I drove a couple hours to pick up this Multisync II a few weeks back... I was so happy to find one locally after a bad experience last year where I received a comparable "multisync" capable Sony display which was sadly damaged in shipping.
It was advertised as working and would power on, but the seller no longer had any old PCs or the requisite cable to test it. For $30 it was still well worth it!
I checked out the internals and it wasn't real clean but I didn't notice any burnt smell\components or exploded\leaking capacitors, so I figured it'd be safe to test it out at least. I only have one straight-through DE9 serial cable (verified with a DMM to be straight-through on all pins), so I used that to try the monitor on two different PCs, but both give the same result. The first was my GRiDcase 1530 with CGA output. The second was my IBM 5150 with an Everex EV-659 card currently configured for 16-color EGA output to my 5153 display.
When the monitor is connected to nothing and is powered on it will give a white-ish screen with a pretty strong flicker... probably 50Hz.
When I connect it to a PC I get the same white-ish screen but with almost no flicker.
Either way, there is no signal and none of the switches or adjustments on the monitor seem to change the picture at all other than a slight change in brightness with I turn the brightness dial. I have tried the auto and manual modes and I have compared pinouts for CGA\EGA and this monitor and it honestly looks like everything should just work with a straight through serial cable unless I'm trying to connect to a 15pin VGA display which would require a converter of some kind.
Is this likely to be a cable\signal issue? Or is there a common failure point within the monitor that might cause a complete lack of signal? I find it interesting that the display's flicker changes when it is connected to a PC, but I don't know enough to say if that's important or not.
If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know! I can provide pictures if necessary.
EDIT: Also, as secondary question... is it possible to use the Multisync II with computers or game consoles that use a single RCA jack for composite video output? I'm thinking the answer is "no" without some kind of converter, but I'm not sure.
It was advertised as working and would power on, but the seller no longer had any old PCs or the requisite cable to test it. For $30 it was still well worth it!
I checked out the internals and it wasn't real clean but I didn't notice any burnt smell\components or exploded\leaking capacitors, so I figured it'd be safe to test it out at least. I only have one straight-through DE9 serial cable (verified with a DMM to be straight-through on all pins), so I used that to try the monitor on two different PCs, but both give the same result. The first was my GRiDcase 1530 with CGA output. The second was my IBM 5150 with an Everex EV-659 card currently configured for 16-color EGA output to my 5153 display.
When the monitor is connected to nothing and is powered on it will give a white-ish screen with a pretty strong flicker... probably 50Hz.
When I connect it to a PC I get the same white-ish screen but with almost no flicker.
Either way, there is no signal and none of the switches or adjustments on the monitor seem to change the picture at all other than a slight change in brightness with I turn the brightness dial. I have tried the auto and manual modes and I have compared pinouts for CGA\EGA and this monitor and it honestly looks like everything should just work with a straight through serial cable unless I'm trying to connect to a 15pin VGA display which would require a converter of some kind.
Is this likely to be a cable\signal issue? Or is there a common failure point within the monitor that might cause a complete lack of signal? I find it interesting that the display's flicker changes when it is connected to a PC, but I don't know enough to say if that's important or not.
If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know! I can provide pictures if necessary.
EDIT: Also, as secondary question... is it possible to use the Multisync II with computers or game consoles that use a single RCA jack for composite video output? I'm thinking the answer is "no" without some kind of converter, but I'm not sure.
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