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Video card faulty?

J

Jtterbug

Experienced Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2010
Messages
158
Location
Pacific NW
Hi,
When I power on my 5150, and insert a disk, a piece of "text" appears. It flies left, then stops and goes to the right. If it helps, when turned on it makes a 2 second beep, then 2 short ones.
 
1 long beep then 2 short beeps is the 5150's POST (Power On Self Test) indicating a video related problem.

Have you tried reseating the video card? Do you have another video card you can try? What is the background (e.g. "Worked last time I powered it on.")?
 
Jtterbug said:
PS It has a driver disk, should I try that?
Click to expand...
So I gather that the card reseat (remove card then reinsert card) didn't fix the problem.
The error beeps indicate a basic problem during startup, one which no driver disk will fix.

By "It worked before shipping", I presume that is what the seller indicated. If so, then of course there is the possibility that the seller was lying. Maybe the seller was ignorant and thought the moving text was normal.

What you expect to observe on a 5150 is:
1. Power on
2. Power on + about 10 seconds: Cursor appears on monitor (unlike the later 5160, no RAM count-up is shown)
3. Power on + about 50 seconds: Floppy drive LED turns on (POST checking drive)
4. Power on + about 51 seconds: Single beep from speaker (indicating POST complete)
5. Power on + about 52 seconds: Attempts boot from floppy drive (start of boot sequence)

One thing to check is the DIP switches on the motherboard. On switch block 1 (SW1 - the one closest to the expansion slots), what are the settings of switches 5 and 6 ? What type of monitor/card do you have - MDA, CGA, EGA or VGA ?
 
5&6 are down (in fact 1-6 is down) It had a MDA card, but replaced it with an EGA card. I have a 5153 monitor. Also, it has an HDD, if that changes things.
 
Jtterbug said:
5&6 are down (in fact 1-6 is down) It had a MDA card, but replaced it with an EGA card. I have a 5153 monitor. Also, it has an HDD, if that changes things.
Click to expand...

I've never tried this, but if you are running the EGA card in CGA mode shouldn't the switches be set for that? IOW 5-on, 6-off, or the other way around for 40x25.

You do have the information for the switches - right?
 
Jtterbug said:
5&6 are down (in fact 1-6 is down) It had a MDA card, but replaced it with an EGA card. I have a 5153 monitor. Also, it has an HDD, if that changes things.
Click to expand...
5150 motherboard - SW1
--------------------------------
5 off, 6 off = MDA (monochrome)
5 off, 6 on = CGA at 40 x 25
5 on, 6 off = CGA at 80 x 25
5 on, 6 on = EGA/VGA (any video card that has a BIOS)

So you have an EGA card connected to a 5153 (CGA). Therefore, the motherboard switches need to be set to EGA (5 on, 6 on), and the EGA card switches set to CGA mode.
 
Jtterbug said:
So, up is on?
Click to expand...
If your switch block on the motherboard is the same as pictured below, then up (towards the numbers) is ON.

5150_sw1.jpg
 
Jtterbug said:
It dosn't have switches...
Click to expand...
You just can't connect a CGA monitor (such as the 5153) to an EGA card unless the EGA card can be configured in some way to output CGA signals. You risk damaging your 5153 monitor if you are not careful.

Maybe your EGA card can be configure to output CGA signals. What is its make/model? Or provide a photo of it.
 
Jtterbug said:
What switch position for a UNIQUE EGA+?
Click to expand...
I can't find any information about that card.

You wrote earlier that the card does not have switches, and so configuration via switches (the normal mechanism for EGA cards) is out. Maybe for that card it is done via jumpers, or perhaps via software. Is that "driver disk" you wrote of earlier for the EGA card?
 
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