Monitor Problems, please help...

Hidden Gekko · #1 August 23rd, 2003, 10:59 PM

Why is it so hard to find a freakin monitor that works right? Argh...

Ok, first I order a 17 Inch Black CRT display on the Apple site along with my new G4. The monitor works fine for about a month, and then it exposes itself as a piece of garbage. After an hour, these pink stripes appear all over it and the only way to get rid of it is to shut down the computer for a while. Everything is trash...

Okay so then I plan to send this monitor back for a refund, and I go out and buy this 14 inch Kogi Display at Best Buy. I set it up and it works fine with everything, but then I try to open up Photoshop and the program hangs when it tries to find the color profiles. Alright, I'll try to fix this. I go into color-sync and make a calliberation. All the setting go fine until I save a calibration, where ColorSync successfully also hangs itself, which throughly ticks me off.

So what to do? Is there anyway at all to make this LCD Monitor work with Photoshop? I mean, I kinda need that program for college

Or must I spend $700 on an apple display. Sorry, Apple, that's insane. I'll buy five G5s for 10 grand before I buy 5 of your smallest monitors for $3,500...

Why must everything be made to become obsolete these days? To make money, that's right. I at least expected my CRT to last a year...

This Kogi monitor didn't mention that it was compatible with Macs, but I thought it would run just fine, which it has until my Mac goes insane trying to make a color profile...

So what should I do? I got this baby for $180. Should I go back to best buy and look for a monitor that actually says it's compatible with a Mac, then bring it home and see that it doesn't work with photoshop either? It's not like have a pile of money to burn here...

ex2bot · #2 August 23rd, 2003, 11:53 PM

Sorry to hear you're having troubles. ANY monitor with a VGA-type connector (the same ones they sell for Intel PCs) or DVI (the same digital video standard they sell for Intel PCs) will work with your Macs.

Your iMac has a VGA port. I'm not sure about your PowerMac. It probably has two of the following:
VGA out
DVI out
Apple-proprietary ADC output.

The DVI or ADC ports will give you the best quality image.

Now, the pink lines on the first monitory you mentioned . . . sounds like a hardware problem. Sounds like the monitor was faulty.

The Colorsync crashes and color profile problems . . . Check the manufacturer's website for a profile for that monitor or try a generic VGA LCD profile (if available).

Be sure to rule out corrupted files on your hard drive. And run a disk-checking utility such as Diskwarrior and/or fsck.

Beyond that, I'm sure someone here will have more ideas.

Good luck!

Doug

Hidden Gekko · #3 August 24th, 2003, 12:07 AM

Yeah, its a G4, one of the new ones in the quick-silver casing. I know it's not a corruption problem, and yes, that monitor they sent me is very likely faulty

The Kogi website is very small... Not much there except customer support. I emailed 'em but I know they'll return something like 'You use a mac?

Er... we can't help you' Sigh...

Anyways, they have no downloadable profile so I doubt I can fix this... I guess i'll just have to try another monitor, which means yet another trip to semi-best buy...

Hidden Gekko · #4 August 24th, 2003, 12:25 AM

Oh, and I meant Display Calibrator, sorry

Hidden Gekko · #5 August 24th, 2003, 01:45 AM

Well, i've given up. After doing some scans, I found that my Mac just does not like this monitor. If I go to Detect Monitor in the display settings, the system freezes for a moment, then goes back to normal with no results. If I go to ColorSync utility and go to devices - monitors, the monitor shows up as a blank name with an aqua button near it, and that program hangs. And of course, there's the problems I have already gone through...

It's something in the colorsync of the monitor it doesn't detect, I dunno, i'm no expert. I'm just going to take it back and get another one, different brand, hopefully one that actually says it supports Macs, and at a fair price...

Thus ends a weird problem with no solution. Thx for the help, though.

Arden · #6 August 24th, 2003, 02:32 AM

Look for a monitor that has a DVI port, as you can get an adaptor to your ADC-equipped G4.

I'm not sure why you're so adverse to Apple's pricing plan. They only sell flat-screen monitors that start at 17"; you'll be hard-pressed to find a monitor of equal or better quality for a lower price. Formac has a few monitors that rival Apple's in the quality department, but they are priced very similarly, so you'd start at $700 with one.

If you'd rather go the CRT route, look for name-brand quality lines that have been proven to work well with Mac. Ask around, to people you know and on sites like this, about what people use with a similar machine as yours. You may get an answer that you like.

bobw · #7 August 24th, 2003, 10:04 AM

You might want to look at Planar monitors. They are very good.