Cloudschatze
Veteran Member
Managed to get another RLX annoyance crossed off my list...
Both the NCR 77C20 and Acumos AVGA1 video chipsets of the Tandy 1000 RLX-A and RLX-B, respectively, support the lesser Super VGA resolution of 800x600, with 16-colors, at 57Hz. Disappointingly, neither system variant includes video BIOS support for this mode, seemingly precluding its use in Windows 3.0/3.1 and GeoWorks/NewDeal Office, where graphical corruption and/or error messages result if attempted.
As it turns-out, there's a pretty simple solution; albeit, one that costs 28KB of conventional memory. Tucked away in a few driver packages for the AVGA1 chipset is a RAM-based BIOS TSR, "RAMBIOS.COM," that includes the SVGA extension support.
Surprisingly, this RAM-based video BIOS works with either RLX video chipset, as do the related driver selections that follow.
With the RAM-based video BIOS loaded, use of Windows' standard Super VGA driver becomes possible (SUPERVGA.DRV), as does the "AVGA-specific" 800x600, 16-color driver (VGA1800.DRV/AVGA816.DRV). I'm using the latter here:
Pardon the photograph, but there simply isn't enough system memory to get a screen capture, even sans any loaded programs. Thanks, Microsoft!
With GeoWorks/NewDeal Office, the "VESA Compatible Super VGA: 800x600 16-color" display option can be selected and used.
Concurrent e-mail, web-browsing, and IRC, and I'm still able to get screen dumps. Thanks, GeoWorks!
In case any of this is helpful, here is an archive that includes both the aforementioned RAMBIOS.COM utility, and the VGA1800.DRV driver that can be used in both Windows 3.0 and 3.1:
http://www.symphoniae.com/misc/VC/500203.zip
Both the NCR 77C20 and Acumos AVGA1 video chipsets of the Tandy 1000 RLX-A and RLX-B, respectively, support the lesser Super VGA resolution of 800x600, with 16-colors, at 57Hz. Disappointingly, neither system variant includes video BIOS support for this mode, seemingly precluding its use in Windows 3.0/3.1 and GeoWorks/NewDeal Office, where graphical corruption and/or error messages result if attempted.
As it turns-out, there's a pretty simple solution; albeit, one that costs 28KB of conventional memory. Tucked away in a few driver packages for the AVGA1 chipset is a RAM-based BIOS TSR, "RAMBIOS.COM," that includes the SVGA extension support.
Surprisingly, this RAM-based video BIOS works with either RLX video chipset, as do the related driver selections that follow.
With the RAM-based video BIOS loaded, use of Windows' standard Super VGA driver becomes possible (SUPERVGA.DRV), as does the "AVGA-specific" 800x600, 16-color driver (VGA1800.DRV/AVGA816.DRV). I'm using the latter here:
Pardon the photograph, but there simply isn't enough system memory to get a screen capture, even sans any loaded programs. Thanks, Microsoft!
With GeoWorks/NewDeal Office, the "VESA Compatible Super VGA: 800x600 16-color" display option can be selected and used.
Concurrent e-mail, web-browsing, and IRC, and I'm still able to get screen dumps. Thanks, GeoWorks!
In case any of this is helpful, here is an archive that includes both the aforementioned RAMBIOS.COM utility, and the VGA1800.DRV driver that can be used in both Windows 3.0 and 3.1:
http://www.symphoniae.com/misc/VC/500203.zip
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