VP/ix & ATI cards + STB PwrGraph info

[Steve Ralston]

jad at nyama.UUCP writes:
>It's too bad for Ati.  Their card is great for dos, and it does include
>a mouse!  Their problems with Unix (no colour at installation time,
>apparant bad fonts, can't convince vp/ix that mono ega *is* a reality
>on a ttl monitor) will only keep Ati out of the unix market.
>
>So, who's got the best deal in ET4000 chip sets around?

I guess I just always pick the *wrong* video card...  I just went thru a
[really bad] experience replacing my original ATI VGA Wonder card with a
ET4000 w/ 1Mb board [aka STB PwrGraph], that I paid $206 for.  Yes, I'm
living proof once again, that "You get what you pay for."

After much pain and agony and 12 weeks of shipping the STB board back
and forth more times than I care to recall, I have now replaced the ATI
board with an X386-compatible ET4000 board.  I sure as hell can't recommend
that anyone do what I did; although I could make it relatively painless
to anyone crazy enough to follow.  I feel much the same way towards STB
as Jose does towards ATI:
Too bad for STB; great card for DOS, but why kick yourself out of the
Unix market by releasing a BIOS which scrambles the video when booting.

I should have just waited for some kind soul to write support for the ATI 
card into Roell's X386 server.  I would consider sticking with the ATI in
spite of problems such as:  mouse recognition problems during Xenix bootups,
learning the very hard lesson of putting it in a 8 bit slot during Unix base
installations, 512K VRAM limit, and purported/sensed slowness in hi-res/
many-colored modes.

A warning to those looking at STB PwrGraph boards:  STB does not currently
test their BIOS under UNIX, though I was told that "the equipment to do
that sort of testing is still on order."  Be wary of revs 1.5-1.9 BIOS; some
"speedup changes" were put into 1.5 BIOS and they have been fixing the
resultant "incompatibilities" ever since.  Apparently STB hasn't even noticed
potential lost Unix customers.

For those who cannot bear long horror stories about "cheap mail order",
press "n" now...


Here's the long story about my [really bad] experience;

Bought [rev C, 1.7 BIOS] STB board mail order, boots DOS & Unix (SCO) OK but
has annoying flicker - sent back.  Got [rev E, 1.7 BIOS] STB board,
flicker gone but video scrambles when booting Unix and under DOS performs
diags irratically (bad/mixed VRAM chips?) - sent back.  Got [Rev E, 1.7 BIOS]
board with new/matched VRAM chips, DOS diags perform flawlessly, but still
won't boot Unix.  Meantime, STB tech support "assures" me 1.9 BIOS update will
fix the Unix boot problem; it doesn't - sent board back to STB this time.

STB swaps board [rev C, 1.9 BIOS] along with sending old 1.4 BIOS
(I wonder why?); Oh, and I get back the annoying flicker.
Revs 1.7 and 1.9 BIOS won't boot Unix; but 1.4 BIOS does!  Talked to BIOS
guy at STB - sent board back to STB who "assures" me they can "repair"
screen flicker in [rev C] board.  I hang on to 3 revs of BIOS and ship off
the board once again to STB...

Got back repaired board [rev C, 1.9 BIOS], flicker is gone, but have to put
1.4 BIOS back in to boot Unix.

Moral of the story:  Beat my meat the next time I mention a "great deal"
on a ET4000 board with 1 Mb memory and ...

			minimum acceptable	
			Board Rev Level		Good BIOS	Bad BIOS
			------------------	---------	--------
	STB PwrGraph	Rev E  (no flicker)	1.4		1.5-1.9
	running on	(plus it has 70   )			(+2.0?)
	SCO Unix	(KHz/MHz? jumper. )

			Avoid Rev C Boards!
-- 
Steve Ralston    (sralston at srwic.UUCP || ..!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrwic!srwic!sralston)
235 N Zelta, Wichita, KS 67206