Uncreative Labs

Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 377 Location: Stuttgart, Germany

something a little offtopic: I have an ms inport card for a special ms mouse iwth an inport connector ( bus mouse ? ). it has hardly anything on it besides a chip and one jumper. This jumper has two settings, 'normal' and 'XT Slot 8'. Is that slot 8 the one you were talkign about with the ibm async card? because that would mean that you can put at least this other card in there too as long as you set the jumper the correct way. it's an 8-bit isa card btw.

Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 6:54 pm

Sounds cool. It should work. I wonder how it handles the IRQs if it doesn't have an IRQ jumper.

Guest

I come back in topic: finally I received a copy of the original VGA manual from ASEM s.p.a (that done that card in 1989!!!!! Customer care service +++). And now, changing only a jumper setting, I can drive my old MDA IBM 5151 monitor. But the VGA,I think, must works in Hercules compatible mode.

Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 20 Location: Gurnee, IL, USA

Back on topic, I have something to add...
If you want to drive your stock IBM 5151 with real IBM parts, buy a real IBM EGA graphics card, they show up on eBay all the time. However, if you want to play games on a mono monitor, you need a Hercules...it's worth the non-genuine card though, and you'll be suprised how many games are supported by it! BUT, if you're using application programs like WordPerfect, Windows, or KeyPublisher, graphics will be faster on the EGA card, and will look more proportionate. (Hercules is 720x348, while EGA is 640x350)

Looking at how it sounds like you have yours set up...it's doing EGA monochrome, if I'm not mistaken.

Giacomo, just out of curiousity, what card is it?

Guest

Hi. It's a Cirrus logic Eagle II AVGA. The cirrus logic chipset codename are Cirrus logic CL-GD520A-32PC-C and CL-GD510A-32PC-B. But I think that my 5151 can not support...but maybe I can try. I mean, the first time I tried a lot of settings, and when I finally received the right manual I set it as Hercules. Do you think that 5151 can support ega or vga resolutions correctly?

Guest

both ega cards and vga cards have a bios. if an old IBM PC early version that does not support a hard drive, will not work with these cards.,
reason: the mb bios must look for a external bios and the non-hd compatible mb will not see that. ( or rather BIOS extensions- like that needed on the xt hd controller)

there the choices are cga card and cga monitor and ibm mono or herc or herc clone card and mono / herc compatible monitor.

a cga card with a composite jack ( rca connector) can be used with a composite moniror or small tv ( us standards) with a video input.
but the results will not be sharp or clear.

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 8:34 pm

Giacomo wrote:

Hi. It's a Cirrus logic Eagle II AVGA. The cirrus logic chipset codename are Cirrus logic CL-GD520A-32PC-C and CL-GD510A-32PC-B. But I think that my 5151 can not support...but maybe I can try. I mean, the first time I tried a lot of settings, and when I finally received the right manual I set it as Hercules. Do you think that 5151 can support ega or vga resolutions correctly?

Nope, I had similar cards, it MAY be CGA or even EGA compatible if you are lucky but the card loads the appropriate bios for the type of monitor you drive. It would be nice if the card would simulate 320x200 VGA on CGA or Mono but none I've seen do. I did have an old Integrated EGA card on an Old NEC computer that would display CGA/EGA graphics if you changed the jumper to mono mode and would display ega graphics on a cga screen if jumpered right but it could not flip modes. AKA If I jumpered it up for a mono screen and jumpered up CGA/EGA mode it could not display hercules graphics. If I jumpered it for hercules graphics, it could not emulate EGA/CGA without changing the jumper.

Good Luck