"Input Not Supported" error on monitor

Question

Level 1

8 points

"Input Not Supported" error on monitor

Hi all,

I'm hoping you can help me with a problem that is driving me insane. I bought a B&W G3 350 from ebay. I also bought a HP w19ev LCD monitor. Both individually work fine but when brought together I get an "Input Not Supported" error message on the monitor. I should also mention that it worked once, but when I changed the screen resolution to that suggested by the monitor documentation the error started to occur.

The G3 is running 10.3.9 with all updates applied. The monitor is capable of a resolution of 1440*900 @ 60 hz.

I have so far ensured that the monitor works. Ensured that the G3 works. Tried to zap the PRAM after reading that this should remove any changes to the system settings that I had made.

But now I'm stuck as to what to try because I still get this error message?

Any suggestions on how I might fix this issue.

Thanks
Adam

MacBook 13" Black Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Powerbook 12", Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Posted on Apr 3, 2007 12:29 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Apr 5, 2007 12:09 PM in response to adamsquire

You should not need a functioning computer attached to enable on-screen menu options. It should all work directly on the display, with the display's up down left right buttons for input.

Reply

Answer 2

Apr 3, 2007 3:28 PM in response to adamsquire

The standard Blue & White G3 has a 15-pin 3-row connector that connects to most third-party monitors. So cable adapters should not be the issue here.

There are two places that hold onto the screen resolution. The first is the PRAM, backed up by the PRAM backup/clock battery. If you have had a power failure or pulled the main power plug, and are now having this trouble, that battery is the prime suspect. I suggest you open the side door on the Mac, find the tiny button nearest the battery, and press and hold it for a quarter minute. then allow at least 5 seconds to pass before you attempt to power up. If the symptoms change, consider replacing the battery.

The other place the display resolution is stored is in a Preference file. To accommodate an environment with multiple users on multiple computers, the display setting used after you log in is stored in:
Hard Drive / Users / your_id / Library / Preferences / By Host / com.apple.preference.displays.your HWAddress.plist

If you can boot to a different software source such as a System CD, you can both bypass the bad value stored in that preference file and gain access to that preference file to move it to another location (which will inactivate it).

Reply

Answer 3

adamsquire Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 5, 2007 4:55 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi,

Many thanks for the suggestions. I tried the button by the battery depressing it for half a minute and then leaving it a few before turning the computer on again. This didn't resolve the problem unfortunately - no change.

I've also tried booting to a linux live CD but, although the drive spins up, I still get the "input not supported" error.

I'm wondering whether the monitor just isn't compatible, since the computer works on an older LCD panel (ACER) that I borrowed?

I think the HP monitor accepts DVI connections as well as analogue which may be causing an issue. The monitor instructions imply that you can select which to use via an onscreen menu but this isn't possible since you cannot open the onscreen menu for the monitor; apart from the fact that I haven't got a DVI cable attached. I'm guessing that I may have to get an older monitor to use with it?

Cheers
Adam

Reply

Answer 4

adamsquire Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 6, 2007 8:24 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I've got it working now. It turns out that when booting with the monitor attached it was causing some kind of kernel panic - i don't have the exact error but it was something about referencing a frame address that could not be found.

What I did was attach it to a different monitor and drop the resolution down to 800x600. Then I shut it down and reattached my monitor and then restarted. I've now installed tiger and all seems to be working fine at the moment. I just won't play with the resolution to much now I've got it fixed.

Cheers
Adam

Reply