external monitor on 5500
i have this weird idea to attach an external monitor to my 5500\225. i want to give it a paint job and upgrade all the insides while releiving my work space of two other macs. basically i want to consalidate my desk to just the 5500, since it has only a 15"mon, i need bigger for my graphics and art needs. i have a 17" - just my size, and don't want to loose it. i see everywhere all these two mon'ed comps and was thinking of doing this to my 5500. there is nothing wrong with its mon, i just want that nifty two mon wrap around.
let me know if i am a retard and should never be tried. or if it is possible, any ionfo would be appreciated.
peace and love
ande
thats what i thought, i just needed to hear it from someone else. i tend not to trust my crazy schemes. but now the trick is to get a PCI adaptor intended for a 6500 and put it in and just adjust the rear exterior to support two PCI cards.
thankyou for your advice and i will let you guiys know how it turns out when i get it all in line.
peace and love
ande
On my macintosh 5500/225 i have this tiny car that plugs in at the back of the motherboard by the wiring harness and it supplies a monitor jack where i can plug in an older macintosh monitor (db19 i think, like the AUI slot)
That is the video mirroring port that tmtomh mentioned. It's a standard Mac DB-15 monitor plug. It tends to get put in the same cutout where the PCI card goes, so it's the same problem as if you already have a PCI card in there.
You'll have to "adjust" a good portion of the metal chassis of the case as well. The dual PCI slot riser is too tall to fit in the 5400/5500. The metal between the mobo and CRT's neck interferes. You'd have to cut away quite a bit to fit in a second PCI card. Let me know if it works out for you - I'd like to get two PCI cards in my 5500 as well!
Peace,
Drew
just open the case, and the frame up and you wan unplug the cable and plug a diffrent monitor in just like on an imac, its very simple if you know how to get the metal frame apart
It isn't like the iMac : The internal cable is a proprietary connector for that model only, similar to the G3 AIO.
According to the Apple Service Manual for this unit, the built-in external video port only allows for mirroring (same desktop and image on both monitors).
So to get a true dual monitor setup, you'll need to buy a PCI video card and install it in the 5500's PCI slot. If you already have a card installed there, and you can't do without it, then I don't think there's a solution.
Keep in mind, though, that if you already have a PCI ethernet card installed, you can remove it and replace it with a Comm Slot II ethernet card, thereby freeing up the PCI slot for a video card for your second monitor.
Matt