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| Driving a 23“ DVI Cinema Display from a Powermac 8500? | |
| Posted by: robin-fo on 2023-01-18 14:49:46 Hi everyone I‘d like to use my 23“ Aluminium Apple Cinema Display with my Apple Workgroup Server 8550 (technically about the same as a 7500/7600/8500). I need the full resolution, but not much 3D acceleration. Are there any compatible video cards and is this even possible? | |
| Posted by: Phipli on 2023-01-18 15:05:19 A flashed PC Radeon 7000 with 64MB of VRAM will do it... The mac version won't because it doesn't have enough VRAM or some other reason (it should have enough - I shouldn't believe everything I read on the internet). The flashed 64MB card only reports 32MB, but works at 1920x1200. Radeon 9200 just about works in a 8500, with 9.1 and 9.2 only I think (perhaps even 9.2 only - I'd want to double check). Bewarned that the 9200 and 9250 were both sold in boxes that said "9200". Both can be made to work but the 9250 needs a bit more faff. Neither (drivers wise) make great OS 9 cards. | |
| Posted by: robin-fo on 2023-01-18 22:09:17 Thanks a lot! So this one might work? Can I flash it using a Mac (or maybe with a chip programmer)? | |
Posted by: Phipli on 2023-01-19 01:42:32Thanks a lot! So this one might work?That card is a good price, but flashing seems to be a little unreliable with what cards it works with so I can't tell you yes or no sorry. You'll need a new ROM chip because PC cards come with a ROM chip that is too small for the mac firmware. | |
| Posted by: waynestewart on 2023-01-19 02:06:10 a number of people have flashed the ROM with a trimmed image. The down side is that there's no boot screen. You have a blank screen until the drivers load | |
| Posted by: robin-fo on 2023-01-19 02:46:32 Ok thanks, I‘ll try my luck with this card and solder a new chip on! | |
| Posted by: jeremywork on 2023-01-19 15:19:50 I can also confirm that a flashed 7000 will happily plug and play with a 23" aluminum cinema display at 1920x1200. Additional background might be tied to the same issue mentioned in the August 2005 Radeon ROM update documentation. For the 9000 Pro, 9800 Pro, and 9800 Pro Special Edition, "Fixed hotplug bug with 20", 23", and 30" DVI Apple Cinema Displays" is listed. Unfortunately nothing like that for the 8500 (though not too different from the 9000 Pro, itself.) In the mode tables section, the doc also mentions "The RADEON card's maximum digital resolution is 1920x1200 (using a reduced blanking interval compatible with Apple's Cinema HD ADC Display, using an Apple or third-party powered adapter)." This isn't directly related to the aluminum models though. Most other DVI 1920x1200 panels should have better compatibility. | |
Posted by: robin-fo on 2023-01-19 15:24:12I can also confirm that a flashed 7000 will happily plug and play with a 23" aluminum cinema display at 1920x1200.Cool! Let's see how it turns out. Plug- and play might be important for me, as I'm planning to use a KVM to share screen and mouse/keyboard with a Mac Mini G4. | |
Posted by: robin-fo on 2023-02-03 16:46:50Thanks a lot! So this one might work?Ok the card arrived, but I wasn't able to flash it with my Powermac 8550. I tried several tools and even installed MacOS 10.3 on it but with no success. The onboard Flash is an AT25F512 so there should be enough space? I haven't got an old PC so can't flash it under DOS. A new 1024K chip is now underway so my next attempt will be to flash the chip directly. | |
Posted by: Phipli on 2023-02-03 17:06:22Ok the card arrived, but I wasn't able to flash it with my Powermac 8550. I tried several tools and even installed MacOS 10.3 on it but with no success. The onboard Flash is an AT25F512 so there should be enough space? I haven't got an old PC so can't flash it under DOS. A new 1024K chip is now underway so my next attempt will be to flash the chip directly.The mac firmware updates don't work on PC cards that I know - how were you trying to flash it? | |
| Posted by: robin-fo on 2023-02-03 17:09:00 I tried with Graphiccelerator on 9.1 and 10.3 as well as the official ROM updater for the Mac version. | |
| Posted by: robin-fo on 2023-02-10 12:06:54 Wow! | |
Posted by: Phipli on 2023-02-10 12:19:17Wow!Fun isn't it 🙂  | |
| Posted by: Phipli on 2023-02-10 12:22:54 Just a heads up driver-wise, I find that after a while the newest Mac OS 9 drivers start causing the computer to pause for 30 seconds or longer before loading the icons and on the desktop on boot. Because of this I tend to run a bit older version of the drivers. | |
| Posted by: robin-fo on 2023-02-10 13:57:00 Thanks! I think I also experienced this issue… Ok, next stop: Native WiFi on the 8550! | |
Posted by: Phipli on 2023-02-10 14:15:58Native WiFi on the 8550Cisco Aironet 340 For example : https://www.ebay.com/itm/204096708243 I can send you the Mac drivers if needed. It works in Mac OS 9, not sure how far back, but I think the drivers I have don't support OS 8 sadly. The 350 should work too. | |
| Posted by: Phipli on 2023-02-10 14:26:49 After carefully finding a listing on eBay.com rather than my local ebay, I just realised you're in Switzerland 🤣 | |
| Posted by: robin-fo on 2023-03-03 14:09:58 I'm really impressed how this turned out!    | |
| Posted by: CC_333 on 2023-03-14 21:05:25 I would imagine that Mac OS X Panther on a PowerPC 60? running at 300 MHz with 128 MB of RAM is extremely slow, to the point of utter and complete uselessness! How can it be?! c | |
| Posted by: robin-fo on 2023-03-14 23:14:20 It is quite slow! It’s a PowerPC G3 however and not as stated something earlier. | |
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