Old monitor, new video card. Compatible?

[BP]

I just completed a new home build. This time I set up on a workbench in my
basement and worked on the project at my leisure. Nice. (Unlike the "gotta
make time" method!) Now I'm thinking I want to set up the software the same
way: on the workbench, when it's all set up and ready to go switch it out
with the old system (mission critical computer). Low stress. Nice.
But that means I need to set up a monitor. keyboard, and mouse to use will
setting up. I've got the parts lying around, but the monitor is a circa 1992
VGA from Tatung (CM14UAS). The video card is a Radeon 9800 Pro. I tried
plugging the monitor into the card (system shut down) but it doesn't seem to
fit right. It plugs in, but the screws don't line up and won't tighten down.
The plug falls out if I let go.
Has anyone here tried this? I don't really care if the Card blows up the
monitor, but I would care if the monitor blew up the Radeon. Are all VGA
monitors and their plugs compatible with today's video cards?

 

[Michael Hawes]

I just completed a new home build. This time I set up on a workbench in my
basement and worked on the project at my leisure. Nice. (Unlike the "gotta
make time" method!) Now I'm thinking I want to set up the software the same
way: on the workbench, when it's all set up and ready to go switch it out
with the old system (mission critical computer). Low stress. Nice.
But that means I need to set up a monitor. keyboard, and mouse to use will
setting up. I've got the parts lying around, but the monitor is a circa 1992
VGA from Tatung (CM14UAS). The video card is a Radeon 9800 Pro. I tried
plugging the monitor into the card (system shut down) but it doesn't seem to
fit right. It plugs in, but the screws don't line up and won't tighten down.
The plug falls out if I let go.
Has anyone here tried this? I don't really care if the Card blows up the
monitor, but I would care if the monitor blew up the Radeon. Are all VGA
monitors and their plugs compatible with today's video cards?

Check the monitor plug for bent pins! It should fit, but it may not even
achieve 800x600.
Mike.

 

[BP]

Check the monitor plug for bent pins! It should fit, but it may not
even
achieve 800x600.
Mike.

No bent pins. After much rumaging, I found the manual for the Tatung! It's
actually a pretty nice monitor for the day. It will do 640x480 VGA @60Hz,
800x600 VESA VGA @72Hz, and 1024x768 USVGA @60Hz (whatever that is). It uses
a "15-pin Mini D-Sub Male Connector". Google tells me that the D-sub is
primarily a game port connector today. So maybe it doesn't fit. I need to
find what the Radeon female connector is. The search continues. Thanks.

 

[Louie]

No bent pins. After much rumaging, I found the manual for the Tatung!
It's actually a pretty nice monitor for the day. It will do 640x480
VGA @60Hz, 800x600 VESA VGA @72Hz, and 1024x768 USVGA @60Hz (whatever
that is). It uses a "15-pin Mini D-Sub Male Connector". Google tells
me that the D-sub is primarily a game port connector today. So maybe
it doesn't fit. I need to find what the Radeon female connector is.
The search continues. Thanks.

I believe the ATI port is DMI. You should have received an adapter with
your ATI card. I did with AIW 9800 Pro. Sorry I couldn't be much more
helpfull. HTH
--
Louie
Gainesville, FL
(eat the flies to email)

An American aircraft in Vietnam shot itself down with one of its own
missiles.
(From http://home.bitworks.co.nz/trivia/human.htm)

 

[Mxsmanic]

I just completed a new home build. This time I set up on a workbench in my
basement and worked on the project at my leisure. Nice. (Unlike the "gotta
make time" method!) Now I'm thinking I want to set up the software the same
way: on the workbench, when it's all set up and ready to go switch it out
with the old system (mission critical computer). Low stress. Nice.
But that means I need to set up a monitor. keyboard, and mouse to use will
setting up. I've got the parts lying around, but the monitor is a circa 1992
VGA from Tatung (CM14UAS). The video card is a Radeon 9800 Pro. I tried
plugging the monitor into the card (system shut down) but it doesn't seem to
fit right. It plugs in, but the screws don't line up and won't tighten down.
The plug falls out if I let go.
Has anyone here tried this? I don't really care if the Card blows up the
monitor, but I would care if the monitor blew up the Radeon. Are all VGA
monitors and their plugs compatible with today's video cards?

Yes, as long as the connection is truly a VGA connection. Be aware
that many video cards now also provide digital output, and the
connector doesn't look that different from a VGA connector. Make sure
your video card is putting out an analog signal and that your monitor
is connected to the analog connector on the board, and you should be
okay. Beyond that, the age of the monitor is irrelevant, and as long
as you don't set the video card to a resolution or refresh rate that
exceeds the maximum for the monitor, you should be fine.

I'm rather surprised that you have a 14-year-old CRT that still
produces a legible image, but I suppose it's possible if it has been
very lightly used. CRTs usually have a half-life of about 10,000
hours (although my last Sony survived several times longer than that).

 

[BigJim]

some of the old monitor will not work with the new video cards running xp.
it is probably a driver issue. It should definitely fire up with dos or
Linux.

 

[Mxsmanic]

some of the old monitor will not work with the new video cards running xp.
it is probably a driver issue. It should definitely fire up with dos or
Linux.

Any VGA monitor will work with any video card that produces a VGA
signal.

 

[BP]

Yes, as long as the connection is truly a VGA connection. Be aware
that many video cards now also provide digital output, and the
connector doesn't look that different from a VGA connector. Make sure
your video card is putting out an analog signal and that your monitor
is connected to the analog connector on the board, and you should be
okay. Beyond that, the age of the monitor is irrelevant, and as long
as you don't set the video card to a resolution or refresh rate that
exceeds the maximum for the monitor, you should be fine.

I'm rather surprised that you have a 14-year-old CRT that still
produces a legible image, but I suppose it's possible if it has been
very lightly used. CRTs usually have a half-life of about 10,000
hours (although my last Sony survived several times longer than that).

Thanks for the info. My card has 2 connections, one analog, one DVI. I
figure I can just set the video on low res for the setup and change it when
I finally hook it up to the LCD monitor. I think I'll just use duct tape to
hold the plug on the socket rather than risk stripping the post threads on
the card.
And I don't know if the monitor still produces a usable image. It's been
packed in it's original carton and stored since 1988. I switched it on, but
it doesn't produce a test pattern like modern monitors do, so who knows?
I'll know for sure this weekend.
Thanks to all who posted here.

 

[Mxsmanic]

Thanks for the info. My card has 2 connections, one analog, one DVI. I
figure I can just set the video on low res for the setup and change it when
I finally hook it up to the LCD monitor.

Exactly. That should work fine. Hook up the old monitor to the
analog output of the video card.

And I don't know if the monitor still produces a usable image. It's been
packed in it's original carton and stored since 1988. I switched it on, but
it doesn't produce a test pattern like modern monitors do, so who knows?

You're saying you've never actually seen it work before, on any
computer?

If it's brand-new, it should still work. I don't recall anything in
CRTs that will deteriorate much over time if the CRT is never actually
used.

 

[BigJim]

yea well tell that to the 15 inch I have in the garage it will not fire up
on xp.
and yea it is vga works with 98.

 

[Mxsmanic]

yea well tell that to the 15 inch I have in the garage it will not fire up
on xp.
and yea it is vga works with 98.

It's not the monitor.

 

[JAD]

yea well tell that to the 15 inch I have in the garage it will not fire up
on xp.
and yea it is vga works with 98.

VGA 640x480 only obviously (and/or 256 color depth only). had a 15" packard
bell monitor like that.

 

[johns]

Electrolytics in it are going to act like dead shorts. Plug the
monitor into the wall .. standalone for several hours .. before
you plug it into your 9800. That should condition the psupply
in the monitor, and possibly prevent it from blowing the flyback
and blowing your new computer at the same time.

johns

 

[David Maynard]

VGA 640x480 only obviously (and/or 256 color depth only). had a 15" packard
bell monitor like that.

There's no color depth restriction on a VGA monitor, they're analog.

It appears to 'not work' on XP because XP defaults to 800x600 and earlier
monitors have no means to tell the OS what it's resolution is. Select
"enable VGA mode" in the XP F8 startup menu, set display properties to
640x480, and it'll work.

 

[JAD]

There's no color depth restriction on a VGA monitor, they're analog.

Maybe not directly. however trying to get this particular monitor to work
and not go extremely 'dark' or horizontal roll, you had to have 640 x 480 at
256 or the image would be dark. Now this also could be the fact that the
particular adapter I was using at the time had a max of 24bit and no 16 bit
(I think this was an older SIS card), and I have found that 24bit depth
caused some problems on picky configurations.

It appears to 'not work' on XP because XP defaults to 800x600 and earlier
monitors have no means to tell the OS what it's resolution is. Select
"enable VGA mode" in the XP F8 startup menu, set display properties to
640x480, and it'll work.

 

[David Maynard]

Maybe not directly. however trying to get this particular monitor to work
and not go extremely 'dark' or horizontal roll, you had to have 640 x 480 at
256 or the image would be dark. Now this also could be the fact that the
particular adapter I was using at the time had a max of 24bit and no 16 bit
(I think this was an older SIS card), and I have found that 24bit depth
caused some problems on picky configurations.

Then either the monitor was defective or the video card didn't put out a
proper video signal because there's nothing about having 24 bit resolution
between the max and min signal level vs only 256 steps between max and min
signal level that would affect a properly operating monitor because the
signal is still between max and min (so it can't affect sync).

The monitor is absolutely clueless about it. The signal just goes from

here --->
to
<--- here

and whether it's subdivided into 256 or 24 million levels is irrelevant.

(actually, 24 bit resolution is 256 levels on each of the three: red,
green, blue, 8x3=24, but the point remains)

Some older cards didn't keep proper frequency at higher color depth (video
memory timing issue) and you mentioning SIS makes me wonder, and as the
filaments slowly warm up in the really old vacuum tube memory archive
section of my mind I seem to remember SIS controllers (on-board shared
memory ones I think) that would switch to 55Hz, or even 50Hz, at the larger
color depths. But that's the card's fault (or the driver) and not the
monitor, per see. One can quibble that the older, non-multisync, monitors
can't sync on off frequency signals but that's blaming the monitor for not
tolerating the card's problem.

To be fair I'm trying to think of some way it could matter to the monitor
but I can't come up with one, off hand. Not that, after the "music falls to
the rear of the car or to the front depending on acceleration or braking"
incident I'll say it's impossible

(Got vacuum tubes on my mind again because I just completed the input
stages on the amp and they work! With no intervening fire or smoke either)

 

[BP]

Exactly. That should work fine. Hook up the old monitor to the
analog output of the video card.


You're saying you've never actually seen it work before, on any
computer?

If it's brand-new, it should still work. I don't recall anything in
CRTs that will deteriorate much over time if the CRT is never actually
used.

No, I used it from 92 to 98, then packed it up and stored it until now.

 

[JAD]

Then either the monitor was defective or the video card didn't put out a
proper video signal because there's nothing about having 24 bit resolution
between the max and min signal level vs only 256 steps between max and min
signal level that would affect a properly operating monitor because the
signal is still between max and min (so it can't affect sync).

The monitor is absolutely clueless about it. The signal just goes from

here --->
to
<--- here

and whether it's subdivided into 256 or 24 million levels is irrelevant.

(actually, 24 bit resolution is 256 levels on each of the three: red,
green, blue, 8x3=24, but the point remains)

Some older cards didn't keep proper frequency at higher color depth (video
memory timing issue) and you mentioning SIS makes me wonder, and as the
filaments slowly warm up in the really old vacuum tube memory archive
section of my mind I seem to remember SIS controllers (on-board shared
memory ones I think) that would switch to 55Hz, or even 50Hz, at the larger
color depths.

this could be true for this card, as I could never look at the refresh rate
in 24bit mode, it was way to dark to see.
This particular monitor was from my first(and last) store bought PC. Packard
Bell 75mhz 70CD Win3.1 and Packard's Navigator with the future Win95
upgrade. Man that was something. . Modem and soundcard were on a huge PCI
combo board. Everything was On a proprietary riser card. cirrus video OB.
Something tells me that this monitor was chosen to fit the video output of
this system. (I think it was technically a 14")

But that's the card's fault (or the driver) and not the

 

[David Maynard]

480 at



this could be true for this card, as I could never look at the refresh rate
in 24bit mode, it was way to dark to see.
This particular monitor was from my first(and last) store bought PC. Packard
Bell 75mhz 70CD Win3.1 and Packard's Navigator with the future Win95
upgrade. Man that was something. . Modem and soundcard were on a huge PCI
combo board. Everything was On a proprietary riser card. cirrus video OB.
Something tells me that this monitor was chosen to fit the video output of
this system. (I think it was technically a 14")

Well, that's possible. Packard Bell did a lot of weird things and often had
weird problems.

The one you mention sounds similar to one I upgraded a while back. The
owner had installed the 'free Win95 upgrade' CD but, in what has to be the
biggest sales opportunity lapse of all time, the sales person failed to
mention that 8 meg of RAM would be a teensy bit low for a win95 system. And
they were trying to run AOL on it to boot.

 

[BP]

Electrolytics in it are going to act like dead shorts. Plug the
monitor into the wall .. standalone for several hours .. before
you plug it into your 9800. That should condition the psupply
in the monitor, and possibly prevent it from blowing the flyback
and blowing your new computer at the same time.

johns

That does not sound like a fun day.
How long does it typically take a capacitor to dry out?