Wow great work there Predator99! I will test it in a little while and report back 😀
About the boot logo we can use the ega version instead

keropi wrote:

Yes the logo is displayed pink... memory managers and/or shadow options have been tested , no change in behavior. In fact I am only running HIMEM.SYS 99% of the time.
I can try to install the 286 cpu back but I won't use it even if 640x480 works. The reason I did a hackjob with the Kingston upgrade is because I wanted a somewhat beefier system to run EGA stuff without having to worry about a slow cpu. The upgrade did help lots in that regard and I'd like to keep it 😀

The system as-is is the perfect size and condition for my desk 😁 that's why I went to all that trouble to upgrade it a little and resort to adding/removing PLCC/PGA sockets so it can be used on my non-IBM 286 :

Looks nice...my Computing area is more...chaotic 🤣 Case is nice too but not many ISA slots. Your Monitor is also very cool and must be one of the latest EGA Monitors?

keropi wrote:

Allright thanks to a member on VCF we now have the " Phoenix Enhanced Video BIOS PLUS Version 1.02 01 " as shown on the eBay auction Predator99 posted.
My card came with a Phoenix EGA BIOS from 07/21/87 - the new one is from 05/12/89 so it's almost 2 years newer and could make a difference. Too bad I can't test it before tomorrow though...

Thanks for collecting and posting all these BIOS images! I will be very happy to have them available when I have an own chips card again. But 40€ + shipment is too much..will find a cheaper way.

Thanks!

case has 4x ISA slots - enough for my purposes:
- EGA
- SB 2.0 with CMS chips
- NIC
- MPU card

ide/floppy/ports/ps2 mouseport are all onboard devices that help lots 😀

I tried the new TSR and it does switch DOS to 640x480 but I am still getting the blank screen when windows load. I am also getting a blank screen when I try to load another program, even window's SETUP.EXE results to blank screen. The pc does not freeze though and I can exit back to DOS prompth that works.

The windows stuff seem to be 386 related , this is what I get when I load windows in STANDARD mode:

and this is after exiting setup.exe from windows directory after the tsr is loaded:

I don't know why, maybe the system, the 386 upgrade, both? I am ready to give up on it 🤣

Getting info or bios files on ega/cga cards is a challenge nowdays - I was just lucky and people shared their roms 😀 And yes prices are all over the place , typical.

I assume my TSR is of no use for you as its only for my card which has 640x480 mode 50h 😉 For you it messes everything up because mode 12h is already implemented correctly 😉

Did you try this with your PEGA and also with your Chips card?

I have no idea at the moment. Would assume your problem Windows specific. There are many other programs you can test this VGA mode with. I remember also the latest Version of MS Word for DOS supported it. Maybe you can try it...

I have only tried it with my PEGA card, not the chips one.
My 3.1 installation is just a standard/fresh one - didn't actually have the time to install things or mess with it.

I have also tried using the windows VGA driver, no tsr / mode change of any kind and running windows with the /S switch: I am getting a screen similar to the one posted above.

keropi wrote:

The windows stuff seem to be 386 related , this is what I get when I load windows in STANDARD mode:

On 386 and higher processors, "386" Standard Mode is beeing used. 😉

Forgive me for asking, but what was the purpose of "Super EGA" back in its day? Was it just so that people could attain higher resolutions while keeping their existing EGA monitors?

@Jo22
well, moving out that 386 is not an option other than testing for 5mins 😁
It's too bad there is no card-specific 640x480 driver, it would solve these issues IMHO

@mr_bigmouth_502
just like super-vga that gave higher resolutions/depth "super-ega" gives higher resolutions. In both cases though a monitor suitable for these higher resolutions is required.

It's too bad there is no card-specific 640x480 driver, it would solve these issues IMHO

Who knows, maybe there is/was ? My PVGA1A is about as old and got Windows 3.x drivers. 😉
Even if not, it could be possible to modifiy an existing EGA/VGA driver.
As far as I know, there even was a Windows 3.1 SDK/DDK with driver samples..

well, moving out that 386 is not an option other than testing for 5mins

Never mind! 😀 I was just hinting about the differences of Win3.0/3.1..

Windows 3.1 possesses two Standard Modes and one Enhanced Mode.
The true Standard Mode is normally executed on 286 machines only.
The "386" Standard Mode is basically the ordinary "386 Enhanced Mode"-kernal,
but with disabled loading of VXDs and ignoring the [386 Enhanced] section in System.ini.

To execute 286 Standard Mode :

C:\Windows\> \system\dosx

(Attention: krnl386.exe may needs to be out of sight. Renaming it to, say, krnl386.bak should suffice)

Source: http://marc.info/?l=freedos-dev&m=96746159622525&w=2

Windows 3.0 on the other hand, seems to load true Standard Mode anytime win /s is beeing executed.

I had an idea for a little improvement 😉

____
a
nop
xor ax,ax
push ax
pop ds
mov ax,[40]
mov bx,[42]
push cs
pop ds
mov [251],ax
mov [253],bx
xor ax,ax
push ax
pop ds
mov ax, cs
mov [42],cs
mov ax,200
mov [40],ax
mov ah,0
mov al,10
int 10
mov ah,31
mov dx,100
int 21

a 200
cmp ah, 0f
je 230
cmp ah,0
jne 250
push ds
push cs
pop ds
mov [231],al
pop ds
out 80,al
mov al,10
jmp 250

a 230
mov al,12
mov ah,0
mov bh,0
jmp 250

a 250
jmp aabb:ccdd
retf

n test.com
rcx
500
w
q
______________
Now the programs switches to the selectes graphics mode (10 in example above) and stays with it in all case. Therefore you can easily test if the problem is related to windows or if you have a general problem. Will only work with grpahics mode programs and only if they use BIOS call to set up the mode.

Tested with SQ3, Xenon II, Populous and Windows and seem to work. Looks of course messed up, think Scali can explain better than me why 😉 You can even see the graphics if you select a 256 VGA color mode in a game. Should start to write a VGA emulator for a EGA card 😉
So to test 640x480 replace the two bold "10" by a "12" and try...only way to exit is a reset.

Did you try it? 😉

I just was playing around with PCem. I used the EGA-Bios Image uploaded by Keropi and installed Win31.

EGA Driver

VGA Driver

Colors are 100% identical to the Screenshots of the "real" EGA card I uploaded before. Therefore 640x480 EGA should work with the Chips-EGA card with this BIOS and the Win 31 VGA driver.

I just installed an EGA WONDER 800 card - it supposedly supports VGA/16colors , infact the egatest utility it comes with also tests for vga modes 11 and 12 and both work. But 3.1 with the VGA driver just hangs for me... maybe I need to re-install or something.

edit:
yep doesn't work... I select VGA - the install I think uses 640x480 but when you finally exit and try to run windows again the pc freezes after the logo

edit2:
Turns out VGA only works with the Headland Hardware EMS driver loaded for me, either VGA or VGA 3.0 will do.
the paradise EGA does not work with vga - it has a garbled image but it does not freeze

Sounds like a Windows problem. You should try to install version 3.0 to test.

nah it's the same with 3.0 ... I fear without a proper windows driver it's hit-and-miss depending on the system used

on my 286/10 ega works up to 800x600@16colors.

Sounds like a Windows problem. You should try to install version 3.0 to test.

Note that Windows 3.0 supports an older pallet system if run in Real-Mode in order to be compatible with Windows 2.x graphics drivers
(for example, -as far as I know-, Win 2.x threaded 256 colour modes more like high fidelity colour modes than any other version of Windows)..
So I'd encourage to test Windows 3.0 in Standard-Mode or 386 Enhanced Mode first. 😉

dr.zeissler wrote:

on my 286/10 ega works up to 800x600@16colors.

With what? Windows 2x?

If we're talking about a Schneider Tower AT with GC-201/EG-3000/Gemini VC-001 chip,
I'd make a bet that the answer is yes. And Windows 3.0 in RM, too. 😀
http://matthieu.benoit.free.fr/123.htm
http://greyghost.mooo.com/eg3000/

yes indeed. win30 gemini-vc1 onboard 256k eum1491