[ale] Best way to get dual display working (take 2k)

[Greg Clifton]

Pulling out the way back machine, I recall the first computer I ever built
(actually upgraded). I started out with a genuine IBM PC XT as I recall, at
least it did have a genuine IBM Color Graphics Card and Quadchrome CGA
monitor. So I bought a hot new 12MHz motherboard & CPU and put it in the box
and no video! I actually went through 3 motherboards till I got one that ran
the ISA bus at a slower clock speed closer to what the original IBM PC did
(4.77MHz w/ 4 wait states as I recall). The problem was that my fast NEW
motherboard was too fast for my slow OLD  CGA card. Perhaps you are
experiencing a similar race condition (hot card w/ lots of RAM not finishing
initializing before the POST moves on to the next device?). Maybe try
setting the BOOT options in BIOS to the slowest possible, ie, do NOT enable
"quick boot" mode and also try with BIOS defaults (the failsafe, not the
optimal).

On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 10:07 AM, Scott Castaline <skotchman at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> > On Thu, Jan 6, 2011 at 6:53 AM, Paul Cartwright <ale at pcartwright.com
> > <mailto:ale at pcartwright.com>> wrote:
> >
> >     On 01/06/2011 12:35 AM, Greg Clifton wrote:
> >     > I always prefer to grab a new video card out of the anti-static
> >     bag by
> >     > the mounting bracket which is attached to the ground plane of
> >     the board
> >     > and then touch the power supply in the computer with my other hand
> >     > (while still holding the graphics card) to equalize the charge. Of
> >     > course, it should go without saying that you should unplug the
> power
> >     > cord to your power supply before you install the new card, but I
> >     have
> >     > been known to forget about the 5V standby power.
> >
> >     I would go one step further & grab the anti-static bag THEN touch the
> >     power supply, THEN open the bag & grab the card by the bracket.
> >     My mother just called me yesterday ( Hartford,CT). She was trying
> >     to add
> >     her printer to her new laptop. She said it went POP and the screen
> >     went
> >     blank. First I asked if she had it plugged into an UPS. After a small
> >     exchange of questions, finally I got the answer YES. I also asked
> >     about
> >     humidity & static. She said it WAS staticy, as she had not turned
> >     on her
> >     humidifier yet. I told her how sensitive electronics are, and how she
> >     should ground herself ( discharge) any static before touching the
> >     laptop
> >     case, otherwise BAD THINGS HAPPEN.... Anyway, turns out the
> >     battery was
> >     bad, she got a new one, and it is working again. I need to remind
> >     her to
> >     fire up the humidifier! Even down here in GA, my humidifier pumps out
> >     about 3-4 gallons per day, I've got to fill those 1.2 gallon tanks
> 2-3
> >     times every day!
> >
> >
> >     --
> >     Paul Cartwright
> >     Registered Linux user # 367800
> >     Registered Ubuntu User #12459
> >
> Just read your humidifier comments. I used to live in Florida and had
> participated in a demo/study at one of my jobs where we worked inside a
> factory/plant environment. Even though the outside air/humidity was
> around 67% - 80% normally we still had static problems inside. People
> tend to think that just because they live in a humid sub-tropical
> environment that's the outside, inside you normally have air
> conditioning, which is essentially a big dehumidifier. The study showed
> that our inside humidity was no more than 50%. Now a days those
> environment systems usually also have humidity controls as well as
> temperature.
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