Tulip pc compact 2 \ VOGONS

Tulip pc compact 2

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First post, by Cyrix200+

Posted on 2017-07-12, 12:28

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I recently acquired a complete Tulip pc compact 2. Tulip Computers was a computer builder from The Netherlands that was popular from 1984 to halfway though the nineties.

The Tulip pc compact 2 had a NEC V20 CPU, 640kb of internal memory, two floppy disk drives (3.5" and 5.25") and a 20MB hard disk drive. My model has the EGA video optional upgrade.

I bought this system for 25 euro and it came complete with the EGA monitor, keyboard, mouse and all the original boxes, manuals and disks!

Here she is. Quite a compact model!

As you can see, the batteries have leaked a lot. Fortunately, it is a separate battery holder with standard batteries. No leakage on any critical parts. The batteries were quickly removed and the holder was cleaned.

After setting up all the parts and doing a thorough visual inspection of the whole system, I decided to switch it on.

Nice! No flames!

The monitor has some cool settings for 'fake' amber and green screen.

A quick run of the included testing disk revealed something the seller already told me and I had already seen during POST, the harddisk is not working. The screen works fine though.

But not yet when testing some graphic modes. Something to look into later. Maybe just an issue with the test?

The harddisk was the well known Seagate ST-125. It was not spinning up and was not detected. But I remembered that I had another one! I had bought a large box of really old hardware a while back and there was a ST-125 included. Lucky!!! Time to hook the other disk up!

This one does spin up! Now its not working yet, but I need to do a low level format of the disk. A quick Google search helped me remember how to do that (on this controller).

Time to enter the disks parameters. Those were not printed on the disk, so where did I get them? Seagates FTP sever of course! What excellent support by Seagate!

Low Level format was successful, and the label on the disk indicated NONE on the bad sectors sticker, so time to do the partitioning and formatting with FDISK and FORMAT.

Final step for today: install DOS 3.30 with the original disks.

1982 to 2001

Reply 1 of 70, by gca

Posted on 2017-07-12, 13:23

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Nice but I don't remember ever seeing the DOS 3.3 installer looking like that. Every time I had to install using the select command (select c:\dos 044 uk if I remember rightly) instead of a fancy(ish) menu system that I see you have there. Or is that a custom menu from the original restore disks?

Reply 2 of 70, by oerk

Posted on 2017-07-12, 13:41

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Nice system! And EGA, too 😊

Reply 3 of 70, by Cyrix200+

Posted on 2017-07-12, 13:43

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Indeed, it is a custom install/menu for (this) Tulip PC. I also feel that I'm missing some tools so it might be a light version of MS-DOS? Maybe I'll switch to a vanilla MS-DOS install, but this works fine for now.

gca wrote:
Nice but I don't remember ever seeing the DOS 3.3 installer looking like that. Every time I had to install using the select command (select c:\dos 044 uk if I remember rightly) instead of a fancy(ish) menu system that I see you have there. Or is that a custom menu from the original restore disks?

1982 to 2001

Reply 4 of 70, by Cyrix200+

Posted on 2017-07-12, 13:48

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Unfortunately, all EGA games I start look (roughly) like this. The games don't crash. Any EGA experts? I tried fiddling with all the buttons on the monitor of course.

EDIT

Test Drive 2 (TD2EGA.EXE) has the same distortion.

Some graphics modes do seem to work:

1982 to 2001

Reply 5 of 70, by MMaximus

Posted on 2017-07-12, 15:07

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Thanks for the beautifully illustrated thread - This is a very nice looking XT!

Hope you can fix the EGA problem - are there any dip switches on the card by any chance?

Hard Disk Sounds

Reply 6 of 70, by seob

Posted on 2017-07-12, 17:12

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Looks like some sort of sync problem. The two games that seem to work; simcity and blockout use highres ega graphics 640x200x16 or 640x350x16. Think that test drive uses lowres ega, and it looks like your card or monitor isn't syncing, using this mode.

Reply 7 of 70, by xjas

Posted on 2017-07-12, 19:20

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640x350 (including text mode) has a different horizontal scan rate on EGA - 21kHz instead of 15kHz for the x200 modes (which are the same regardless of horizontal resolution.)

It looks like your monitor isn't syncing to the 15kHz modes, for some reason.

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Reply 8 of 70, by Jo22

Posted on 2017-07-12, 23:21

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Perhaps that's just the way it is ? 15KHz is CGA territory, as we know.
For a proper EGA monitor there's nothing wrong with beeing a single frequency device. 😀
I'd be worse if it was the other way round (It couldn't run EGATrek then).

Anyway, there's little I found. Some German magazine archive lists a monitor from Tulip Computers:
EGA-Monitor (14", 640x359) 1.064 (Netto-DM)
Souce: http://cc-computerarchiv.de/CC-Archiv/bc-aktu … tulip-6_89.html

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Reply 9 of 70, by MMaximus

Posted on 2017-07-13, 05:06

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Seems to me that all EGA monitors should be able to sync to 15khz as it is part of the EGA specification.

Hard Disk Sounds

Reply 10 of 70, by keropi

Posted on 2017-07-13, 05:20

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Ega monitors are both 15 and 21khz, both should be displayed without issues. I'll post my EGA card's jumper settings in a little while ( I have the same ) so maybe that's the issue

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Reply 11 of 70, by Cyrix200+

Posted on 2017-07-13, 05:48

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Thanks for all the input so far! I will get more info on the monitor and adapter when I get home again.

There are switches on the card. I don't think those were ever changed though, but it's worth to check. TestDrive 2 and the check program by Tulip were included with the PC so I guess they should work/once worked.

I'm also quite impressed by the ST-125 harddrive. Still works like a charm after so long!

1982 to 2001

Reply 12 of 70, by oerk

Posted on 2017-07-13, 06:35

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I'm also _guessing_ that the card's configuration is wrong. See if you can get some documentation on the DIP switches.

Reply 13 of 70, by keropi

Posted on 2017-07-13, 07:40

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Try to match the jumper/dip-switch settings on the upper right corner and see if it helps Cyrix200+ , I operate mine with 2 EGA monitors and all resolutions display fine:

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Reply 14 of 70, by Cyrix200+

Posted on 2017-07-13, 08:23

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Thanks. I'm not near the system now, but I think I already have those set that way, as can be seen on this picture (a bit vague but I'm quite sure):

Also, I have the manual for the card and the monitor, but have not read it yet.There might be some more clues. I will also try and contact the seller, maybe he knows a bit more? Specifically, if Test Drive did work somewhere in the past...

keropi wrote:
Try to match the jumper/dip-switch settings on the upper right corner and see if it helps Cyrix200+ , I operate mine with 2 EGA […]
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Try to match the jumper/dip-switch settings on the upper right corner and see if it helps Cyrix200+ , I operate mine with 2 EGA monitors and all resolutions display fine:

1982 to 2001

Reply 15 of 70, by keropi

Posted on 2017-07-13, 09:31

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Yes it seems your card is configured OK for an EGA monitor... maybe you need to open the monitor and do a visual inspection.

Is it possible to scan/photograph the card's manual? It would be nice to have the actual info rather than using jumper settings from other similar cards 😀

🎵 🎧 ⏳ ⚡ PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 16 of 70, by Cyrix200+

Posted on 2017-07-13, 09:38

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I will have to see what's in the manual to see if there is anything useful. Opening up the monitor is an option, but I would like to get more information before doing that 😀 And I have no real experience with that and I would like to know what I would be looking for 😀

keropi wrote:
Yes it seems your card is configured OK for an EGA monitor... maybe you need to open the monitor and do a visual inspection.

Is it possible to scan/photograph the card's manual? It would be nice to have the actual info rather than using jumper settings from other similar cards 😀

1982 to 2001

Reply 17 of 70, by Cyrix200+

Posted on 2017-07-13, 18:44

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The manual for the monitor mentions two frequencies, so I guess it is capable of syncing both.

1982 to 2001

Reply 18 of 70, by Cyrix200+

Posted on 2017-07-13, 18:49

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Here is the manual 😀 http://imgur.com/a/5xPo2

keropi wrote:
Yes it seems your card is configured OK for an EGA monitor... maybe you need to open the monitor and do a visual inspection.

Is it possible to scan/photograph the card's manual? It would be nice to have the actual info rather than using jumper settings from other similar cards 😀

1982 to 2001

Reply 19 of 70, by keropi

Posted on 2017-07-13, 21:21

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Mega thanks for the manual Cyrix200+ , that info was lost in time until now! 😊
And yes, your EGA monitor should support 15 and 21khz, it seems that the sync circuit for 15khz has some issues... is there a technician nearby you can have it serviced?

What happens if you set the card's SW1~SW4 as ON-OFF-OFF-ON (cga compatible) ? Do you get anything on boot?

🎵 🎧 ⏳ ⚡ PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

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