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EGA on 5153 Monitor?

onesimus

onesimus

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Jan 15, 2023
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Turtle Creek (Madison), West Virginia
Hey guys, I just recently bought a dual EGA/VGA card, a Heath 105-307-3. This got me looking into buying a 5154 monitor, but then I discovered some of the pitfalls of that particular monitor. Not only is there the price, but it's seemingly a bit unreliable. I've ended up finding out that it's possible for some EGA cards to output to the 5153 monitor which are much more abundant and cheaper.

So one of my questions is this: How can I know if this EGA card will output to the 5153? I've found a little bit of info on my card, but nothing really relevant to this question except for a few dip switch settings I found,
"CGA ON - Enable Color Graphics Mode
CGA OFF - Disable Color Graphics Mode"

If I turned the CGA dip switch on, does this mean it would output to the 5153? Also, does the 5153 suffer from the same reliability issues as the 5154?

Thanks and God bless.
 
jafir said:
A previous post, from 2008, suggests that this might be what is needed: https://archive.org/details/heathkit-h-386-assembly-manual_202209/Heathkit H-386 Parts Booklet Illustration Guide/page/14/mode/1up

Click to expand...
Yeah I saw that post so that I at least know the dip switch settings. I'm just not sure if I set it to EGA and plugged it into a 5153 if i'd be able to get 16 colors at once or if I would have to just use it as a CGA card with only a couple of colors. Basically I saw a video where a guy plugged the IBM EGA card into a 5153 and was able to get EGA graphics on it, or at least many more colors than a CGA card would output. It was said not all EGA cards could do that though, but I don't know how to find out if mine would or not.

The long and the short of it is I'm trying to avoid having to buy a 5154 or EGA monitor and seeing if I could get by with the 5153 instead.
 
"CGA ON" will most likely make sure the card does not allow using EGA's enhanced palette or 350-line modes. Everything else will work fine with the 5153. Upgrading from CGA to EGA but keeping the CGA monitor was very common back then, so most, if not all, EGA cards can work with a CGA monitor. You also get full 16 colors, of course, but only the fixed ones of CGA (which is not much of an issue, as most EGA games were written to only use these anyway).
 
Timo W. said:
"CGA ON" will most likely make sure the card does not allow using EGA's enhanced palette or 350-line modes. Everything else will work fine with the 5153. Upgrading from CGA to EGA but keeping the CGA monitor was very common back then, so most, if not all, EGA cards can work with a CGA monitor. You also get full 16 colors, of course, but only the fixed ones of CGA (which is not much of an issue, as most EGA games were written to only use these anyway).
Click to expand...
Ah alright, awesome. Sounds like it would be a fairly safe purchase then in that case. I may go ahead and pursue that, as much as I'd like a 5154 it really doesn't seem too feasible these days.
 
The 5154 isn't as bad as people say. Yes, a heavily used one will need new capacitors, but the same is true of a 5153. I think part of the issue is that people used the 5154 for longer than the 5153 since it was capable of higher resolution, so they tend to have more hours on them. I've restored about 7 or 8 5154s, and apart from needing some caps, and occasionally the HV multiplier, they've held up well. The HV multiplier is still available on the surplus market, unlike the flyback for the 5153.

I have yet to see a 5154 with a brittle cabinet, but both of the last two 5153s I have seen had brittle cabinets. One is very brittle, and the other moderate. If you plan to have one shipped to you, it needs to be packed very well, and shipped screen side down!

Also, if you want to go EGA, there are cheaper alternatives to the 5154. Unless you NEED an IBM monitor, other EGA capable monitors like the NEC Multisync I and II are good options, and also work with VGA.
 
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Working 5154s are going for $1000+ on ebay these days. There are some "collectors" with deep pockets :cautious:
 
andy said:
The 5154 isn't as bad as people say. Yes, a heavily used one will need new capacitors, but the same is true of a 5153. I think part of the issue is that people used the 5154 for longer than the 5153 since it was capable of higher resolution, so they tend to have more hours on them. I've restored about 7 or 8 5154s, and apart from needing some caps, and occasionally the HV multiplier, they've held up well. The HV multiplier is still available on the surplus market, unlike the flyback for the 5153.

I have yet to see a 5154 with a brittle cabinet, but both of the last two 5153s I have seen had brittle cabinets. One is very brittle, and the other moderate. If you plan to have one shipped to you, it needs to be packed very well, and shipped screen side down!

Also, if you want to go EGA, there are cheaper alternatives to the 5154. Unless you NEED an IBM monitor, other EGA capable monitors like the NEC Multisync I and II are good options, and also work with VGA.
Click to expand...
Yeah I've been looking into the multisyncs and may just go that route since it's both ega and vga. There's just something about those 515x aesthetics though that I love. There's no way I'm gonna pay the current prices for a 5154, unfortunately. I love vintage computing, but not that much in my current situation. Maaaaybe if I were richer I'd get one but definitely not at the moment.

Plasma said:
Working 5154s are going for $1000+ on ebay these days. There are some "collectors" with deep pockets :cautious:
Click to expand...
I know it's pretty unfortunate. EGA monitors in general seem kind of hard to find, really, except for the multisync's. There seems to be a few of those around.
 
I have a 5154 restoration for later: main symptom (besides RIFA smoke) is a funky, narrow, yellow, flickering bar in the centre of the screen.

Unrelated (probably) but just curious: what are the signs of needing a new HV multiplier?
 
stepleton said:
I have a 5154 restoration for later: main symptom (besides RIFA smoke) is a funky, narrow, yellow, flickering bar in the centre of the screen.

Unrelated (probably) but just curious: what are the signs of needing a new HV multiplier?
Click to expand...

A bad HV multiplier can cause problems with HV regulation, which will result in a picture that is too big (both horizontally and vertically) and dim if the HV is low. If the HV is too high, the picture will be too small, and brighter than normal. The symptom usually fluctuates, and may be temperature sensitive.

Another symptom I've seen is an extremely out of focus picture which can't be corrected with the focus control.

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BG2097-642-501 ERO transformer flyback computer monitor 2023000565
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