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PS/2 does not seem to like OAK VGA

Brian Todd

Brian Todd

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Joined
Nov 21, 2022
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The Netherlands
I have installed an OAK OTI-037C in my IBM Model 30 and am, quite frankly, struggling. Initially I had the card set with the 8-bit bus enabled, but could not get any post. When set to 16-bit bus enabled, the system posts and monitor (IBM Ps/2 Monochrome) displays normally .. so far so good.

I then set the dip switches to VGA mono (assuming that the off position is the top position) and set the driver to VGA monochrome in Windows 3.0. Windows starts up fine and display is stable. When I shut down Windows, however, the screen goes white and shows no more characters until a reboot. I then tried setting the dip switches to standard VGA and loaded the standard Windows VGA drivers .. bad mistake .. Windows just hangs on the start-up screen.

Can anyone advise me what I am doing wrong? Any advice welcome 👍
 
Unknown_K said:
Did you turn off the built in video?
Click to expand...

So far as I'm aware you don't have to do anything to disable the onboard MCGA, it'll shut off if you install another video card.

Brian Todd said:
I then tried setting the dip switches to standard VGA and loaded the standard Windows VGA drivers .. bad mistake .. Windows just hangs on the start-up screen.
Click to expand...

Isn't it a known issue that the 16 color VGA driver for Windows 3.0 won't run on anything less than a "286"? (* Although I think it'll actually run on a V20/V30 because the problem is its use of some 80186 instructions.)

That doesn't explain why you're having issues with the mono driver, I guess. Are you able to run things *other* than Windows that use EGA or VGA video modes?
 
Brian Todd said:
Initially I had the card set with the 8-bit bus enabled, but could not get any post. When set to 16-bit bus enabled, the system posts and monitor (IBM Ps/2 Monochrome) displays normally
Click to expand...

FWIW, I think the jumper on that card to choose between 8 and 16 bit bus might be mislabled/work opposite of what you expect. The *only* thing that's "16 bit" on an OTI-37 is ROM access, which makes the card infinitesimally faster on the small subset of PC programs that extensively use BIOS calls instead of direct hardware access, so even if you put it in a 286 or better 16 bit slot it's not worth changing it.
 
modem7 said:
A video card that uses an OAK OTI-037C as its video processor chip. Quite a few different cards used that video processor - see [here].


The switch block should be marked in some way. See [here].
Click to expand...
You are correct, it is actually a 1037162003 rev.A card using the )TI-037 chip. I double checked the switches and they are in the correct position for VGA mono (great instruction on dip switches, thanks (y))

Eudimorphodon said:
So far as I'm aware you don't have to do anything to disable the onboard MCGA, it'll shut off if you install another video card.



Isn't it a known issue that the 16 color VGA driver for Windows 3.0 won't run on anything less than a "286"? (* Although I think it'll actually run on a V20/V30 because the problem is its use of some 80186 instructions.)

That doesn't explain why you're having issues with the mono driver, I guess. Are you able to run things *other* than Windows that use EGA or VGA video modes?
Click to expand...

The MCGA does in fact shut off when the VGA card is installed. Thanks for the comment on the 16 color VGA driver ... I was not aware of this.

We are away this weekend, but will try to run some other applications when we get back and will report. Thanks so far :)
 
Eudimorphodon said:
That doesn't explain why you're having issues with the mono driver, I guess. Are you able to run things *other* than Windows that use EGA or VGA video modes?
Click to expand...

Dumb question, but any suggestions what I could run that uses an EGA or VGA video mode? Don't think I have anything installed that uses VGA at the moment!
 
If you have BASICA/GW-BASIC installed SCREEN 7 through 9 invoke the EGA 16 color modes. With QBASIC screen 12 is the 640x480 16 color mode.

Other than that, well, PC Paintbrush is a good program for trying different video modes out in. And of course any late 80’s Sierra game offers a ton of video options in the setup program…
 
… and just an offhand remark, I guess I have to admit I don’t quite get why anyone tries running Windows 3.0 on XTs. I mean, in principle there are some things that are barely usable if you have an EMS card installed, but all actual Win3x software of any consequence needs Standard Mode or better.
 
It looks better than Windows 2.1... and it is the latest version. :) Should be able to handle all Windows 2.1 software, and maybe a little bit more?
 
Svenska said:
It looks better than Windows 2.1... and it is the latest version. :) Should be able to handle all Windows 2.1 software, and maybe a little bit more?
Click to expand...
I'm not an expert in Window 2.x and 3.0. But in my experiments I found that Windows 3.0 does not automatically run all Win 2.1 software. And some Win 2.x or Win 3.0 programs use a Runtime version even if you already have Win 3.0 installed.

Seaken
 
For laughs I have Windows 2.11 and the first Windows version of Microsoft Word installed on my Tandy 1000 HX (7.16mhz V20, with 1MB of EMS RAM) and I guess from playing with that I can't understand what anyone would actually *do* with Windows on a machine this slow. Everything is just comedically painful. (Hitting the "about" button in the MS-DOS executive to even show how much memory is free takes like 30 seconds.)

Amusingly the same machine has GEOS installed with an 800x600 SuperVGA driver and it's actually kind of usable. Takes a while to boot but the word processor mostly keeps up with typing, even with big fonts.
 
Hi guys, sorry it took some time to come back to this thread. I have been experimenting with the card, and am really mystified. As described above, it boots fine into Windows but then shows only a white screen when I shut Windows down. Booting into DOS works also fine initially, but then as soon as I start up any game the screen goes white. I have tried Lemmings (in VGA mode) but also Sokoban which works in CGA mode. In Sokoban, I get the initial text screens (CGA/Tandy, Keboard/Joystick) but then my white screen. I really have no idea why this is happening. Thoughts and ideas please?
 
Update ... the card works fine with my 486 in 16 bit mode, so it would seem to be some limitation in 8 bit mode on the Model 30.....
 
Can you check with debug whether your cards corrupts upper memory past its video BIOS? I've used an OAK card (although an OTI-067) and saw its video BIOS partially mirrored (every second byte) in the C800..CFFF area (don't remember if it also mirrored in D000..DFFF), preventing my XUB from working.
 
In my opinion, if the graphics card does not fit the PS/2 8530/8525, MDA / CGA / Hercules cards or VGA/SVGA cards that support only 16bit ISA slots are common.
OAK OTI-037C chipset-based VGA cards are designed to run smoothly even in 8-bit ISA slots, so in most cases they can be resolved through DIP switches or jumper settings
if they do not match with the PS/2 8530/8525. .
 
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