MAC problem with new (to me) Scitex Smart 320

[Dave Tolcher]

I just picked up a Scitex smart 320. All working (seen by me) and in lovely condition. Came with a mini tower mac g3 266 which also works perfectly. It was demo'd with a Mitsubishi diamond 19in CRT which wasn't part of the deal and isn't available. Got the G3 home, connected up to a TFT (have tried 3 different ones now of various vintages) and get the MAC error that the screen resolution is incorrect. I have reset the PRAM (confirmed with 2 beeps) and still get the error. The video card only has vga output.

I think my options are:
1) Go back to the original owner with the MAC, boot with his screen and reset the video display to 'default' then connect one of my screens up & check still works.
2) If tfts wont work with this generation of card then swap the card out for a later version of the MAC compatible Radeon with DVI out and hope that this fixes the problem
3) The previous owner has offered to sort out a CRT which could be proved working.

Any advice ? I have all the software so if worst really came then I could pick up another G3/G4 and install from scratch.

I have to say I am stunned by the lack of value of these old flatbeds - they were the original owners and paid >£20k ukp for the setup in 1998 which now sold for £250ukp - 1% of its value. Mind you it is supposed to weigh best part of 100kg so perhaps not a surprise really.

Thanks

Dave

[coisasdavida]

Dave,

I had the same problem many times with newer displays and older Macs.
A risky way to avoid it is to unplug display from Mac and turn Mac on. Wait a couple minutes and plug display on Mac.
Make sure you have a good battery to keep whatever display settings you set after this.

A video card from a Blue and White G3 could help too.

Yes, these scanners can be had for very little money. I had one for free.
I didn't like the texture on grainy images with this scanner and decided it was no good after all, looked inside and found 7 enlarging lenses by Rodenstock (three 80mm/5.6, one 60mm/5.6, one 67mm/4.9, one 89mm/4.9 and one 110mm/5.0).

Some blog posts about my 340: http://refotografia.wordpress.com/tag/scitex-smart-340/
I liked the way it sounds, most of all!

[Dave Tolcher]

Didn't work for me I'm afraid but thanks for the tip.

[coisasdavida]

Reading back, if you have VGA outout on a beige G3, you already have a B&W G3 video card (PCI).
Beiges didn't come with a video card on a PCI slot, only onboard video for Apple's monitors.
Not sure you could find a better PCI video card around today, maybe at welovemacs.com

I haven't used anything but LG CRTs on my two beiges, Samsung ones gave me the same trouble.
Not sure if the problem is the video card or OS9, because for me the same video card on a OS X machine works with everything else.

Sorry if this post doesn't help at all.

[Light Guru]

What is the resolution of the screen you are trying to connect? My guess is the resolution of the screen you are connecting is beyond that of what the hardware or software of the old machine supports. You may need to pickup a older display to go with the old machine.

[Dave Tolcher]

Collected monitor and all working just fine now. Thank you for your help