[comp.sys.ibm.pc] Unusual VIDEO

Scott K. Hutton <shutton@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> (06/09/91)

I just finished building a 286-compatible computer  and ran  across an
odd bug and the fix today.  However, I  don't know why  at all the fix
works.  Perhaps someone out there does?

What would occur was that I would receive the  video BIOS notification
(Pheonix  VGA compatible BIOS  etc.), but, after   that, any text that
would normally be written to the screen  would not appear.  The cursor
*would* move, however, and I was able to  do  some simple things based
on where I knew the cursor would be.

This seemed to occur  at  random times.  I  was able to find no common
denominator except for the motherboard and my multi-IO card.  Swapping
the video card  did not help.   Finally, at wits  end (and jokingly) I
tried turning off my printer to see if it would help; it did!  Turning
on the computer with the printer on caused this problem.  I could turn
on the printer later and would be fine.

What  could  the printer and video  output have in common?  They're on
different cards.
  	
 _____________________________________________________________________________
  Scott K. Hutton, KA9WTR           Internet:  SHutton@UCS.Indiana.edu
  UCS Support Services                         SHutton@Bronze.UCS.Indiana.edu
  Indiana University                  Bitnet:  SHutton@IUIS, SHutton@IUBACS