Want to replace 17" built-in with 20" widescreen external monitor

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Level 3

931 points

Want to replace 17" built-in with 20" widescreen external monitor

A service person told me that if I disconnect the internal connector from the built in 17" flat panel display on my iMac FP G4, that the external connector will then support resolutions greater than 1024 x 768. Can anyone verify this? My monitor is dead but I can connect to an external VGA monitor, so I know the logic board is still good. I was thinking of just getting a 17" wide screen (1440 x 900), but for a bit more I can get a 20" that supports 1680 x 1050.

What I'm trying to find out is if the machine's video card can support that resolution. If not, I might as well get the 17", which has the same resolution that the built-in monitor has.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Alfredo

20" iMac G5 (iSight), Mac OS X (10.4.11), - 17" iMac G4 FP - 2 iPods - iPhone 3g 16GB (2.1)

Posted on Dec 12, 2008 4:11 PM

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Answer 1

Alfredo Jahn Author

Level 3

931 points

Dec 12, 2008 4:47 PM in response to Alfredo Jahn

I just wanted to add that the iMac is a G4 "lamp style" FP mac, in case that wasn't clear in my post.

The specs say:

Built-in Display: 17.0" TFT Native Resolution: 1440x900
Details: This model has a 17.0" TFT active matrix display with a native resolution of 1440x900. It also supports "1152 by 720, 1024 by 640, and 800 by 500 pixels at 16:10 aspect ratio; [and] 1024 by 768, 800 by 600, and 640 by 480 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio." Apple reports a "typical" brightness of 200 cd/m, contrast ratio of 300:1, and viewing angle of 120 degrees horizontal and 90 degrees vertical.

But I can't figure out if that is for the display or the video card (or both).

Message was edited by: Alfredo Jahn

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Answer 2

Paul4900

Level 2

350 points

Dec 12, 2008 6:06 PM in response to Alfredo Jahn

A quick Google brought up this.

The details were obviously limited to the display.
17.0" TFT active matrix display *with a native resolution of* 1440x900
so that's how high the display can go. The GPU can probably go higher (there was a 20" 1680x1050 iMac G4) so I'd go with the 20".

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Answer 3

Alfredo Jahn Author

Level 3

931 points

Dec 12, 2008 6:31 PM in response to Paul4900

That's great news! I tried may search combinations, but could not find this info. I guess I didn't get the key words just so. I have the service guide and have replaced DVD and memory in that machine, so I feel comfortable opening it up and disconnecting the connector from the built-in display and the logic board. Hope that does the trick to allow the external mini-vga to output a higher resolution like 1680x1050.

Thanks again.

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