate that this is not an issue with Open Firmware+FCODE ROM+EDID as I outlined above, if you think you really want to go to all the trouble of creating a custom Installer image?
Is this only an issue with the installer, or if you boot pre-installed Tiger( OS X ) does this issue persist?
I would say the Openfirmware is having an issue finding the correct EDID for the native resolution of you display panel. To check this boot into Open Firmware( CMD+OPT+O+F at boot time ). Navigate to the AGP node in the device tree, normally something like:
Code:
dev agp/@10Next get the list of .words from the Rage card:
Code:
wordsThere should be a word for "show-modes" or something similar, execute it:
Code:
show-modesThis should produce a list of all the valid modes the FCODE ROM and the EDID have configured with you display, one of these modes will have an asterisk next to it, denoting the current mode. There are some other .words that should allow us to change the current mode, such as set-mode, but I've never figured out the exact usage of these words to be able to change the mode Open Firmware is displaying.
Maybe @joevt can help us here?
If Open Firmware is displaying correctly at the native mode for you display panel, or correctly at one of the valid scaled modes for your display panel. Then you are having an issue with the ATI Drivers contained on the installer CD/DVD. That is likely fixable, but would require you to make a custom Installer image, and I'll go into more detail once you eliminate that this is not an issue with Open Firmware+FCODE ROM+EDID as I outlined above, if you think you really want to go to all the trouble of creating a custom Installer image?
Is this only an issue with the installer, or if you boot pre-installed Tiger( OS X ) does this issue persist?
Seem to remember too that the Mac Garden Tiger CD images doesn't install the latest Tiger version. Maybe a combo update to 10.4.11 would fix it ?
Download #31 here :
Download #31 here :
It's been a couple decades...
https://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCente...=1151&Topic=31&ThreadId=9693&postID=9693&ct=6
https://arstechnica.com/civis//viewtopic.php?f=19&t=789618
Is there an EDID?
Is there a Displays preferences panel?
What's in the ioreg?
(not sure what flags Tiger supports)
https://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCente...=1151&Topic=31&ThreadId=9693&postID=9693&ct=6
https://arstechnica.com/civis//viewtopic.php?f=19&t=789618
Is there an EDID?
Is there a Displays preferences panel?
What's in the ioreg?
ioreg -fliw0 > ioreg.txt(not sure what flags Tiger supports)
so i changed the display from a pb 3.1
so now all okay but this display is in a bad condition.
i hoped that i can use the "good" display from the faulty dvi Powerbook .
on the 3.1 Powerbook the display from the dvi Powerbook shows also in openfirmware the screen issue.
so now all okay but this display is in a bad condition.
i hoped that i can use the "good" display from the faulty dvi Powerbook .
on the 3.1 Powerbook the display from the dvi Powerbook shows also in openfirmware the screen issue.
I’ve run 1920×1200 off an 8MB Rage 128 so the GPU isn’t very likely to be limited to 1152×768.
Was pointing that these 2 Ti models have different graphic chips... could be a driver problem. but yeah, there may be a way to make it work.
Last edited:
It's a wonder the screen works at all, LVDS uses a low level programed driver board specific to the LCD used and connecting an incompatible display generally kills the LCD panel.
Is 1152x768 a mode listed in show-modes?
You could try setting that and see if you get proper display in OS X, fallow @joevt 's links and it will tell you how to set the mode in Open Firmware and boot OS X.