🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <92346.092719C1M@psuvm.psu.edu>, <C1M@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
>I am interested in the 24X and I would like experiences with this Windows
>accelerator card. I will be replacing an Orchid ProDesigner IIs. I am
>concerned about the crashes with Word for Windows (when selecting Options from
>the menu). I have heard this happens with the 800x600x256 mode, does it also
>happen with 1024x768x256 and 800x600x32,768? Any other problems with Windows
>apps? How noticeable will the "speed up" be at 1024x768x256 and 800x600x32,768?
>
>Thanks in advance!
>
>Carl   C1M@psuvm.psu.edu

This might be a good time to repost my letter which probably got
lost in the shuffle around Thanksgiving.  I'll post it as I did
the first time, but then afterwards, I'll update you on what has
happened since then.

November 23, 1992
Marketing Department
DIAMOND Computer Systems, Inc.
532 Mercury Drive
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
To Whom It May Concern:
Please find enclosed my registration for my new Diamond 
Speedstar 24X video card. Overall, I am happy with the 
product: it is faster and provides better color than the 
card it replaced, and at a price somewhat less than 
comparable cards. However, I have been having several 
problems I would like to clear up. Your help would be 
greatly appreciated.
*	I had some problems getting the board installed 
properly. After I installed the board, the system will 
sometimes refuse to power up, instead giving me a long 
beep and a series of short, regularly-spaced beeps. This 
happens randomly, and requires a cold boot. On the 
advice of your tech support person, I changed the DIP 
switch setting to use alternate timing. That reduced the 
problem, but has not eliminated it. I'm running an IBM 
386SX with AMI BIOS, 8 megabytes of memory, 120 megabyte 
hard disk, and a MAG LX1460 monitor.
*	When I start up Windows 3.1, I will sometimes receive 
this message: "Fatal Error #3 during the initialization 
of the Microsoft 32-bit disk driver (WDCTRL). Restart 
your computer by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL." I reboot, and 
sometimes it works. Sometimes, this same message occurs 
several times in a row. The message appears after the 
start-up Windows logo, but before the screen echo that 
the Windspeed accelerated driver has been installed. 
Possibly related, I will sometimes get messages that 
there is a problem with CONFIG.SYS, pointing at my 
EMM386 line. I looked at the troubleshooting 
instructions in the Speedstar manual, which suggested 
that I exclude some memory for the video card. I 
therefore edited my EMM386 line to read as follows: 
"DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE noems x=A000-C7FF." 
Unfortunately, the problem seems to persist; I had to 
boot up twice to turn on the computer this morning and 
again this afternoon. Any suggestions?
*	My other problems all seem to be software-related. I am 
running Windows 3.1, usually at 800x600x256. My first 
problem is well-known to you, according to your tech 
support person. I run Word for Windows 2.0b, and the 
program crashes whenever I try to go into Tools: 
Options. I understand that I can work around this 
problem by choosing a different resolution, but for 
various reasons, this is my preferred resolution, and I 
would appreciate the bug fix for this driver as soon as 
it is available.
*	One of the reasons I choose to run at 256 colors is that 
800x600x32K is unacceptably slow. There seem to be 
Windspeed accelerators for 800x600x256 and also for 
1024x768x256, which make both of these much quicker, but 
no such accelerator for 800x600x32K. I'd prefer to have 
more colors, but I need the acceleration. Is there such 
an accelerator? If not, why not? If so, how can I put my 
hands on it?
*	One more problem: when I try to change resolutions, I go 
into the Control Panel and choose the Diamond logo. I 
choose my new resolution, and it asks me if I want to 
use the currently installed drivers. I say "Use 
Current," and it begins to copy files. At 52%, every 
time, it asks me to tell it where the drivers are, and 
suggests they should be on the A floppy drive. I 
installed everything right where the install program 
suggested, i.e., C:\SS24X\WIN31DRV, so it doesn't make 
much sense to me that the program can't find the drivers 
precisely where they are supposed to be. Is there a 
tweak I can put somewhere for this, or is this another 
bug which needs fixing? Either way, I'd appreciate a 
resolution [:-)] of the problem.
I would appreciate your prompt reply with any information 
you may have. If you have solutions for any of these 
concerns, or even suggestions for workarounds, please let me 
know. In any case, I'd like to know about any updated 
drivers ASAP.

Then there was the standard closing, etc.  I got one reply from
my last posting, which suggested that the card might be pushed
too far down into the slot.  This kind person, whose name is not
in front of me at the moment, suggested that I try a different
slot and put a washer in to prevent the card being pushed too far
down.  The net is amazing--I certainly never would have thought
of trying that.  I did as he suggested, but unfortunately it
doesn't seem to have solved the problem.

Diamond has returned my call with at least one solution.  They
suggested that I should disable 32-bit disk access in order to
solve the problem of "Fatal Error #3."  I have done that, and
that did indeed remove the problem.  However, I am still getting
messages that EMM386 is "bad or missing", which it is not, and
I am still bounced out of the Windows boot-up (usually now with
a message that flashes so quickly I haven't yet been able to
read it and then just the C prompt).  I haven't yet had the
chance to call them back and work on some of the other problems.

I have also been noticing some symptoms similar to those which
I saw posted yesterday.  That is, Winword has some odd visual
phenomena, like lines repeating or disappearing, the reverse
video for a selection being misplaced by half a line, that sort
of thing.  None of it seems serious or to affect the actual
data, so far as I know, but it is annoying.  If it is the Speedstar
driver, as those postings suggested, that's yet another need for
a bug fix for Version 2.02 of those drivers.

If anyone has any suggested solutions, I too would love to hear
about them.  Thanks again. 

Yours, Chris Loschen