I found out too late that the SVGA card Dad got me was a cheap Taiwanese
"Paradise" knockoff, and its software not compatible with Windows 3.0.
I'm looking at picking up a new card for my PanaSync C1381.  The Orchid
stuff looks nice, but is expensive.  Suggestions?

16 responses total.

Not compatible? Not compatible how?
The ATI cards are good and really cheap...
If you're trying to get a "windows 3.0" driver off disks that came with
your VGA card, you probably don't need to - unless it's REALLY cheap, the
standard VGA setting in windows should work...
If you're trying to get 800x600 or 1024x768 resolution with windows, well...
That gets even trickier.
I'd just go for the standard 640x480 and not worry about it...

What chipset does it use?  THat is likely the problem.
I have many drivers, being a windows development firm employee.

Also, as I am a paradise user I have a couple of windows drivers.

   Laurel, enter all the info you can on this board, and I bet that
someone will have a driver for it.  You never know what the card
tries to emulate.  If you can, look at the chips on the card; there
should be a few large chips.  Can you list the numbers on them?
They comprise the "inteligence" of the card.  They probably are
recognizable, and hence a driver can be found.

I also have a program called CHIPSET.EXE that will tell you what kind of
VGA chipset you have.  I've uploaded it to my home directory; you can
find it there (/u/mju/chipset.exe).

   Neat.  I'm gonna grab one too.

        The disks which come with Paradise clones are often for Windows 2.1,
rather than Windows 3.0, and will not work.  You can get a Paradise
compatible Windows 3.0 compatible super VGA driver set by downloading
"win30drv.zip" from Tech Net (971-2570) or HAL 9000 (663-4173).

Heh. I have the chipset.exe prog too, forgot about that (it's not so often
I need to re-determine my OWN chip set...)

Thank you, mju.
  
jep is right.  Dad bought a "Paradise compatible" SVGA card with the
high resolution (1024x768 or whatever it is) which is a cheap Taiwanese
clone.  No company listed, no address, nothing.  The software drives
2.1, but not 3.0.

        It's 1024x768x16 colors interlaced, with a noninterlaced 800x600x16
color mode and also 640x480x256 colors and all standard VGA modes.  I also
have one of these.  It's a nice card.

I find that 800 x 600 is about the max I want to go.  More than that and things
start to get tiny, and slow down immensely.
Nothing like a terminal program window that is the size of a 3 x 5 card.

Plus, except for CAD and the like, (or the shrunken head scenario above), 
most commercial prgrams don't even do 640x480. Games are especially 
frustrating. MCGA looks very nice, but...
Grr.

I just checked, it's more like between a 3x5 card and a business card.

Heh.

step up to windows 3.1, less bugs than 3.0, then download driver from somewhere

re:#11
At 800x600 stuff is really chunky... the best is 1024x768 on a decent 16 or 17
inch monitor.
re:#15
At least..

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