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Beep codes when using Everex EV-659A EGA card

M

Malvineous

Experienced Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2010
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119
Location
Brisbane, Australia
Hi all,

I'd like to get an EGA video card working just for fun, so I can play some EGA DOS games on real EGA hardware.

I found an old Everex EV-659A EGA card (8-bit ISA), however when I plugged it in one of the tantalum caps promptly exploded in a shower of sparks. It was connected between ground and a pin on the unpopulated light pen input header, which in turn was connected to a pin on the feature connector (which isn't plugged in to anything) so it's beyond me where it got power on the positive side of the cap, let alone enough to fail. However assuming it's unimportant (I don't intend to use a light pen), I continued...

When I boot the PC, after a few moments (about the time you'd expect it to initialise the video BIOS) I get one long continuous beep. I am guessing this is coming from the EGA BIOS, because if I remove the BIOS chip from the EGA card then I instead get a couple of beeps which is the normal code for "no monitor connected" (I get these same beeps with no video card in the system.)

Does anyone know what the single continuous beep could mean? I have no EGA monitor connected (I am building an adapter to convert the EGA signals to HDMI but I need a signal source now) but I doubt that would be the reason for the beep. I am wondering whether the EGA BIOS chip might be bad? Or perhaps it's performing a self test that's failing? Any suggestions??
 
Don't you think in might help if you gave us a clue as to what type of COMPUTER this is happening on? :)

Without knowing any more it could be a short.
 
There aren't too many different types of computers that have ISA slots and run DOS ;-) It's just a standard PC, Intel motherboard, probably a bit too new (440BX-2 chipset, 433MHz slot-1 Pentium II) with Phoenix BIOS. I just stuck the EGA ROM into a Realtek network card and was able to dump it successfully (32k, Everex EGA BIOS v1.51) so I know the ROM is working.
 
Malvineous said:
There aren't too many different types of computers that have ISA slots and run DOS ;-).
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Really? Pardon me if I laugh at this statement of yours. Considering what site you're on you should receive quite a few responses to that, itself. I've got eight to ten different types that have ISA slots and run DOS and I'm sure there are others here that would put that number to shame. :) I'm just small time compared to some people here.
 
I think things are getting a bit muddled in translation. I suspect the op was referring to types as PCs(in the generic sense) verses say Apple, Acorn RiscPCs, VaxStations, Sun Workstations etc.

Of course I could be wrong and often am.
 
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Caluser2000 said:
I think things are getting a bit muddled in translation. I suspect the op was referring to types as PCs(in the generic sense) verses say Apple, Acorn RiscPCs, VaxStations, Sun Workstations etc.

Of course I could be wrong and often am.
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He did say this:

Malvineous said:
... so I can play some EGA DOS games on real EGA hardware.
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That already limits the possibilities to DOS machines, i.e., PCs. And that leaves dozens and dozens or more possibilities to choose from as to just what machine he might be using.
 
For the actual system, I am surprised that the EGA card doesn't work unless for some reason the Pentium II era Phoenix BIOS requires 16-bit ISA video cards. Or the EGA card can't handle fast CPUs. Have you tried a 16 bit VGA card in the system? Just in case the slot might have died or some other weirdness. There is probably a simple cause I am blanking on because that is a unusually large age difference between motherboard and video card.

There were a bunch of semi-compatible computers with ISA slots that often needed effort to get standard video cards to work. A Pentium II motherboard won't have the IBM PC's color/mono switch. More relevant information provided sooner yields faster more accurate responses.
 
Stone said:
Don't you think in might help if you gave us a clue as to what type of COMPUTER this is happening on? :)
Click to expand...

Why would the type of PC matter in the diagnosis or treatment? Would an ISA slot on an 80486-based clone interact with ISA cards significantly differently than an 8086-based clone?
 
Beep codes aren't quite universal, they're by the BIOS manufacturer of the motherboard. Do you know which BIOS you have? Here are some common beep codes although constant/long usually is a card short/issue.
 
barythrin said:
Beep codes aren't quite universal, they're by the BIOS manufacturer of the motherboard. Do you know which BIOS you have? Here are some common beep codes although constant/long usually is a card short/issue.
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Along with that tedious statement...'There aren't too many different types of computers that have ISA slots and run DOS :wink:'... the Op broke down and admitted he had a Phoenix BIOS. :)
 
Check out the 82443BX Host Bridge Datasheet which describes how the video buffer area gets sent down to AGP or PCI by the Legacy VGA controller. If I understand it, an EGA ISA video card will not work on the 440BX. I suspect even ISA VGA cards won't work. I could be wrong of course.

But it might be possible to use an ISA MDA video card as a secondary video card. Specific note requires passthrough to MDA card and I don't know of any PCI MDA cards. Never tried it and I don't have a proper monochrome text monitor to test.
 
As I mentioned before, I have a EV659 and a bunch of 440BX/GX systems, so I'm willing to pull the AGP and stick the 659 and see if the system chokes.

Or you can just discuss it among yourselves. :rolleyes:
 
@Chuck(G): If it's not too much trouble, it would be great if you were able to try out the card. My problem is that the card was salvaged from a pile of "scrap" with all the jumpers missing, and I have reattached them per the defaults I found here so at this point I don't know whether the card even works. It would be nice to know whether it *could* work in a 440BX-era machine, that way I'm not wasting time trying to fix the card when it might already be working fine! Also, do you have the manual in electronic format? I'd love a copy if you do. If not, is there any more information in it than is at the the web site above? That site doesn't include details on one of the jumpers (W3) and doesn't say what W8 and W11 are for. I found a photo on a trading site that showed W3 should be closed, but there's no change in behaviour whether it's open or closed.

@Trixter: I am definitely troubleshooting the EGA card - I just mention the beep codes in case they are useful (and in case it's the EGA video BIOS generating the beep, rather than the system BIOS, given the beep goes away when I remove the EGA ROM chip.)

@Stone: My apologies but I genuinely thought that only PC-compatible systems are able to run DOS and have an ISA video card connected. So that I don't make this mistake again, what other types of non-PC computers can do this? Like Caluser2000 said, I was assuming you meant Apple, Sun, etc. and to my knowledge none of these can run DOS games natively. Of course as krebizfan pointed out, some of the chipsets may not support ISA video cards which I hadn't thought of, so sorry for not including the chipset and more details about the motherboard in the initial post!

@krebizfan: You might be right - in the BIOS setup I can only choose the primary video card as either PCI or AGP, there is no ISA option (or ISA/PCI as I am sure I have seen on other systems.) However I can choose to enable Palette Snoop, which according to the help "might be required if an ISA video card is in use". Although it wouldn't surprise me if they included an option in the BIOS for something the hardware didn't support...
 
Malvineous said:
@Stone: My apologies but I genuinely thought that only PC-compatible systems are able to run DOS and have an ISA video card connected. So that I don't make this mistake again, what other types of non-PC computers can do this? Like Caluser2000 said, I was assuming you meant Apple, Sun, etc. and to my knowledge none of these can run DOS games natively. Of course as krebizfan pointed out, some of the chipsets may not support ISA video cards which I hadn't thought of, so sorry for not including the chipset and more details about the motherboard in the initial post!
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I agree. You are correct. But, there are too many 'PC-compatible systems' to enumerate that all have their own different BIOS beep responses so saying you have a PC-compatible system is as good as saying almost nothing at all. Do you see my point? If you don't say which system you are using there's no way to tell (without guessing blindly) what the beep code might mean. PC-compatible is just not definitive for this diagnostic.
 
Stone said:
so saying you have a PC-compatible system is as good as saying almost nothing at all.
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My thoughts exactly which is why I didn't say anything at all in my first post ;-) I was also assuming the beep code is coming from the EGA BIOS, so it wouldn't matter what the system BIOS is, but of course I don't know this for sure! So my bad.
 
So even if the video BIOS detected a fault during POST (when the system BIOS calls the video BIOS to set up the card) that was bad enough that nothing could be displayed, the video BIOS would never generate its own beep codes? I guess that makes sense, I just figured any problems that arose before the video was active would trigger beep codes, whether it was the system BIOS or an add-in card.

Oh, and I tried putting a 16-bit ISA VGA card in, and that didn't work either - no beeps, the system just booted with no display. So it looks like krebizfan was right, and this chipset won't handle ISA video cards. I find that quite surprising because I didn't think there was anything special about video cards, compared to any other add-in card.
 
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