Os 10.3 One Resolution After Install

thesilversurfer

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I have a G4 PowerMac. I tried to install OS 10.3. During installation the screen what black and white and appeared at a low resolution.

After install, sure enough the only resolution available was 640 X 480. I tried to x zap the p-ram. The system reset iself back to OS 9 and the resolution was fine. I switched the startup back to OS X and the problem is still there.

Logic tells me it has something to do with OSX, but what? Help!
 
Maybe you need to upgrade your video ram. When I upgraded the onboard video ram for my G3 Beige tower from 2MB to 6MB of memory, I was able to suddenly get millions of colors, much higher resolution, and better refresh rates. I was also able to put "Apple Video Player" in full screen mode and I think load web pages faster. OS X migh be demanding alot of the video hardware that came with your G4 to the point of your computer having to display in black and white. Especially since all the versions of OS X after v10.2 use a feature called "Quartz Extreme" for compositing graphics directly on the video card. Also, support for some older "beige era" G3 computers was discontinued, although that probably doesn't make a difference as you are using a G4. Do you know if anyone else hase gotten 10.3 to work on a G4 of your caliber? If yes, then I guess it's not the video ram quantity after all, but make sure you have the same amount as the other persons if you find someone who has gotten 10.3 to work on a G4.
 
I own just about the barest of bare bones G4s you can get -- the first generation, low-end PCI 400MHz model, with the lowest available video card -- a Rage 128 16MB PCI card. All versions of OS X will load just fine on this machine, and any machine released after it...

...with that said, I'm thinking you've got an older XClaim VR or Rage 8MB card in there -- in which case, I don't think Panther supports those cards. I believe the symptoms are unable to change resolution past 640x480, no display output at all, garbled video and/or loss of color.
 
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