You should have tried a different monitor before removing that bios chip, the card will never boot without bios so i don't see the point in removing it. You get one single beep so the computer is booting, connecting your monitor you get the same result as with no monitor connected so... Trying to boot with another card's bios is crazy.

dondiego wrote:

You should have tried a different monitor before removing that bios chip, the card will never boot without bios so i don't see the point in removing it. You get one single beep so the computer is booting, connecting your monitor you get the same result as with no monitor connected so... Trying to boot with another card's bios is crazy.

I've tried multiple monitors and different cables, same error with or without anything connected.

I ran it without the bios to see what error it would throw, I knew it wouldn't work.

At this point I'm going to try to pursue an exchange or refund.. Seller offered me to select a replacement from his other cards but they are all Tridents. I'm thinking a small step down to a cirrus logic gd5428 is what I'll aim for.

Malvineous wrote:

A lot of VGA cards are quite standard, so if you can find one with a socketed BIOS ROM then you can always try putting that "for […]
Show full quote

A lot of VGA cards are quite standard, so if you can find one with a socketed BIOS ROM then you can always try putting that "foreign" ROM chip into the VLB card's socket. This means you'll boot the VLB card using the BIOS from a different vendor, which may or may not work, depending on whether the BIOS does any manufacturer-specific tricks. I'd be willing to bet that it would work most of the time.

It may not solve your problem however. From your description of the differing beep lengths, what I think is happening is this. With no card detected, the system BIOS can't find the video ROM so does the 1L/3S beep code. With the VLB card installed, the system BIOS runs the video BIOS, which can't then detect the monitor (or has some other problem) and the *video BIOS* produces the 1L/3M beep code.

So from this I would guess that the BIOS ROM is probably OK, and the VLB card's POST routine is detecting some problem, likely "monitor not connected". Given that plugging in even a broken monitor normally stops that particular error beep, I suspect something wrong with the VGA connector on the VLB card.

It could of course be something else (bad RAM etc.) but in my own experience cards from that era typically give you some sort of a corrupted display even if there are major problems.

I will also add that although some LCD monitors are not compatible with VGA cards and won't display a picture reliably, the presence of those monitors is still always detected so the fact that you get a beep code means it's unlikely to be a compatibility problem with the monitor (assuming the VGA cable is not broken/loose or anything.) If it was a compatibility problem you would get no beep codes, and then no picture.

I tried the bios from a Trident TVGA 8900D (known working) just to see, got 1 long 3 short, same as no card at all. I also ran pin 11 to ground and still got the same one long 3 "medium" error.

I'm trying to see about a refund or replacement now. I've exhausted myself working on this card. PC works fine with the TVGA 8900D just has a bit of vertical banding and DOOM runs slow even if I run it on the 5x86 (running at 40x3, I guess this genoa board won't run the 5x86 without some modification or a new bios). I'm guessing DOOM should run quite nicely at 120mhz and this 16bit trident just has very slow memory.

Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it. I think It's going to go back in the box now pending a deal with the seller though before it turns into dust in my hands from all the effort 😜