[comp.sys.zenith] Ctrl-Alt-F

millernw@clutx.clarkson.edu (Neal W. Miller) (05/08/90)

Here's a poser:

	On the Zenith-248 (at least, that's what I tried it on), I found
by sheer accident that Ctrl-Alt-F does very nasty things to the video mode
while text is on the screen.  Does anyone have any idea what the combination
of keys is actually doing?  The letter "F" brings several not-so-technical
phrases to mind, but I doubt that this was Zenith's intention.

                                                      

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job00542@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (05/08/90)

> millernw@clutx.clarkson.edu (Neal W. Miller)
>
> Here's a poser:
> 
>         On the Zenith-248 (at least, that's what I tried it on), I found
> by sheer accident that Ctrl-Alt-F does very nasty things to the video mode
> while text is on the screen.  Does anyone have any idea what the combination
> of keys is actually doing?  The letter "F" brings several not-so-technical
> phrases to mind, but I doubt that this was Zenith's intention.

   Pressing Ctrl-Alt-F on my Heath-148 in text mode seems to vibrate the 
characters up and down very rapidly; if it weren't for the terrible flicker,
this would effectively fill in the thin lines between pixel rows.  My guess
is that F means 'fill'.  (Incidently, Ctrl-Alt-N changes the video mode back
to normal.)

danielce@gondwana4.ecr.mu.oz (Daniel Ake CAROSONE) (05/09/90)

In article <1990May7.233504.23622@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>, millernw@clutx.clarkson.edu (Neal W. Miller) writes:
> 	On the Zenith-248 (at least, that's what I tried it on), I found
> by sheer accident that Ctrl-Alt-F does very nasty things to the video mode
> while text is on the screen.  Does anyone have any idea what the combination
> of keys is actually doing?  The letter "F" brings several not-so-technical
> phrases to mind, but I doubt that this was Zenith's intention.

Well, a little while ago we were discussing such things.
There are three such combinations that appear to do things to the screen.

On some machines ctl-atl-i throws the display into interlaced mode, on my
SupersPort it simply blanks the LCD (I haven't tried it with an external 
CRT)
ctl-atl-f and ctl-alt-n both return my LCD to normal operation, they appear
to do similar things on other Zeniths.

i = Interlaced, n = normal, f = ???

"Arnold G. Gill" <GILLA@QUCDN.QueensU.CA> (05/09/90)

In article <3945@munnari.oz.au>, danielce@gondwana4.ecr.mu.oz (Daniel Ake
CAROSONE) says:
>
>Well, a little while ago we were discussing such things.
>There are three such combinations that appear to do things to the screen.
>
>On some machines ctl-atl-i throws the display into interlaced mode, on my
>SupersPort it simply blanks the LCD (I haven't tried it with an external
>CRT)
>ctl-atl-f and ctl-alt-n both return my LCD to normal operation, they appear
>to do similar things on other Zeniths.
>
>i = Interlaced, n = normal, f = ???
     Since Zenith introduced these different CTL-ALT-x sequences into all of
its computers, they must have had something special in mind with the very
first ones that supported only CGA.  I have a Z-151 with a CGA, and the three
sequences mentioned above do the following:

i = half-screen interlaced mode (half size)
f = full-screen interlaced mode (full size)
n = return to normal, non-interlaced screen

As a side note, both interlaced screens give me a headache on my monitor.  I
think that a long-persistence phosphor is required to make the screen
viewable.  Perhaps this was all another one of Zenith's innovations before they
succumbed to producing only IBM style PCs.
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