connecting a Mac Monitor to a Windows PC

Computronix · 12-17-2005, 12:57 PM

Hi!
This is my 1st post here, and I'd like to know if someone can give me some help about the following:
I need to use 2 monitors in one of my PCs -- I have a 1.1GHz Pentium III laptop and a 450MHz Pentium II desktop . I also have an old Macintosh LCII lying around unused but in good working order. Well, I thought that instead of rushing out and buying a new monitor, maybe I could use the Macintosh LCII monitor with an adapter connected to the pentium II and use the Pentium II's monitor as an external secondary monitor for the laptop... I searched the internet and really did find a MacMonitor-to-PC adapter, so I ordered it... The adapter fits right as it should, but try as I might to adjust the resolution and monitor frequency on the Pentium II, it just doesn't work -- all I get is a very distorted image scrolling madly like a badly tuned tv...
So my question is -- Am I just loosing my time, or is there some way -- ANY other way -- of using this 1992~1993 Mac LCII monitor with one of my 2 PCs?... maybe some kind of electronic interface is needed (and not just a simple cable adapter) ?...
Thanks in advance for any advice.

Prof Pwnsworth · 12-17-2005, 05:51 PM

Your not gonna need some interface. The connector probably works fine. I had this problem when i tried attaching a 17' LCD with DVI to an old geforce card. i switched it to VGA and it worked fine. It might be the video card because thats all i can think of. Maybe the LCII interface is different than the origional LC.

Computronix · 12-20-2005, 12:34 AM

Thank you, Prof, I've tried with another computer that has a different video-card and it seems I've got slightly better results -- choosing 800x600 definition and a frequency of 56kHz the resulting image was clear, but sadly the tv stile continuos image scrolling persisted, albeit at a slower rate this time... (frames scrolling from bottom to top at about 2 frames per second) -- The image looks crisp and clear, and that leaves me wishing even more that I could use that Mac monitor as a secondary monitor with my PC... it's just that I can't find a way to stop the frame scrolling... More suggestions would be very welcome... surely there must be a way, maybe some kind of electronic interface, as I asked in my 1st post?... I tried all different combinations of screen resolution and frequency, both in XP and win98, but the closest to a steady image I've got was the combination 800x600 /56kHz...
Thanks in advance for any help.

Computronix · 12-20-2005, 07:41 PM

Just one more thing -- this are the MacLCII's display specifications:
Display: 4-bit (16 color) at 640x480 or 8-bit (256 color) at 640x400

Of course, as far as I know, one can't have access to this kind of settings in a relatively recent PC, not even on my old Pentium II running win98se... but I still wonder if there could be some workaround? ... What do you the more technically knowledgeable guys here would advise ?...
_Thanks again, and sorry for my insistence

12-17-2005, 12:57 PM	#1 (permalink)
Computronix New Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 3	connecting a Mac Monitor to a Windows PC Hi! This is my 1st post here, and I'd like to know if someone can give me some help about the following: I need to use 2 monitors in one of my PCs -- I have a 1.1GHz Pentium III laptop and a 450MHz Pentium II desktop . I also have an old Macintosh LCII lying around unused but in good working order. Well, I thought that instead of rushing out and buying a new monitor, maybe I could use the Macintosh LCII monitor with an adapter connected to the pentium II and use the Pentium II's monitor as an external secondary monitor for the laptop... I searched the internet and really did find a MacMonitor-to-PC adapter, so I ordered it... The adapter fits right as it should, but try as I might to adjust the resolution and monitor frequency on the Pentium II, it just doesn't work -- all I get is a very distorted image scrolling madly like a badly tuned tv... So my question is -- Am I just loosing my time, or is there some way -- ANY other way -- of using this 1992~1993 Mac LCII monitor with one of my 2 PCs?... maybe some kind of electronic interface is needed (and not just a simple cable adapter) ?... Thanks in advance for any advice.

12-17-2005, 05:51 PM	#2 (permalink)
Prof Pwnsworth Bronze Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: derty jersy Age: 20 Posts: 41	Your not gonna need some interface. The connector probably works fine. I had this problem when i tried attaching a 17' LCD with DVI to an old geforce card. i switched it to VGA and it worked fine. It might be the video card because thats all i can think of. Maybe the LCII interface is different than the origional LC. __________________ mi systema, en espanol. AMD XP 3200+ Oced from 2.2ghz to 2.4 512 infineon pc3200 2 80gb WDcaviar ATI 9800 Pro 2.1 speakers 17 FP display antec true power 350W

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12-20-2005, 12:34 AM	#3 (permalink)
Computronix New Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 3	Thank you, Prof, I've tried with another computer that has a different video-card and it seems I've got slightly better results -- choosing 800x600 definition and a frequency of 56kHz the resulting image was clear, but sadly the tv stile continuos image scrolling persisted, albeit at a slower rate this time... (frames scrolling from bottom to top at about 2 frames per second) -- The image looks crisp and clear, and that leaves me wishing even more that I could use that Mac monitor as a secondary monitor with my PC... it's just that I can't find a way to stop the frame scrolling... More suggestions would be very welcome... surely there must be a way, maybe some kind of electronic interface, as I asked in my 1st post?... I tried all different combinations of screen resolution and frequency, both in XP and win98, but the closest to a steady image I've got was the combination 800x600 /56kHz... Thanks in advance for any help.

12-20-2005, 07:41 PM	#4 (permalink)
Computronix New Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 3	Just one more thing -- this are the MacLCII's display specifications: Display: 4-bit (16 color) at 640x480 or 8-bit (256 color) at 640x400 Of course, as far as I know, one can't have access to this kind of settings in a relatively recent PC, not even on my old Pentium II running win98se... but I still wonder if there could be some workaround? ... What do you the more technically knowledgeable guys here would advise ?... _Thanks again, and sorry for my insistence