g3 display "out of frequency range"

[Canoe]

I searched here and didn't see a posting dealing with this, but if I missed it, my apologies for reposting this problem.

The hardware:
- g3 powermac (blue and white)
- apple display (smoke)
- panther OS
- other software, etc....

The symptoms:
- on startup the display has the message "out of frequency range" and then gives a 10 second timer before going into sleep mode.
- the CPU seems to be operating fine, but I can't tell without an operational display.
- the mac startup screen is never displayed.

Probable causes:
- I set the display settings to an incompatible range and after shutting down it is impossible for the display to startup in the chosen settings?
- A game didn't release the settings control back to the system (completely guessing here)

So... does anyone know if there is a way to reset/override/reboot/hijack/erase/rip out/redo/cancel the settings going to the display during startup? I will be trying the <option-apple-p-r> keystroke to reset the pram. Hopefully it'll work. I'll let you all know if it does. In the meantime.. any suggestions?

[Canoe]

Responding with a fix.

Resetting the pram by holding down the <option-apple-p-r> keys at startup allowed the system to startup (you'll have to hold the keys down for about 30 seconds. When I did this the "caps lock" light blinked and flashed and the startup "bongggggg" sounded. That's a really nice sound to hear when things aren't going so good.

So far so good? Almost... I still had to change the display resolution and frequency to another setting that works with this monitor (my apologies, I don't remember the resolution, but the frequency is 75Hz). It took 3 tries of restarting and resetting pram when I didn't choose a compatible display setting, but I found a combo that works and is readable.

How did this happen in the first place? I have no idea. I have a feeling someone at home is learning about the system preferences. I'm just glad I found a fix.

Problem solved, and the missus is happy again.

Thanks,
Canoe

[yellow]

Glad you found the fix for yourself.

And yes, your first idea for the cause was the most likely culprit. If the video settings are set to a resolution & frequency that the monitor cannot handle, you get what you saw.

I believe in Panther you are now auto-asked if you want to keep the settings after X amount of seconds, and then it changes back to what it was, just in case it's set way out of bounds, so what happened to you doesn't happen.

[Kezz]

yeah - thanks for going to the trouble of posting the fix :)