If your apple monitor is the same as used on the B&W G3 series (CRT monitor),
there are several at my school and they are plugged into the Macs using what
looks like a VGA-Mac (DB15 multisync) adaptor, but the graphics output is
definitely standard Mac DB-15
Fishing through the mental archives I think I recall hearing the "dark
clicks" from a monitor before and it had to do with the resolution/sync being
something the monitor couldn't lock into. Try standard VGA 640x480, as Mac
resolutions classically were slightly different at higher levels (832x634 instead of
800x600 etc.)
-Scott Quinn