beaucham@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (10/25/89)
I recently installed an ATI VGA Wonder 512K on my *the original AT*, i.e., 6 MHz, circa 1984. I am using it to drive a Princeton MAX-15 autosynchronous monochrome monitor, which should be able to handle virtually any mode the ATI can throw at it. Well, I have the ATI and the MAX-15 working together in a serviceable fashion, but I can't get the ATI to "autoswitch", a capablity which has been advertised. I have to select Hercules mode (using ATI's VSETUP) and use just Hercules applications or select VGA mode and use just VGA applications. I have reason to suspect that had I been able to select Multisync in VSETUP, autoswitch would work, but for some reason VSETUP refused to let me. Also, VSETUP always thinks the display type is PS2 MONO. The instructions say that I should set the motherboard switch to the "color" position. I was careful to do this, as I previously had a Hercules board in the machine with the switch set to "mono". The instructions also say to run SETUP on the PC/AT Diagnostics Disk to define the video card to be EGA. I tried this, but SETUP refused to let me select anything other than a mono display. Later in the manual it says to run the IBM Advanced Diagnostics Program which will configure the system for an EGA, the selection for the VGAWONDER. This could be important, but so far I haven't found an "Advanced" diagnostics disk. Any ideas what my problem might be? Jim Beauchamp beaucham@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu
beaucham@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (10/26/89)
After talking to an ATI consultant (yes, they do answer early in the morning), I was able to make VSETUP select multisync for the Princeton MAX-15. I was disappointed to find out, however, that this version of the ATI VGA Wonder, which I acquired from the mailorder firm FastMicro, does not autoswitch. Apparently there is an OEM version (e.g., available from TriStar) which does not have the built-in mouse interface but which does autoswitch. Therefore, unless I always stick to the same graphics standard, I must preface graphics programs with commands like C> vconfig h720 or C> vconfig vga color I found that 'vconfig vga mono' gave by far the best looking characters. As for the diagnostics SETUP program, this seems to be poorly documented -- my IBM manual scarsely mentions what it is supposed to do. The ATI consultant said that since I had selected Hercules mode, the IBM firmware automatically concluded that the ATI was mono. However, after selecting multisync vga color as the default mode and making sure the mother board switch was set to color, SETUP still refused to acknowledge the possibility of color, and it was impossible to select EGA (as ATI's manual says you should). But this seems to be a moot point, as the Wonder's color mapping to grey scale seems to work o.k. anyway. beaucham@uxc.cso.uiuc.edu
feustel@well.UUCP (David Alan Feustel) (10/29/89)
Does anyone know whether the ATI VGA Wonder Board (with mouse) works with
OS/2? I really would like to use this board but OS/2 compatibility is a MUST.
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