Power Mac G4 and KVM Woe - Macintosh Garden

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2013, July 25 - 2:12am

grawlix.computing

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Joined: 2009 Jun 1

Power Mac G4 and KVM Woe

Entranced by the beauty of a Quicksilver G4, I've been working to get it plugged into my already over-crowded workstation.

I have a G3 already hooked up to a DVI KVM+A switch, and am hoping to do the same with the G4. It has some sort of nVidia GeForce4 card in it with a VGA and ADC port, so I paid more than I should have for an ADC to DVI adapter. It works with a cable straight to a DVI monitor, but no video if I try to go through the KVM. I've tried with every port and cable combination, but it looks like it's really just the KVM that's tripping me up.

The manufacturer of the KVM has slagged off on the dilemma by throwing up their hands at what sort of crazy crap that adapter might be doing. I probably should not have said adapter to them, since ADC is really just DVI-D + other junk I'm ignoring with that adapter. It frustrates me customer support's cardinal rule seems to be to find out how they can say it's not their problem, as quickly as possible.

At any rate, I ordered a Radeon 9000 for Mac off of eBay that has a straight-up DVI port (as well as an ADC port) for testing.

Does anyone have any speculations about how I can make this work, or what might be going wrong?

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2013, July 25 - 2:38am

MikeTomTom

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Joined: 2009 Dec 7

Does your monitor have VGA as well as DVI inputs?
I have a 4 port KVM set up and with one Mac I found it more reliable to use the VGA port of the monitor for that one Mac (happened to be a Quicksilver) when switching between a PC and another Mac hooked up to the KVM.
That is, the monitor DVI port was connected to the KVM, but this Mac's VGA port was not, it had a direct connection to the monitor, only it's keyboard, mouse and audio were connected to the KVM.

In switching via the KVM, the monitor seemed to figure out which machine was active and the display would switch from digital to VGA when needed.

Not a solution to fixing your DVI adaptor, but could fill in while waiting for your new graphics card to arrive. Needs a VGA port on your monitor, tho'.

2013, July 25 - 3:18am

(Reply to #2) #3

grawlix.computing

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Joined: 2009 Jun 1

It's a good thought, but unfortunately my monitor does not bother with source selection--it shows whatever input you have selected, even if it's dead and there's something live elsewhere. Still, it may be my fall back position to leave the monitor's remote (it's also a TV) handy next to the KVM.

2013, July 25 - 8:14am

bertyboy

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Joined: 2009 Jun 14

Got to agree with the go-VGA proposal.

I do remember a lot of fuss with using DVI KVMs on Macs in that era, Belkin produced an ADC 2-port and 4-port KVM at the time which seemed to work. But the opinion at the time was to use VGA instead, not much help for those of us with Apple 23in Cinema displays.
For about $100 you can pick up a 4 port DVI, VGA, USB and Audio KVM switch, with all the cables. I'm tempted for my MDD, DA, G5 and one of my two Xserves, but everything is set up already to run headless.

2013, July 30 - 6:48am

grawlix.computing

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Joined: 2009 Jun 1

I've plugged a Rage 128 Pro into the machine, that has a VGA and DVI port. It works! The video modes are sort of limited, but I'm at least getting a signal through the KVM. The Radeon 9000 is inbound, so I'll so how that goes.

2013, August 5 - 6:09pm

grawlix.computing

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The Radeon 9000 came in today. I pulled the rig from my KVM and installed the new video card. It booted to max resolution of the LCD panel I was using, but the keyboard was non-functional. I put the Rage 128 Pro back in, and keyboard and mouse were fine. The Radeon 9000 goes back in and now the keyboard works, but only the button works on the mouse--no pointer movement.

I tried several different keyboard and mice, including the Logitech mouse that is part of my KVM setup. Ultimately, I just plugged it into the KVM to see what would happen, and it apparenly works. Weird. I have no explanation for my difficulties, but am glad to see them go.

2013, August 5 - 6:44pm

bertyboy

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Joined: 2009 Jun 14

Excellent news
I tried for ages to get my DVI KVM to work with a final DVI-VGA agapter and VGA cable to the monitor. It just never worked, monitor would go to sleep. So I tried DVI from KVM to monitor and it all worked perfectly. PMG5, Xserve Intel and MDD hooked uo, but like your QS, my poor little DA dual 533 only has ADC and VGA. I'll try MikeTomTom's solution, just connection USB / Audio to the KVM and making a direct VGA connection to the monitor. I can tap a button on the front to change inputs if the auto-sensing doesn't pick it up.