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Article #11995

Why can't I use 640x480x256 mode

#11995
From: Gunjan Bhow
Date: Sun, 19 May 1991 09:00
46 lines
2365 bytes

I have a Western Digital VGA with the Paradise chipset alongwith
the following configuration:

	386SX motherboard
    2 MB RAm
    1024x768 monitor

I run Windows 3.0 in 386 Enh  mode.

Till now, I was running 800x600x16 resolution. (my vga has 256K memory) 
and using the "win3_16f.exe" driver from cica. No problem so far.

I read somewhere that with 256k, i can also use the 640x480x256 resolution.
Since I had lots of .bmp files in this resolution and they looked much nicer
than their dithered 800x600x16 counterparts, i decided to give this new  
resolution a try. 

I loaded  the "win3_256.exe" file from cica  and extracted it. From 
Setup, I had two choices, 640 x 400 x 256 and 640 x 480 x 256. I chose
the 640x480. After I exited setup and ran win, two things happened.
First, after the inital banner, my hard disk light was on for a long time.
I expected this since the driver  I was using before was a  "fast" kind.
Second, and more important, I could not see anything even after my hard disk
stopped ( not even the hourglass). I assumed windows was loaded and exited it
by Alt+F+X and I was back to dos.

Again from setup, I tried the other choice, 640x400x256 and to my surprise,
everything worked fine. Although the loading was still slower, I could use
my 640x480x256 bitmaps (of course, at a loss of the 80 pixels).

One more thing, when I use the grafwk51.zip (graphics workshop) which is
a non-windows utility with the Paradise plus driver it comes with 
(PARAPLUS.DRV), I AM able to use 640x480x256 pictures.

Any ideas why I can't use the 640x480x256 resolution in Windows? Do I need
extra memory just for Windows sincw dos apps have no problem?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Gunjan Bhow

gunjan@garnet.berkeley.edu
Instructional Technology Program
UC Berkeley
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From: gunjan@garnet.berkeley.edu (Gunjan Bhow)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Why can't I use 640x480x256 mode
Message-ID: <1991May19.090016.15758@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 19 May 91 09:00:16 GMT
Sender: root@agate.berkeley.edu (Charlie Root)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 46
Originator: gunjan@garnet.berkeley.edu