VOGONS

VESA Fix Utility Listing (for old video cards)

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First post, by swaaye

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Useful utilities for shoring up your video card's VESA VBE support. Please post if you know of any other utils that work well for helping DOS game VBE functions.

Universal Utilities
UNIVBE 6.7 and Scitech Display Doctor 5.3/6.53 (freeware now!)
http://www.mediafire.com/?4mznuyeymnj
Most cards will be well served by either of these apps. They are probably the only worthy universal fixes for video cards from the '90s and can improve VESA support and speed on hundreds of chipsets. Versions for DOS and Windows 9x. I believe UNIVBE 6.7 is a newer release than comes with either SDD (that may be a good thing). SDD comes with some extra utilities though, such as VBETEST (standards conformance tests) and SDDSPEED (P6 util like fastvid).

UNIVBE 6.7 chip list:

. 3DLabs Permedia, Permedia 2, Permedia 2V . Acer Labs M3141/5, M3147V . AHEAD V5000A, V5000B . Alliance ProMotion 3210, ProMoti […]
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. 3DLabs Permedia, Permedia 2, Permedia 2V
. Acer Labs M3141/5, M3147V
. AHEAD V5000A, V5000B
. Alliance ProMotion 3210, ProMotion 6410, ProMotion 6422, ProMotion AT24
. Alliance ProMotion AT25, ProMotion AT3D
. ARK Logic ARK1000VL, ARK1000PV, ARK2000PV, ARK2000MT, Quadro64
. ATI 18800, 28800, Mach32 68800, Mach64 88800GX, Mach64 88800CX, Mach64 CT
. ATI Mach64 ET, Mach64 VT, Mach64 VT4, Mach64 VTB, 3D Rage, 3D Rage II
. ATI 3D Rage II+, 3D Rage IIC, 3D Rage Pro, 3D Rage LT Pro, Rage Mobility
. ATI Rage XL
. Avance Logic ALG2101, ALG2201, ALG2228, ALG2301, ALG2302, ALG2032, ALG2064
. Avance Logic ALG2564, ALG25128
. BrookTree BtV 2115
. Chips & Tech C&T C&T 82c450, 82c451, C&T 82c452, C&T 82c453, C&T 82c455
. Chips & Tech C&T 82c456, C&T 82c457, C&T 65510 LCD, C&T 65520 LCD
. Chips & Tech C&T 65530 LCD, C&T 65535 LCD, C&T 65540 LCD, C&T 65545 LCD
. Chips & Tech C&T 65546 LCD, C&T 65548 LCD, C&T 64300 WinGine
. Chips & Tech C&T 64310 WinGine, C&T 65550 LCD, C&T 65554 LCD, C&T 65555 LCD
. Chromatic Research Mpact!
. Cirrus Logic CL-GD5401 (AVGA1), CL-GD5402 (AVGA2), CL-GD5420, CL-GD5422
. Cirrus Logic CL-GD5424, CL-GD5426, CL-GD5428, CL-GD5429, CL-GD5430
. Cirrus Logic CL-GD5434, CL-GD5436, CL-GD5440, CL-GD5446, CL-GD5462
. Cirrus Logic CL-GD5464, CL-GD5465, CL-GD6205 LCD, CL-GD6215 LCD
. Cirrus Logic CL-GD6225 LCD, CL-GD6235 LCD, CL-GD6245 LCD, CL-GD6410
. Cirrus Logic CL-GD6412, CL-GD6420, CL-GD6440, CL-GD7541 LCD, CL-GD7542 LCD
. Cirrus Logic CL-GD7543 LCD, CL-GD7548 LCD
. Compaq IVGS, AVGA, QVision 1024, QVision 1280
. Diamond Viper P9000+W5186, P9000+Oak87
. Everex Trident, ET4000
. Genoa GVGA
. Hualon HM86304, HM86314
. IIT AGX-010/11, AGX-014, AGX-015, AGX-016, AGX-017
. InteGraphics IGA1680, IGA1682, IGA1683, CyberPro2000, CyberPro2010
. Intel i740
. iXMICRO TwinTurbo 128, TwinTurbo 128+, TwinTurbo 128-3D
. Macronix MXIC 86000, MXIC 86010, MXIC 86100, MXIC 86101, MXIC 86200
. Macronix MXIC 86250, MXIC 86251
. Matrox MGA Ultima, MGA Impression Plus, MGA Millennium, MGA Millennium II
. Matrox MGA Mystique, MGA Mystique 220, Productiva G100, Millenium G200
. NCR 77C21, 77C22, 77C22E, 77C22E+, 77C32BLT
. NeoMagic NM2070, NM2090, NM2093, NM2097, NM2160, NM2200
. Number Nine Imagine 128, Imagine 128 II, Ticket 2 Ride
. NVIDIA STG2000, NV1, RIVA-128, RIVA-TNT, RIVA-TNT2
. OAK OTI-037C, OTI-057, OTI-067, OTI-077, OTI-087, Eon 64017
. OAK Spitfire 64105, Spitfire 64107, Spitfire 64111, Eon 64217, Warp 5
. Paradise/Phillips Pipeline 9710, Pipeline 9712
. Paradise/Western Digital PVGA1A, WD90C00/PVGA1B, WD90C10, WD90C11, WD90C20
. Paradise/Western Digital WD90C20A, WD90C22, WD90C24, WD90C26A, WD90C30
. Paradise/Western Digital WD90C31, WD90C33
. Primus P2000
. RealTek RTG3103, RTG3105, RTG3106
. Rendition Verite V1000, Verite V2100/V2200
. S3 86c801, 86c805, 86c911, 86c924, 86c928, Vision 864, Vision 964
. S3 Vision 868, Vision 968, Trio32, Trio64, Trio64V+, Trio64UV+
. S3 Trio64V2/DX, Aurora64V+, Trio3D, Savage3D, Virge, Virge/DX/GX
. S3 Virge/VX, Virge/GX2
. Sierra Falcon/64, SuperScaler 220
. Silicon Motion Lynx SM910
. SiS 6201, 6202, 6205, 6215, 6326, 5597/5598, 5595/530, 5595/620
. S-MOS SPC8106
. Trident LX8200, TVGA8800CS, TVGA8900, TVGA9000, TVGA9100, TVGA9200
. Trident Cyber9320 LCD, Cyber9382 LCD, Cyber9385 LCD, Cyber9397 LCD
. Trident TGUI9400, TGUI9420, TGUI9440, TVG9470, TGUI9660, TGUI9680
. Trident ProVidia9682, ProVidia9685, 3DImage 975, 3DImage 985
. Tritech Pyramid3D
. Tseng Labs ET3000, ET4000, ET4000/W32, ET6000, ET6100, ET6300
. UMC UM85c408, UM85c418
. Video7 VEGA, HT208, HT209, HT216
. Weitek P9000, P9100
. WinBond W9970CF

*my TNT2 wasn't detected though....

FASTVID
ATTACHED
If you have a Pentium Pro or Pentium II with a 450xx or 440FX chipset motherboard, you want this util.

FASTVID enables Write Posting, banked VGA Write Combining and SVGA linear frame buffer Write Combining on Pentium Pro motherboar […]
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FASTVID enables Write Posting, banked VGA Write Combining and SVGA
linear frame buffer Write Combining on Pentium Pro motherboards based on
the 82450 and 82440 chipsets. This will significantly improve graphic
performance from DOS and Win95.

VBE15bpp
Download below

VBE15bpp converts any VESA VBE 16bpp modes into 15bpp modes. If you have a game that insists on using 15bpp modes (like XMen) and your video card does not support 15bpp then you can't run that game. VBE15bpp overcomes this problem by converting any 16bpp modes to 15bpp modes. This is not done in hardware but with a software trick, so the tool is hardware independent.

VBEPlus
Download below

VBEPlus is a TSR (Terminate Stay Resident) program that adds new VESA resolutions to your video card. The resolutions it adds are fully user configurable.

UniRefresh
Download below
DOS refresh rate utility for cards with VBE 3.0 support.

VBEHz
Download below
Another refresh rate utility for VESA modes. Supports VGA modes like 12h, 13h and ModeX as well.

Specific Graphics Card Utilities
3dfx Voodoo Banshee, 3, 4, and 5
VESAFIX
http://www.mediafire.com/file/knj2vyrntzm/vesafx18.zip

This little tool fixes some (not all!) bugs in the VESA VBE implementation of 3DFX Banshee based gfx cards. If you have problems […]
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This little tool fixes some (not all!) bugs in the VESA VBE implementation
of 3DFX Banshee based gfx cards. If you have problems with some old dos VESA
games/utilities try it, maybe it will solve your problem.

When installed, the program eats about 2kb of dos memory, so either run it
before the game/tool you want to fix or put it into your autoexec.bat.
I've written/tested it on Creative Labs 3D Blaster Banshee.

3dfx received buglist so maybe some future bios upgrade will make this
program unnecessary but for now, it might help.

I found several programs that will work properly after installing VESAFIX,
for example: Flight Unlimited, ZSNES, Terranova, Midplay, Vbetest, etc.

*This may actually help other cards too. For example, it fixed my GeForce FX 5950's palette corruption in TerraNova.

S3 Graphics Chips (probably prior to Savage3D)
S3 VBE/Core 2.0 Version 3.18
http://www.mediafire.com/file/2it5n2iejkj/s3vbe318.zip

VESA VBE/Core 2.0 is an extension of the VESA VBE 1.2 standard (VBE = Video BIOS Extension). […]
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VESA VBE/Core 2.0 is an extension of the VESA VBE 1.2 standard
(VBE = Video BIOS Extension).

S3 VBE/Core 2.0 is a TSR program, which installs a VESA VBE/Core 2.0
for S3 graphics cards with VESA VBE 1.2.

S3 Speed Up 3.11
http://www.mediafire.com/file/odinmfjygnz/s3spd311.zip

S3 Speed Up is a TSR program, which can speed up most banked VESA modes (no text or 4 bits/pixel modes) and VGA mode 13h (320x20 […]
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S3 Speed Up is a TSR program, which can speed up most banked VESA
modes (no text or 4 bits/pixel modes) and VGA mode 13h (320x200x256)
on S3 graphics cards.

S3 Speed Up requires S3 VBE/Core 2.0 (version 3.10 or higher).

Matrox MGA
Matrox Bios Updates (all chips)
Matrox is one of the few (only?) vendors that actually releases updates for the BIOS on their boards. You should probably get the latest release for whatever card you have.
http://www.matrox.com

Gx00VBE VESA VBE/Core 3.0 (G100, G200, G400)
http://www.rift.dk/page.php?7

Gx00VBE is a VESA VBE/Core V3.0 (otherwise known as VESA 3) implementation for the G100, G200 and G400 based cards by Matrox. […]
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Gx00VBE is a VESA VBE/Core V3.0 (otherwise known as VESA 3) implementation for the G100, G200 and G400 based cards by Matrox.

Gx00VBE is a TSR, meaning that it won't flash your BIOS, only stay resident until the next reboot. It takes up just over 7k of basemem. I recommend you load it high manually since it doesn't do it by itself.

It works with both PCI and AGP boards.

Development has ceased. The latest 1.0b4 seems to work fine though.

Other chips (may be better to use UNIVBE/SDD above)
ATI, SiS, and lots of other chips
http://www.dosdriver.de/graph.php

Last edited by swaaye on 2009-09-09, 18:29. Edited 35 times in total.

Reply 2 of 35, by Zup

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A Voodoo Banshee is NOT a Voodoo3.

A Voodoo Banshee is a Voodoo2 stripped down chip (1 texture unit versus 2 texture units) with 2D capabilities added, while Voodoo3 was the substitute of Voodoo2 chips.

I have traveled across the universe and through the years to find Her.
Sometimes going all the way is just a start...

I'm selling some stuff!

Reply 3 of 35, by Freddo

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keropi wrote:

great! maybe now I can play redguard with my voodoo3....

I hosted some Voodoo3 drivers a few years ago that works perfectly with Redguard. But my friend, who owned the server, shut it down about a year ago.

But I could put it up again somewhere if you want it, and if I can find it on my HD.

Reply 5 of 35, by swaaye

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Zup wrote:

A Voodoo Banshee is NOT a Voodoo3.

A Voodoo Banshee is a Voodoo2 stripped down chip (1 texture unit versus 2 texture units) with 2D capabilities added, while Voodoo3 was the substitute of Voodoo2 chips.

Uh, actually a Voodoo3 is extremely similar to Banshee. A Voodoo3 is basically a Banshee with another TMU and more clock speed, along with some other hardware fixes. The chips even support the same max. RAM size and have pretty much identical rendering capabilities from what I can tell. Banshee has some problems with video playback, for example, that Voodoo3 does not have. I ran into this with StarCraft's FMV and a AGP Banshee.

I actually think I remember the Voodoo3 being known as Banshee II prior to release. 3dfx didn't have their next-generation hardware ready. The poorly managed Rampage project spanned quite a few years.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.sys.pc-clo … f6f307dc70a7a1d

From Maximum PC […]
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From Maximum PC

It went by many names--Rampage, Banshee II, and even Avenger--but today at
Comdex 98, 3Dfx officially unveiled its next-generation 2D/3D accelerator,
dubbed Voodoo3.

Merging the 2D core of Banshee and the power of dual SLI Voodoo2 in a single
ASIC is no small feat, and 3Dfx is banging the 60fps drum loudly. Only this
time, you'll be digging the 60fps scene at a staggering 1280x1024
resolution!

Voodoo3 represents a trio of new video chips, but all will share the
following features--some of which should be familiar to 3Dfx-ophiles:

And this VESA fix does work fine on a Voodoo3 (I used it on one). It made Terra Nova run instead of crash with a memory error.

Last edited by swaaye on 2007-04-18, 19:02. Edited 5 times in total.

Reply 6 of 35, by StickByDos

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Is this fix also useful on Voodoo4/5 ?
I think they have the same 2D core as banshee/v3

Type win to loose the power of your computer !

Reply 7 of 35, by swaaye

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I overhauled the first post in this thread from just being about VESAFIX for Voodoo cards to being about major VESA fixes for all cards (that I know of). May be a worthy sticky.

Reply 8 of 35, by WolverineDK

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swaaye wrote:

I overhauled the first post in this thread from just being about VESAFIX for Voodoo cards to being about major VESA fixes for all cards (that I know of). May be a worthy sticky.

I concur with this, should be a sticky. So I second that motion, let this become a sticky.

Reply 9 of 35, by 5u3

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Thirded for sticky! 🤣

Nice file and link collection so far. Here are some more (see attachments at the end of this post):

VBEPlus is a TSR that adds new modes unsupported by the VESA BIOS. Highly configurable, but may not work with all cards.

VBE15bpp converts 16bpp VESA modes to 15bpp. Useful for cards that don't support 15bpp modes natively (Voodoo series).

UniRefresh is a DOS refresh rate utility for VBE3.0 cards.

VBEHz is another refresh rate utility for VESA modes. Supports VGA modes like 12h, 13h and ModeX as well.

Reply 10 of 35, by dvwjr

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Fourthed for a sticky... 🤣

If you need to see if the various VESA utilities on this thread help your Video card BIOS for a particular VGA or SVGA video mode, you need a visual video mode test utility. Here is my modified version of a the Internet standard VGATEST.EXE which adds a working command-line option #6, now labeled "6 : VESA Super VGA 32 BPP test", which never displayed properly with the old VGATEST.EXE program.

SVGATest is a DOS utility program for testing all VGA and VESA v1.2 video modes, including 1bpp, 2bpp, 4bpp, 8bpp, 15bpp, 16bpp and 32bpp color modes.

VBorder is a very small DOS utility (COM file) which can be used to activate the border colors in VGA modes to allow correct text mode border positioning dimensions on CRT monitors. Useage is: VBORDER x, where 'x' is a number from '0' (off) to 10 with border colors displayed from the current default VGA color palette.

dvwjr

Reply 14 of 35, by Miki Maus

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swaaye wrote:

S3 Graphics Chips (probably prior to Savage3D)
S3VBE 2.0
Download (S3VBE20.ZIP)

That is version 3.02, this should be the latest version of VESA VBE/Core 2.0, version 3.18: Download (S3VBE318.ZIP)

Reply 15 of 35, by swaaye

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got it. thanks.

Reply 16 of 35, by Riboflavin

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While not VESA fixes per se... folks here trying to do VESA tweaks and/or build a retro PC using an old Geforce might find the following utilities useful...

NVflash is an Nvidia BIOs flashing/dumping utility for almost all Geforce/Riva boards.

XBIOS editor is a BIOS tweaking utility for all Nvidia boards from Geforce FX back to RIVA. The newer Nvidia BIOs tweaker floating around (NiBiTor) does not seem to be able to recognize Geforces BIOSes prior to the FX series despite its claims. XBIOS can recognize all the older ones I've tried, and is harder to find.

NVflash doesn't seem to allow flashing a BIOS that changes the GPU family (from a Geforce 4 to a TNT2, for example). I was hoping to try this so I could get native support with SDD. Yes... I know this will probably kill my card, but ya gotta break a few eggs for an omelet. 😁

But it CAN be used to do things like turn up/down the memory and GPU clock. I've done this successfully. Also you can change the Bootscreen string. Standard stern warnings about flashing BIOSes apply, of course.

This topic relates to my ongoing effort to find the cause and solution of the Geforce Triple Buffering flicker glitch with ZSNES. If anyone here is interested in this topic, the thread is here:
http://board.zsnes.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p … 99bc64fc14b90fb

This is a great topic. Glad I found something to add. 😊

**Don't forget to enjoy the sauce**

Reply 17 of 35, by Jorpho

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Is SolVBE still useful? It is billed as "an universal VESA 1.2 driver for Win2k and WinXP."
http://sol.gfxile.net/solvbe.html

Reply 18 of 35, by Riboflavin

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Just found a VERY handy DOS VESA utility!

VMODE!

Also available from it's homepage. Simple way to switch graphical and text modes, especially handy in a batchfile.

http://www.hitechlabs.tk/

**Don't forget to enjoy the sauce**

Reply 19 of 35, by retro games 100

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Please note: the scitech ftp website download link (stated in the OP) does not appear to work anymore. I've tried several times over several days - no joy.

Also, swaaye's homepage download links do not appear to work either, which also feature in the OP.

Also, what is the difference between scitech display doctor version 5.3 and version 6.53? (I just noticed this in the OP.)

Finally, is it either legal or possible to create an alternative download link to those freeware scitech applications, because I don't have the version 5.3 app. If not, is it possible for someone to PM with this app as a zip file or something please?

Thanks a lot, best regards, Robert.

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