frank@odetics.com (Frank Merrow) (10/20/90)
I am thinking about getting Windows 3.0, but before I do that I want to junk my Herc card and Mono monitor. I have an OLD PC Limited (aka Dell) system that still has the OLD 6Mz Bus. My original thinking was that I would buy a high end board/monitor (VRAM and 3D) so that later when I upgraded my system to a 386 they would fit right into the system. Now my thinking is that even if I did get a 386 system, I would keep my old 286 and link them with Lantastic or some such and would probably want to have VGA (Super VGA?) on BOTH systems. Obviously I don't need to spend big bucks for a 6Mz bus. The Paradise Plus and a 2A monitor has been recommended as being a "good buy for the money", but it was questionable if Window 3.0 drivers where available. 1. Is this a good buy and if not what would you recommend instead? 2. Are Drivers now available? 3. If I was feeling poor when I upgraded to a 386, how much would this card hurt my 386 performance. 4. Considering the age of this system, will I need to update my BIOS to use VGA boards? Any information and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Frank frank@odetics.com
akm@cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) (10/21/90)
In article <1990Oct20.002051.23154@odetics.com> frank@odetics.com (Frank Merrow) writes: >....The Paradise Plus >and a 2A monitor has been recommended as being a "good buy for the money", but >it was questionable if Window 3.0 drivers where available. I would like to point out that drivers have been available from Paradise for a very long time. The latest version(s) of their drivers are available from their BBS (which is actually Western Digital's BBS) Paradise 415-968-1834. I have an card that uses a Paradise chipset, and I had two reasons for buying it. First, because it is a clone card it was cheap (for the time... :-( ), and second, it had windows 3.0 drivers available for it. kartik -- Anant Kartik Mithal akm@cs.uoregon.edu Network Manager, (503)346-4408 (msgs) Department of Computer Science, (503)346-4156 (direct) University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1202
woan@iti.org (Ronald S. Woan Jr.) (10/22/90)
akm@cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) writes: >I would like to point out that drivers have been available from >Paradise for a very long time. The latest version(s) of their drivers >are available from their BBS (which is actually Western Digital's BBS) >Paradise 415-968-1834. I have an card that uses a Paradise chipset, >and I had two reasons for buying it. First, because it is a clone card >it was cheap (for the time... :-( ), and second, it had windows 3.0 >drivers available for it. I also have a Paradise chipset card now, as it was the cheapest that I could find when I bought it, but Paradise based cards have the severe defect of not being able to support 800x600 mode with 256 colors... If I remember correctly, the 2A is an 800x600 multisync, so I would recommend a Trident 8900 (or even older 8800) or Tseng Labs 4000 chipset based card which also have Windows 3.0 drivers and are in the same price range these days. -- +-----All Views Expressed Are My Own And Are Not Necessarily Shared By------+ +------------------------------My Employer----------------------------------+ + Ronald S. Woan woan@peyote.cactus.org or woan%austin@iinus1.ibm.com + + other email addresses Prodigy: XTCR74A Compuserve: 73530,2537 +
akm@cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) (10/22/90)
In article <3952@awdprime.UUCP> woan@iti.org (Ronald S. Woan Jr.) writes: >akm@cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) writes: >>[]drivers have been available from >>Paradise for a very long time. The latest version(s) of their drivers >>are available from their BBS (which is actually Western Digital's BBS) >>Paradise 415-968-1834. I have an card that uses a Paradise chipset, >>and I had two reasons for buying it. [one was] >>it had windows 3.0 drivers available for it. >I also have a Paradise chipset card now, as it was the cheapest that I >could find when I bought it, but Paradise based cards have the severe >defect of not being able to support 800x600 mode with 256 colors... If >I remember correctly, the 2A is an 800x600 multisync, so I would >recommend a Trident 8900 (or even older 8800) or Tseng Labs 4000 >chipset based card which also have Windows 3.0 drivers and are in the >same price range these days. I just received a message from someone who called the Western Digital BBS, and found that unless you were a registered user, you could not log in. So I tried, and did not get an answer. If WD/Paradise has changed their policies, that would be a shame. Also, if anyone knows what the status of their BBS is, I would be grateful for information. kartik -- Anant Kartik Mithal akm@cs.uoregon.edu Network Manager, (503)346-4408 (msgs) Department of Computer Science, (503)346-4156 (direct) University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1202
akm@cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) (10/22/90)
After not being able to get through to the Paradise PPS 1-415-968-1834
a couple of times, I finally got through. It seems to me that they
have more than one line attached to their phone number, and possibly
more lines than modems available, so it can just ring with nothing
happening, which is possibly what happened.
What follows is a screen shot of their latest driver set, along with
information about it. I *believe* the driver set on CICA is older.
Description Filename Size Date
------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Windows 3.0 VGA Drivers WIN3_0.EXE 193,822 7-30-90
(Includes drivers for all
Paradise VGA cards.)
PLEASE NOTE: VGA+,VGA+16,VGA 1024 WITH 256K CAN ONLY USE(800X600X16)
VGA PRO(800X600X16,640X480X256),VGA 1024 512K CAN USE ANY!
The file WIN3_0.EXE is self extracting, copy it to an
empty subdirectory and type WIN3_0.EXE
For instructions on loading drivers read text file included.
It is sad that they cannot do 800x600x256, as a pervious poster noted,
but I like their level of support.
kartik
--
Anant Kartik Mithal akm@cs.uoregon.edu
Network Manager, (503)346-4408 (msgs)
Department of Computer Science, (503)346-4156 (direct)
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1202mitsolid@acf5.NYU.EDU (Thanasis Mitsolides) (10/23/90)
akm@cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) writes: >After not being able to get through to the Paradise PPS 1-415-968-1834 >a couple of times, I finally got through. > Description Filename Size Date > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > 1 Windows 3.0 VGA Drivers WIN3_0.EXE 193,822 7-30-90 > (Includes drivers for all > Paradise VGA cards.) Can someone put this file on cica.cica.indiana.edu? I can put it there myself if someone mails it to me. Thanks a lot, Thanasis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet: mitsolid@cs.nyu.edu (mitsolid%cs.nyu.edu@relay.cs.net) UUCP : ...!uunet!cmcl2!cs!mitsolid ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet: mitsolid@cs.nyu.edu (mitsolid%cs.nyu.edu@relay.cs.net) UUCP : ...!uunet!cmcl2!cs!mitsolid -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jones@speedy.cs.pitt.edu (Randy Jones) (10/27/90)
In article <1990Oct21.053426.22084@cs.uoregon.edu> akm@cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) writes: >I would like to point out that drivers have been available from >Paradise for a very long time. The latest version(s) of their drivers >are available from their BBS (which is actually Western Digital's BBS) >Paradise 415-968-1834. I have an card that uses a Paradise chipset, >and I had two reasons for buying it. First, because it is a clone card >it was cheap (for the time... :-( ), and second, it had windows 3.0 >drivers available for it. > Okay, so I copied the Paradise drivers for Windows 3.0 from this BBS, and I can't get them to work. I tried installing the 640x480x256 and the 1024x768x16 drivers separately and either one gives me just a black screen when I start up windows. Anybody seen this problem before? I have a 386 25MHz w/ 4MB, and the Main chip on my video board starts with WDC'89, so I assume it really is a paradise chip like I was told. Help. Randy Jones
akm@cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) (10/28/90)
In article <8972@pitt.UUCP> jones@speedy.cs.pitt.edu.UUCP (Randy Jones) writes: >Okay, so I copied the Paradise drivers for Windows 3.0 from this BBS, >and I can't get them to work. I tried installing the 640x480x256 and the >1024x768x16 drivers separately and either one gives me just a black >screen when I start up windows. Anybody seen this problem before? >I have a 386 25MHz w/ 4MB, and the Main chip on my video board starts >with WDC'89, so I assume it really is a paradise chip like I was told. >Help. > You need to have 512 K of video memory to get 640x480x256 or 1024x768x16. The card I have has only 256 K and exhibits similar behavoir if I tru and use an unsupported mode. You should check to see how much memory you hve on your video card. If you have only 256K, then the only thing that the paradise drivers will give you (that the windows) drivers don't already give you) is a 800x600x16 display kartik -- Anant Kartik Mithal akm@cs.uoregon.edu Network Manager, (503)346-4408 (msgs) Department of Computer Science, (503)346-4156 (direct) University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1202
akm@cs.uoregon.edu (Anant Kartik Mithal) (11/17/90)
In article <8972@pitt.UUCP> jones@speedy.cs.pitt.edu.UUCP (Randy Jones) writes: >>I would like to point out that drivers have been available from >>Paradise for a very long time. The latest version(s) of their drivers >>are available from their BBS (which is actually Western Digital's BBS) >>Paradise 415-968-1834. I have an card that uses a Paradise chipset, >Okay, so I copied the Paradise drivers for Windows 3.0 from this BBS, >and I can't get them to work. I tried installing the 640x480x256 and the >1024x768x16 drivers separately and either one gives me just a black >screen when I start up windows. Anybody seen this problem before? >I have a 386 25MHz w/ 4MB, and the Main chip on my video board starts >with WDC'89, so I assume it really is a paradise chip like I was told. >Help. Two things. First (and less important), the NEC 2A only does 800x600, so the 1024x768 should not work at all. Second (FAQ!!!), you need 512 K to get 640x480x256 or 1024x768x16 If you have only 512 K, the only mode that the drivers will support is 800x600x16. kartik -- Anant Kartik Mithal akm@cs.uoregon.edu Network Manager, (503)346-4408 (msgs) Department of Computer Science, (503)346-4156 (direct) University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1202