HELP! Resolution disappeared can't get desktop to appear properly...
I've been using Macs since 1992 when I paid nearly $2000 for a Mac LC with the brand-new-at-the-time System 7 (whoo-hoo!). I now have two G4 systems (400, and 550 SPs) and a few months ago I persuaded a friend to jump ship from Windoze to a nice G4 400 (Gigabit Ethernet, ADC) system on which he uses OS X 10.1.5 displayed on a beige Apple 17" CRT monitor (VGA to Apple adaptor, been working a treat for four months).
Everything's been hunkydory right up until tonight when I was round his place and he was having trouble with a CD in iTunes3. It wouldn't read the disc and the spinning beachball started doing its thing.
After five mins of beachball, I advised him to do a FORCE QUIT of iTunes which didn't work, then he hit eject and the disc came out, then he tried FORCE QUIT on iTunes again and the FINDER crashed. After five minutes of beach ball on a plain blue background (desktop picture, dock and everything else had disappeared), I recommended he hit the nice little reset button on the front (pre-Quicksliver G4 400 y'see).
The G4 restarted, but slowly, the Mac OS X screen came up, but it kicked into the wrong resolution. Not only was it in the wrong resolution (1028 instead of 1152) but about two inches of the top, bottom, left and right of the desktop were NOT ON THE SCREEN.
Firstly I went to try and change the resolution (which was difficult as I couldn't see the dock or the menus (they were outside the screen) - the DISPLAYS prefs pane was only offering me 1028, and it was definitely on 1152 before... hmmmm so I fiddled with the actual settings on the monitor to try and get the picture at least properly on the screen. Whilst adjusting the horizontal and vertical I realised that even at full stretch the picture was not appearing on the screen properly. I was still a good few inches off getting the left and right on the screen. So on the left I couldn't see the Apple Menu or the FINDER icon in the dock, and on the right I couldn't see the time or the trash in the dock.
Maybe a corrupted prefs file somewhere? Maybe a corrupted OS file???
So I boot into OS 9.2.2 and the exact same thing happens. There's no option higher than 1028 in the MONITORS control panel, and I can't see the edges of the screen, even with the monitors internal settings at full stretch.
From this, I assume that this is not an OS X problem, and er... maybe a GRAPHICS CARD fault????
I hope all this makes sense, I've tried to keep it brief, but I've gone on a bit.... does anyone know what's happened here???
It was working fine and now all the resolution is completely goosed. Nothing had been installed recently, no new updates or anything, nothing out of the ordinary, it just flipped.
Any help on this would be GREATLY APPRECIATED. I'm at a complete loss as to what his problem is, and as you can imagine it's mighty frustrating not being able to see all your screen....
Everything's been hunkydory right up until tonight when I was round his place and he was having trouble with a CD in iTunes3. It wouldn't read the disc and the spinning beachball started doing its thing.
After five mins of beachball, I advised him to do a FORCE QUIT of iTunes which didn't work, then he hit eject and the disc came out, then he tried FORCE QUIT on iTunes again and the FINDER crashed. After five minutes of beach ball on a plain blue background (desktop picture, dock and everything else had disappeared), I recommended he hit the nice little reset button on the front (pre-Quicksliver G4 400 y'see).
The G4 restarted, but slowly, the Mac OS X screen came up, but it kicked into the wrong resolution. Not only was it in the wrong resolution (1028 instead of 1152) but about two inches of the top, bottom, left and right of the desktop were NOT ON THE SCREEN.
Firstly I went to try and change the resolution (which was difficult as I couldn't see the dock or the menus (they were outside the screen) - the DISPLAYS prefs pane was only offering me 1028, and it was definitely on 1152 before... hmmmm so I fiddled with the actual settings on the monitor to try and get the picture at least properly on the screen. Whilst adjusting the horizontal and vertical I realised that even at full stretch the picture was not appearing on the screen properly. I was still a good few inches off getting the left and right on the screen. So on the left I couldn't see the Apple Menu or the FINDER icon in the dock, and on the right I couldn't see the time or the trash in the dock.
Maybe a corrupted prefs file somewhere? Maybe a corrupted OS file???
So I boot into OS 9.2.2 and the exact same thing happens. There's no option higher than 1028 in the MONITORS control panel, and I can't see the edges of the screen, even with the monitors internal settings at full stretch.
From this, I assume that this is not an OS X problem, and er... maybe a GRAPHICS CARD fault????
I hope all this makes sense, I've tried to keep it brief, but I've gone on a bit.... does anyone know what's happened here???
It was working fine and now all the resolution is completely goosed. Nothing had been installed recently, no new updates or anything, nothing out of the ordinary, it just flipped.
Any help on this would be GREATLY APPRECIATED. I'm at a complete loss as to what his problem is, and as you can imagine it's mighty frustrating not being able to see all your screen....
Comments
what does it do if you set it to something like 800x600? can you see the top and bottom then, or are they still off the edge so to speak?
otherwise i'd say it's a driver problem if i had to pick something. not sure how you reinstall drivers in OSX or OS9 for that matter, since i've never had a problem.
do you have acesss to another monitor? what happens when you plug another one in that first one's place? does it correct the size then?
I know, if you change the res. you have to adjust the monitor by your own.
and you can't do that on the mac, you have to do it on the monitor itself.
alright ?
[quote]what does it do if you set it to something like 800x600? can you see the top and bottom then, or are they still off the edge so to speak? <hr></blockquote>
I tried this. It's even MORE way off the edge of the screen.
[quote]otherwise i'd say it's a driver problem if i had to pick something. not sure how you reinstall drivers in OSX or OS9 for that matter, since i've never had a problem. <hr></blockquote>
How could it just be working fine for four months, and then suddenly (after a FORCE QUIT problem) not work in OS X *and* OS 9 though? The fact that it's the exact same problem in OS 9 suggests to me that it's not a driver problem in either OS.
[quote]do you have acesss to another monitor? what happens when you plug another one in that first one's place? does it correct the size then? <hr></blockquote>
I will take my 15" Apple TFT round and see what happens. The maximum res on that is 1024 though so it won't get the 1152 res back for his CRT....
Unfortunately I don't have another CRT to test with his G4....
<strong>does the monitor itself has some controls ?
I know, if you change the res. you have to adjust the monitor by your own.
and you can't do that on the mac, you have to do it on the monitor itself.
alright ?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Defiant, I've already tried that. May I refer you to a quote from my original post:
[quote]...so I fiddled with the actual settings on the monitor to try and get the picture at least properly on the screen. Whilst adjusting the horizontal and vertical I realised that even at full stretch the picture was not appearing on the screen properly. I was still a good few inches off getting the left and right on the screen. So on the left I couldn't see the Apple Menu or the FINDER icon in the dock, and on the right I couldn't see the time or the trash in the dock.<hr></blockquote>
Thanks!!
i'd say try another monitor, it's about the only way you'll have of knowing for sure.
however, if it gets worse at 800x600, i almost have to think it's a hardware issue.
let us know how it goes.
should help in and of itself
macs autodetect monitors and attempt to default to viewable resolutions (more of a pain in multires like old supermac20 bnc and via griffin adapters)
if you boot the mac without a monitor, the internal settings should reset and it should autodetect the next monitor connected (even if its the same one, a nullmonitor state counts)
<hint... know the key combination for shutdown first or you're asking for first aid after blind poweroff>
modern macs can handle hot-swapping of signal, but the piggybacked power plugs should be on first to minimize risk of surge or brown during critical detect phase
* incidentally, have you tried resetting the pram?
remote possibility that it was corrupted and misreports the res/monitor.
as for why... well you did say OS 10.1.5 - a few quirks. (what visualization setting, etc might matter too). perhpas long odds that the visualization pooched the GL setttings or tried to reset the display res higher than you've got the pixels for, but i've seen it happen on peecees when somebody pushes winamp with blinkenlights beyond it's capabilities.
it almost sounds like a directx techsupport problem
--
run apple system profiler and see what card and monitor it reports (9 and X if possible), output a report including extensions, edit out private info, then park it for review and more people might be able to try and troubleshoot
or just admit you want it and buy a damn disco ball for iTunes
hth
2c
[ 09-06-2002: Message edited by: curiousuburb ]</p>
<strong>
* incidentally, have you tried resetting the pram?
[ 09-06-2002: Message edited by: curiousuburb ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yes this is either a PRAM issue (hold down P+R+option+command whilst powering up until you hear start up chime 4 times) or a hardware (video card) failure.
My money's on PRAM.
<strong>
Yes this is either a PRAM issue (hold down P+R+option+command whilst powering up until you hear start up chime 4 times) or a hardware (video card) failure.
My money's on PRAM.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Thanks for everyone's replies! I got very excited about the unplug monitor/boot-up/ turn off/reconnect monitor tip but it didn't work. I got hyper-excited about zapping the PRAM too, but that didn't work.... so I combined the two ideas... I zapped the PRAM with the monitor unplugged, but that didn't work either...
I unscrewed the video card (RAGE 128 PRO) and had a good look at the connections, and reconnected it. This didn't do anything either.
I have no choice but to replace the video card... but first I'm going to try the monitor with another identical G4 400 (mine), and then try my 15" TFT with his "broken" Mac.
Thanks ever so much for all the helpful replies!!! I really thought one of those would make it better again...