Adam's Apple

Working with Vintage Macs

Vintage Mac Video and Monitor Mania

Adam Rosen - 2007.12.17 - Tip Jar

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I deal with older (pre-G3) systems regularly, both through my consulting work and my personal collection, the Vintage Mac Museum. Here are some tips I've found for keeping the old beasts running and working with modern monitors.

Proprietary Video & Monitor Mania

Old CRT monitors are a dime a dozen (literally in some cases), but they're bulky and heavy; unless you have lots of space, it's hard to keep more than a few around. I make due around the Mac Museum primarily with two monitors for older systems: a 15" VGA LCD (1024 x 768 resolution) and a 17" multisync CRT.

Nearly every Mac that has a video out port or dedicated video card supports 1024 x 768 - what's needed is an adapter to convert the Mac's DB15 connector to a VGA (HD15) style output. These are cheap and readily available; a few different ones may be needed due to quirks between machines. The 15" LCD monitor is small and can work with nearly any old or new Macintosh.

The other useful item is a multisync CRT. 17" models are dirt cheap (often free) and can support 640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768, and sometimes up to 1280 x 1024 resolutions. Older Apple monitors come with the DB15 style video connector; newer Apple monitors and other brands use a VGA plug, so a DB15-to-VGA adapter is needed with older Macs.

More Tips and Suggestions?

I'm sure there are many other tips and suggestions on the topic of working with old and vintage Macs; write in to the Low End Mac Mailbag or contact me with your suggestions and we may do a follow-up to this column with additional ideas.

This article was originally published on Adam's Oakbog website. It has been adapted and reprinted here with his permission.

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Adam operates Oakbog Professional Services and The Vintage Mac Museum. He publishes The Vintage Mac Museum Blog. If you find Adam's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

Recent Adam's Apple Columns

Mac OS 9 Isn't Dead Yet, 2011.05.16. In some areas, the need to run Classic Mac software or the cost of upgrading apps to OS X keeps people using Mac OS 9.
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Vintage Mac Workhorse: Power Mac G4 Cube with Mac OS X 10.4.11, 2011.03.03. The G4 Cube has plenty of power and runs OS X 10.4 Tiger very comfortably, letting it act as a server accessible by new Macs and old.
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