shurr@cbnews.cb.att.com (larry.a.shurr) (03/08/91)
Need some help: I have a shiny new Gateway 200 386sx machine with DOS 4.01 & Windows. The video is a Diamond SpeedStar SVGA with 512K. Floppy disks with video drivers are included. Last night I loaded the new SETUP.INF and Windows drivers and selected "Diamond SpeedStar 800x600 256 colors" in setup. The process seemed to go smoothly, I was directed to load a couple of the Windows floppies from which it obtained font information and perhaps other stuff as well. Unfortunately, when I restarted Windows, the display wrapped around from bottom-to-top, i.e., the bottom part of the display wrapped around to the top. It's almost as though the display was not 600 lines high except that there is overlap between the bottom part of the display and the top so that anything which appears near the bottom of the screen may appear, in part, on both the bottom and the top of the screen. This includes windows, icons, wallpaper images and the mouse pointer. Very strange. I changed the display back to "VGA" and all was well again. When I tried "Diamond Speed- Star 800x600 16 colors," that also worked fine. Tried 800x600x256 again, wrap-around returns. I should have tried 1024x768x16 (don't have 1MB for 256 colors... yet, but I did get a non-interlaced monitor - special deal $50.00 extra), but Griffin, my computer, told me it was late and that I should go to bed and work on this later. I'm no newcomer to computers, including PC's, but I am new to Windows and I may have committed some bonehead error. I have read TFM, so though I may have misunderstood or even overlooked, it isn't because I didn't try. I do run FractInt 15.1 at 800x600x256 which works just fine - love those colors - though I note that the 800x600x256 selection I've been using refers to VESA (I know what the acronym is, but little else about it) and it may be different from the Windows driver. Can anyone help. I will take email or postings and I will gladly summarize if others are interested. Larry -- Larry A. Shurr (cbnmva!las@att.ATT.COM or att!cbnmva!las) The end of the world has been delayed due to a shortage of trumpet players. (The above reflects my opinions, not those of AGS or AT&T, but you knew that.)
shurr@cbnews.att.com (larry.a.shurr) (03/11/91)
In article <1991Mar8.154238.28637@cbnews.att.com> I wrote: >[I have a strange video wrap-around problem at 800x600x256 resolution.] The over-the-weekend consensus is that Windows or the Windows 800x600x256 driver wants 1MB of RAM, even though this is not strictly required for 800x600x256. David Dwiggins (dd2x+@andrew.cmu.edu) mentions that the driver wants more than video one page in order to speed up the video (through some kind of double-buffering?). One would think that this restriction would be documented, and it well may be - it's always possible I overlooked it. James Singer (james@chimayo) and Phil Wong (sun!techbook.com!pkwong) both told me that they had the same problem until they upgraded to 1MB of video RAM. Phil also mentioned that he has a Diamond SpeedStar as mine I do. Sounds like 1MB is the answer. I will upgrade as soon as I can and will follow-up with a verification. Don't hold your breath awaiting my veri- fication, "as soon as I can" is still at least a week away :-). My thanks to David, James, Phil and any other respondents whose messages have not yet arrived for the information. Larry -- Larry A. Shurr (cbnmva!las@att.ATT.COM or att!cbnmva!las) The end of the world has been delayed due to a shortage of trumpet players. (The above reflects my opinions, not those of AGS or AT&T, but you knew that.)
gpsteffl@sunee.waterloo.edu (Glenn Patrick Steffler) (03/13/91)
In article <1991Mar8.154238.28637@cbnews.att.com> shurr@cbnews.cb.att.com (larry.a.shurr) writes: >[video "wraps" around the screen such that some stuff appears on both top and bottom, etc] I would guess the problem lies in the video driver which deals with the video 800x600x256 mode uses a technique commonly seem on windows graphics drivers: The drivers configure the card to display only 800 bits wide, meanwhile, the memory is composed of lines which are 1024 bits wide. Since this allows` easy segment calculations (since the whole half megabyte must appear within a 64k segment at 0A000) for the driver. Otherwise, the segmetn boundries for the driver could appear partways on a scanline, causing the video driver to have to test for lots o' special cases, as opposed to one case, going vertically, and not having to wroy about the horizontal case at all. Then again, I could just be blowing sunshine up yer butt. >Can anyone help. I will take email or postings and I will gladly summarize >if others are interested. > >Larry >-- >Larry A. Shurr (cbnmva!las@att.ATT.COM or att!cbnmva!las) >The end of the world has been delayed due to a shortage of trumpet players. >(The above reflects my opinions, not those of AGS or AT&T, but you knew that.) -- Co-Op Scum "Bo doesn't know software" - George Brett "The galaxial hearth steams the sea as the sky blood red embrasses darkness" -John Constantine (HellBlazer) Glenn Steffler