Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ogicse!ese3!buchholz From: buchholz@ese3.ogi.edu (Don Buchholz) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware Subject: Re: Video 7 Requires Reset to operate Keywords: vga Message-ID: <15395@ogicse.ogi.edu> Date: 27 Dec 90 08:52:29 GMT References: Sender: news@ogicse.ogi.edu Distribution: comp Organization: Oregon Graduate Institute - Department of Env. Science and Eng. Lines: 78 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