[rescue] SPARCstation 5: framebuffer resolution wont change

[Mouse]

> Are the monitors multisync ones that you are using, if so then they
> should sync to any freq unless out of range of course?

> I would suggest trying it temporarily with a modern multisync which
> can cope with higher sync/resoltion than the card and see what
> happens.

Based on my own experience, I would suggest using an _older_ multisync,
preferably a real CRT.  Modern flatscreen monitors have a nasty
tendency to (a) have very limited ability to cope with signals not
exactly matching what their EDID says they want and (b) throw up their
figurative hands and display either an "I don't like that signal"
indication or nothing at all when faced with a signal they don't like.
CRTs usually would sync over a relatively wide range and be tolerant of
things such as porch sizes they're not used to, and would usually
display _something_ for any vaguely recognizable video signal.

I once spent an entire afternon trying to get a 1920x1080 flatscreen to
display 1920x1080 from a SPARCstation-20, and failed.  Sometimes it put
up its "unacceptable signal" indication (fortunately it had one).  A
few attempts displayed nothing at all.  Some displayed a portion of the
display, extremely shifted.  Most decided it was running at some much
coarser resolution like 1280x1024 or 1024x768 and, of course, displayed
at most a small fraction of the image.

In marked contrast, I have a CRT - a 4:3 CRT - that, when handed a
1920x1080 signal, put up a horizontally squashed version of it that was
missing some pixels (necessarily, because pixels were smaller than the
shadow mask grain) but on which the OB console was readable.  And, it
did more or less the same thing regardless of the details of things
like sync pulse and porch widths.

So, I've taken to remarking that monitor technology has improved to the
point where modern monitors are not capable of what thirty-year-old
monitors routinely were.

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