ATI Radeon 9250 / 23" Apple Cinema Display compatibility

Question

Level 1

0 points

ATI Radeon 9250 / 23" Apple Cinema Display compatibility

I'm having trouble getting my video card to display properly on my 23" Apple cinema display.

My PC currently has a Diamond Multimedia ATI Radeon 9250 256MB/PCI card in it. The video card has DVI/SVGA/and TV-Out ports.

I'm able to display "ok" when I connect the Apple display to my machine via the DVI port. However, when I try to do something intensive - like watch a DVD, a lot of vertical interference bars appear across the screen. When I close the DVD, the vertical interference bars go away.

However, I'm able to watch a DVD just fine on an SVGA monitor attached to the graphics card with no interference patterns.

The video card is supposed to support DDC technology. I have the most recent drivers for the video card. I've also made sure to disable to the existing integrated Intel GMA 900 video card on the PC. The bios screen does show up on the Apple display.

Any suggestions of things to try before throwing in the towel and saying that this video card really isn't compatible with the 23" Apple cinema display?

If not, any suggestions of inexpensive ones that are?

Thanks,
John

eMachines T5010 Windows XP

Posted on Feb 2, 2006 5:00 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Phil Ta

Level 6

10,400 points

Feb 2, 2006 8:54 PM in response to johnhg

This is not an uncommon problem. It's often called dancing pixels or noise/static, so you can search the topic for more info.

Some ATI video cards, with the latest ATI drivers installed, have the option to reduce DVI frequency or use alternate DVI operational mode. Check and see if your video card supports those options, and play around with them if so. Also, you can try using some third-party programs to create a new resolution profile with a refresh rate of 58 or 59Hz instead of the standard 60Hz.

If that doesn't work, I don't know what PCI card to recommend. They're all AGP or PCI Express now.

Reply

Answer 2

Feb 4, 2006 8:06 PM in response to johnhg

Did you try another cable? As Phil mentions above, unlike analog SVGA, a poor DVI signal will cause the monitor's DSP to reduce DVI frequency.

Reply

Answer 3

johnhg Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 6, 2006 2:43 PM in response to John F Ryan

Thanks for the suggestions.

I'm just using the DVI cable that's already attached to the display. When I attach the display to my wife's G4 powerbook, it displays with no problems at all. So I assume the problem is in my PC rather than the cable.

I believe my video card does support reduced frequencies, and I tried using PowerStrip shareware to lower the frequency down to 58 and 59Hz with no luck. The interference is still present when playing video.

Reply