Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
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From: rommel@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Kai-Uwe Rommel)
Subject: Re: 8514/A cards: buy ATI, not Western Digital
Message-ID: <1991Jun14.103830.8405@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE>
Sender: news@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE
Organization: Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany
References: <477.28574d90@mbcl.rutgers.edu>
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1991 10:38:30 GMT
Lines: 35

In article <477.28574d90@mbcl.rutgers.edu> goldman@mbcl.rutgers.edu writes:
>I thought I should post my experiences with the Western Digital 8514/A plus
>card, for anyone thinking of going the 8514/A compatible route.  
>
>I bought the card about a year ago, to use with os/2 1.2 in a clone (Dataworld
>386/20, AMI bios 4/89).  The card never! worked right for me; I would
>always get occasional, spontaneous crashes that would freeze the whole system,
>forcing me to do a hard reboot.  (The mouse cursor would stop moving, and then
...
>So my advice is: if you're thinking of buying a Western Digital 8514/A card,
>don't.

>Adrian Goldman                         |  Internet:  Goldman@MBCL.Rutgers.Edu

Hmm. This advice may be good as the ATI card is said to be faster than
the WD one. But I want to note that I use a WD 8514/A+ with both Windows
3.0 and IBM OS/2 1.3 with *no* problems at all until now. May be the
problems occur in conjunction with other hardware. I know that it does
not work with Tseng 4000 VGA cards that have the original Tseng Labs
BIOS. Also, Adrian reported that he has read that the card is not fully
IBM hardware compatible. But I use the original 8514 drivers of both
Windows and OS/2 that were written for the IBM 8514/A and both of them
work with no problems with my WD card.

The advice, to buy an ATI card may be OK, if you want the technically
better (and more expensive) card. I just wanted to note that the
WD/Paradise card is not that bad at all.

Kai Uwe Rommel

/* Kai Uwe Rommel, Munich ----- rommel@lan.informatik.tu-muenchen.dbp.de */

DOS ... is still a real mode only non-reentrant interrupt
handler, and always will be.                -Russell Williams