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IBM PS/2 Model 25sx 386 Win 3.1 display drivers needed

C

custm42435

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Joined
Dec 10, 2008
Messages
48
Location
Chattanooga, Tn
While loading my Model 25sx with nostalgia to play onto the 8gb Micro SD that I have it booting from I also installed windows 3.1 although I really don't like it in VGA at 16 colors and would like to see it in 256 colors at 640x480 but do not have the drivers for it. So far i have only been able to find the Vesa driver for the video for dos which reports the following:

IBM PS/2 Model 25SX Graphics Driver VESA TSR
(C) 1991,92 International Business Machines Corporation
Developed for IBM by Tyler Software
Version 1.0

Your Graphics adapter has 512K of video RAM
VESA support has been installed for the following video modes:

640X400 256-color graphics
640x480 256-color graphics
132 column x 25-row text "

Just played a game of Links 386 which confirmed it to be working as well. This is the built in graphics on the motherboard and using the built in display. Does anyone know where I could obtain the win 3.1 display drivers for it to be able to go higher than 16 color since i know it can do it? Finding it has been a PITA as I don't know exactly which to look for and the 386-SX/20 PS/2 model 25SX seems a bit rare. I also just upgraded the memory in it to 12 meg.

I also thought about installing os/2 onto it for fun at some point in time as it would more than likely take advantage of the video mode better than win 3.1 . Any help appreciated.
 
Just tried it, no go... got this:

Win 3.1 logo, then

"An error occured while trying to initialize the video adapter.

Hit any key to continue"

then back to dos prompt.
 
The only IBM SVGA card listed is the IBM VGA286C on page 113 of OS/2 v2.1 installation guide.
 
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Wow that runs on Geos... that brings me back to my Tandy 1000TL days lol I will give the lite version a try... Although the full version is a bit overpriced
 
You can do a lot of stuff with the trial versions of GeoWorks, whether it be Breadbox Ens or even better the earlier New Deal Office suite though, even enhance them somewhat if you're willing to muck around a bit.

Earlier versions of GeoWorks can be gotten off the interweb from the usual places. There's a vesa driver available for download for GeoWorks 2.x I run v2.x on my Zenith286LP Plus. I like the Motif interface for that ye olde style look. My first 286/16 had GeoWorks Ensemble Pro 1.2 on it, running on DrDos 6.0.

Not as much software available as win3.x obviously but it is an option.

Best place to look for PCGeos stuff, apart from BreadBox Inc.(in their new site layout don't seem to have the free PCGeos programs readily available like in the past as these seem to be included in BBE 4.0), is this German site: http://www.geos-infobase.de/INDEX.HTM
 
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While doing some data mining I came across a disk with this Windows 3.1 SVGA driver update:

Windows 3.1 256 Color Display Driver Release Notes
Copyright 1993 Microsoft Corporation
--------------------------------------------------
This disk contains a new high-speed 256 color display driver
for Windows 3.1 which supports most non-accelerated Super VGA
display types. You can install this driver by using Windows
Setup to select one of the following display types:

Super VGA 640x480 256 colors
Super VGA 800x600 256 Large ; Large fonts
Super VGA 800x600 256 Small ; Small fonts
Super VGA 1024x768 256 Large ; Large fonts
Super VGA 1024x768 256 Small ; Small fonts

Displays supported by these selections include the following:

ATI VGA series, including
ATI VGA Wonder
ATI VGA Wonder Plus
ATI VGA Wonder 24XL
Cirrus Logic VGA (6420, 5420 series)
Oak Technology VGA (077 series)
Paradise VGA, including
Paradise VGA 1024
Paradise VGA Professional
Trident VGA (8900C series) *, including
Trident Impact
Tseng VGA (ET4000 series) **, including:
Boca VGA
Cardinal VGA
Diamond Speedstar series
Everex Viewpoint series
Metheus Premier VGA
Orchid Prodesigner II
Sigma VGA Legend
STB Powergraph
Video Seven VGA, including
Video Seven FastWrite
Video Seven 1024i
Video Seven VRAM
Video Seven VRAM II
Western Digital VGA

* NOTE: MS-DOS applications run on Trident adapters may not
be restored correctly when switched back to full-screen
mode from Windows.
** NOTE: MS-DOS applications run on some Tseng ET4000 adapters
may not be restored correctly when switched back to
full-screen mode from Windows. If this happens,
use Windows Setup to select one of the ET4000 options.
However, this may slow the operation of windowed
MS-DOS applications.
 
I think that what svga.exe provides Stone. Seems to be an orphan vedio display processor, used in a few IBM models by the looks. Someone's bound to come along at some stage with the correct win3.1 driver if it ever existed. I wonder how many other system builders used that chip?

custm42435 any luck with BB Ens. Lite?
 
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I'm gonna go ahead and bump this ancient post with a suggestion.

Try this Tseng ET3000 driver (give it a directory or a floppy as an argument, it's a PKZIP self extractor): http://ps-2.kev009.com/pccbbs/ps1/et3000.exe

IBM claims the PS/1 2011 and 2121 are using a Tseng ET3000. They aren't (they're not even using the same chip), but that's the driver they give for Windows for them. I don't have 512k of VRAM, so it fails to select the 640x480 256 mode, but it tries, on my 2121. The reason I link it is... the 2121 and 25SX have the same SVGA controller.
 
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