steveh@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au (Steven Howell) (12/16/90)
I have just purchased a Video 7 512k card for my VLSI-5 Award Bios 286 IBM Compat. The problem is that it will not operate on power up, but if you reset the machine via the reset key (Not the keyboard) it will operate. Has anyone come across this, and somehow managed to solve it. Thanks in Advance, Steve h
toddc@.TV.TEK.COM (Todd Carlson) (12/18/90)
In article <steveh.661344075@tasman> steveh@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au (Steven Howell) writes: > I have just purchased a Video 7 512k card for my VLSI-5 Award Bios 286 IBM Compat. The problem is that it will not operate on power up, but if you reset the machine via the reset key (Not the keyboard) it will operate. >Has anyone come across this, and somehow managed to solve it. > > Thanks in Advance, Steve h We have recently purchased several 386 machines and one 486 from a local supplier that used Mylex Motherboards in their systems, and we use Video Seven Products exclusively. We had a problem similar to yours, but only on the 486 machine. When it was fired up, the card only output on monochrome, but if you hit the RESET button, it would come back in color. (Only hitting the RESET button worked; not CTRL-ALT-DEL, nor cycling power.) We were told it was an incompatability/bug/snafu/act-o-god that they had between the Mylex Motherboard (486 only) and the Video Seven Card. ********************************************************************* Todd Carlson toddc@amati.TV.TEK.COM "He May be wrong, Computer Resources Coordinator but he's never in doubt." TV Division, Tektronix Inc. -K.L. Jones **********************************************************************
poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger) (12/19/90)
In article <1285@amati.TV.TEK.COM> toddc@amati.TV.TEK.COM (Todd Carlson) writes: >In article <steveh.661344075@tasman> steveh@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au (Steven Howell) writes: >> I have just purchased a Video 7 512k card for my VLSI-5 Award Bios 286 IBM Compat. The problem is that it will not operate on power up, but if you reset the machine via the reset key (Not the keyboard) it will operate. >>Has anyone come across this, and somehow managed to solve it. >> >> Thanks in Advance, Steve h > > >We have recently purchased several 386 machines and one 486 from a >local supplier that used Mylex Motherboards in their systems, and >we use Video Seven Products exclusively. We had a problem similar >to yours, but only on the 486 machine. When it was fired up, the >card only output on monochrome, but if you hit the RESET button, it >would come back in color. > >(Only hitting the RESET button worked; not CTRL-ALT-DEL, nor cycling >power.) > >We were told it was an incompatability/bug/snafu/act-o-god that they >had between the Mylex Motherboard (486 only) and the Video Seven Card. > > By any chance is the monitor powered off the CPU switched outlet? I can duplicate the EXACT problem on my machine if the system is powered on BEFORE the monitor. The card detects what type of monitor you have, and if the monitor isn't powered on before the CPU, it would incorrectly detect the monitor as a monochrome. This may mean that you have to power the monitor separately and turn it on before the CPU. Russ Poffenberger DOMAIN: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com Schlumberger Technologies UUCP: {uunet,decwrl,amdahl}!sjsca4!poffen 1601 Technology Drive CIS: 72401,276 San Jose, Ca. 95110 (408)437-5254
steveh@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au (Steven Howell) (12/25/90)
Yes, the monitor is powered up. It works fine with other cards. The monitor is a Zenith ZCM-1492, and the video card is a video 7 made by headland Technologies, is copyrighted 1990 and has two roms on board. They are part No. 435-0061-05, ver 2.19 and 435-0062-05, ver 2.19 But it still requires a hard reset to work. Steve h
buchholz@ese3.ogi.edu (Don Buchholz) (12/27/90)
summarizing the thread so far: >>>> I have just purchased a Video 7 512k card ... >>>> The problem is that it will not operate on power up, but if you >>>> reset the machine via the reset key (Not the keyboard) it will operate. >>>> Has anyone come across this, and somehow managed to solve it. >>> >>> We have recently purchased several [machines].... >>> ... When it was fired up, the card only output on monochrome, >>> but if you hit the RESET button, it would come back in color. >> >> By any chance is the monitor powered off the CPU switched outlet? >> .... The card detects what type of monitor you have, and if the monitor >> isn't powered on before the CPU, it would incorrectly detect the monitor as >> a monochrome. >> > Yes, the monitor is powered up. It works fine with other cards. >The monitor is a Zenith ZCM-1492, and the video card is a video 7 made by >headland Technologies, is copyrighted 1990 and has two roms on board. >They are part No. 435-0061-05, ver 2.19 >and 435-0062-05, ver 2.19 > > But it still requires a hard reset to work. We have the same Zenith/Video7 combination problem here. I have experienced the problem with a Zenith FTM-1490 (the 1492's predecessor) and two different Video 7 cards (Vega VGA and 1024i). We had sent the monitor back to Zenith about three times and they insist that the problem is not with their monitor. Our problems/symptoms are: 1. The video card will "boot" in it's "monochrome-mode" if the monitor isn't warmed up. The tell-tale sign is that the Video 7 ROM-BIOS message will come up as underscored text rather than with the rainbow test pattern. This only happens about 20-50% of the time, but it is damned frustrating. (Like the other weekend when we turned the power off for some electrical work, and then a day later I wanted to print a spreadsheet, but couldn't see anything because Quattro and the VGA card mapped all my colors to black. :-[ ) Generally I just leave the monitor turned on to avoid problems -- since OGI foots the electric bill. 2. The monitor will exhibit other strange behavior. Sometimes the palette will shift colors. Most of the time the "white" text is actually a reddish/purple-white. Today I experienced the "flashback" of having (in Procomm) all my white text go yellow, my status line change to red, and the background go from blue to black. 3. Every once in a blue moon (it happens for about 30 seconds once every two months -- try explaining that to a service tech!), the whole screen will get very fuzzy, the monitor will make sounds like a Van de Graf generator, and then suddenly there will be a loud *SNAP* and everything will fade back to (purplish) normal. BTW, the purple seems to be an artifact of this monitor/card combo. If I attach a different screen to the card the colors appear fine. Also there's another Zenith FTM-1490 that has been in colleague's home for ~2 years now with a Vega VGA and he hasn't had any trouble. The problem monitor had its deflector board replaced while under warranty, but the persistance of problems (and lack of help from Zenith) has led us to decide that the monitor is not worth the trouble. (Although I do *really like* the *black* background.) I'll be interested in hearing if anyone else has similar problems, and even more interesting in finding out if there is a solution to the problem. All Headland Technolgy's Tech Support could tell me was to make sure that the monitor was powered up before turning on the PC. It was advice that helped reduce some of the problems, but certainly hasn't solved them. Also, did anyone else notice in the issue of PC Mag with the "reliability survey" that in the photo preceeding the Video Card (or was it Video Monitor) section, there was a returned survey form that had some comment (you can't see it all) that had to do with "VIdeo 7" and "Zenith FTM"? Is this a major coincidence or what? Is PC Mag holding out on us because Zenith and Headland Tech are such big advertising accounts? Don Buchholz ese3.ese.ogi.edu
jb@falstaff.mae.cwru.edu (Jim Berilla) (12/28/90)
In article <15395@ogicse.ogi.edu> buchholz@ese3.ogi.edu (Don Buchholz) writes: > [a lot of stuff deleted] >summarizing the thread so far: > >Our problems/symptoms are: > 1. The video card will "boot" in it's "monochrome-mode" if the monitor isn't > warmed up. > > 2. The monitor will exhibit other strange behavior. Sometimes the palette > will shift colors. Most of the time the "white" text is actually a > reddish/purple-white. Today I experienced the "flashback" of having > (in Procomm) all my white text go yellow, my status line change to red, > and the background go from blue to black. > > 3. Every once in a blue moon (it happens for about 30 seconds once every > two months -- try explaining that to a service tech!), the whole screen > will get very fuzzy, the monitor will make sounds like a Van de Graf > generator, and then suddenly there will be a loud *SNAP* and everything > will fade back to (purplish) normal. I fixed a few of these problems not too long ago. Sorry for not posting sooner, but it took me a while to realize that this is the same problem that I had. It's not the video card. It's the monitor. My system is running a Paradise video card and it had the exact same problem as in 1 and 2 above. Can't help with #3, though. I hope this is the same with the Video-7 as it is with the Paradise. In the Zenith monitor, the cable with the RGB signals goes to a connector on the video board. The connector is crummy and doesn't make good contact. The video signals are terminated on the video card with 75 ohm resistors. As the contact resistance of the connector changes, it causes the video signal at the board to change, causing the characters to flicker and change colors. In my case, the red signal connector had about 30 ohms of resistance. The paradise card detects a monichrome monitor by the fact that the red video signal isn't terminated. (monochrome monitors use only the green video.) So, the 30 ohm resistance of the connector plus the 75 ohm termination was high enough that the card thought that the video signal wasn't terminated, and started up in monochrome mode. I tried resetting the color pallet, but it still wouldn't let me disable gray-scale summing. My solution was to take apart the connector and squeeze the contacts on the connector together to make better contact. It took a few times before I got them squeezed enough to be reliable. I got very close to ripping out the connector and soldering in the cable. I also took my monitor to zenith for repair. To make a long story short, they kept it for 2 months, and it came back worse that it was originally. More later, j. -- Jim Berilla / jb@falstaff.cwru.edu / 216-368-6776 "My opinions are my own, except on Wednesday mornings at 9 AM, when my opinions are those of my boss."
jb@falstaff.mae.cwru.edu (Jim Berilla) (12/29/90)
In article <1990Dec27.182847.1451@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> I write: > >In the Zenith monitor, the cable with the RGB signals goes to a connector >on the video board. The connector is crummy and doesn't make good contact. >The video signals are terminated on the video card with 75 ohm resistors. >As the contact resistance of the connector changes, it causes the video >signal at the board to change, causing the characters to flicker and >change colors. After re-reading this, I find that it's confusing. The connector in question is _inside_ the monitor. It's not the 15 pin connector that goes to the vga card. You have to take the monitor apart to get to it. Two cautions about this. First, Zenith will probably give you a hard time about future warranty work if they find out that you took their monitor apart. (I will never take anything back to them for warranty work again, but that's my opinion.) Second, like most electrical stuff, there's high voltage in there. Standard warnings apply. >In my case, the red signal connector had about 30 ohms of resistance. >The paradise card detects a monichrome monitor by the fact that the red >video signal isn't terminated. (monochrome monitors use only the green >video.) So, the 30 ohm resistance of the connector plus the 75 ohm >termination was high enough that the card thought that the video signal >wasn't terminated, and started up in monochrome mode. I tried resetting >the color pallet, but it still wouldn't let me disable gray-scale summing. > >My solution was to take apart the connector and squeeze the contacts on >the connector together to make better contact. It took a few times before >I got them squeezed enough to be reliable. I got very close to ripping >out the connector and soldering in the cable. -- Jim Berilla / jb@falstaff.cwru.edu / 216-368-6776 "My opinions are my own, except on Wednesday mornings at 9 AM, when my opinions are those of my boss."
steveh@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au (Steven Howell) (01/06/91)
Just on the side of reliablity, When i first got my Zenith 1492, I managed to find a way of blowing it up. One late night I shut down the system as usual, but as I turned of the monitor I remembered a thing I forgot to do, so I turned on the monitor again 3 seconds later, and Whammo, Gone. What a bad design. I thought it was just the monitor, being an odd one out. So I packaged it up ready to go to service, just to find there were two more with the same problem blown up three days before, STILL waiting on service from a diffrent dept. Pretty bad ay'. Steve h
steveh@tasman.cc.utas.edu.au (Steven Howell) (01/18/91)
But the Zenith is still the BEST vga monitor on the market, even if it does have a bad habbit of exploding. You just can't beat that flat screen. Steve h