VOGONS


First post, by keropi

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As per topic I am looking for a BIOS set of the following Diamond Flower VG-7000 vga card - based on the OTI076 chipset:

deaMbaol.jpg

reason is that my card has Greek characters in the BIOS and I don't like it as they replace special ones like 1/2, 1/4 and so on :

aqeMeW7l.jpg

Any help/tips will be greatly appreciated, thanks!!! 😊

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

Reply 1 of 26, by Jo22

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Hi keropi, I'll check my little VGA card collection!

Edit: Dumped & attached the BIOS chips of my OTI-067 card..

Attachments

  • Filename
    BIOS_067-16B_BV103_OAK.zip
    File size
    88.65 KiB
    Downloads
    84 downloads
    File comment
    OTI 067 VGA BIOS, v1.03
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
Last edited by Jo22 on 2020-08-29, 13:12. Edited 1 time in total.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 3 of 26, by i486_inside

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Although Now that I look the bios from VGA museum is a single 64K file, not two seperate 32k(256kbit) roms like you have, I wonder if the card would work with a single 512kbit rom installed in one socket. Another this is that the bios from VGA museum may contain wierd characters as well since it is seems that the people running it and contributing to it the most are Czech.

Reply 4 of 26, by keropi

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@Jo22
thanks 😀

@i486_inside
I have tried that BIOS, my card does not work with it. I have split it in ODD/EVEN both 8 and 16bit words/bytes and tried installing the roms in all possible configurations, nothing worked for me.

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

Reply 6 of 26, by keropi

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Yes I am attaching it to the post.
I have found a 1.06 32kb BIOS - this one worked BUT it seems the cga/ega stuff is missing so it's not possible to use the card with an EGA mode.

I did further tests with more games btw, although the card is faster than my Paradise EGA it has issues in many: it gets detected as VGA and it will either produce wrong colors or an out-of-sync image (I assume a 70hz image and my EGA monitor does not like it). VGAMODE.EXE that locks the card in various compatibility modes sometimes fixes the wrong colors but the sync issues remain. I have tested jumpering the card down to either EGA PURE (no emulation according to the docs) or EGA , did not change a thing 🤣

Attachments

  • Filename
    OTIVGA_067_1.03_BIOS.zip
    File size
    20.76 KiB
    Downloads
    79 downloads
    File comment
    VG-7000 OTIVGA 067 v1.03 BIOS
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

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Reply 7 of 26, by i486_inside

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I think the 1.06 bios is intended for OTI077 cards, I don't think the OTI077 has EGA it was an updated OTI067 with higher resolution SVGA support. I took the 1.04 bios from vga museum and trimmed the zeros off the end with a hex editor, to make it exactly 32k, here it is if you want to try it.

Attachments

  • Filename
    OTI067_104_32K.zip
    File size
    16.73 KiB
    Downloads
    98 downloads
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 8 of 26, by keropi

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^ great this worked! It reports "VGA BIOS 067B/C v1.04" instead of "VGA BIOS 067 v1.03" , the included font is the English one so no localized characters. Did not help with the compatibility issues I mentioned above but it's an upgrade in the end. Thanks for that! 😁

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

Reply 9 of 26, by Jo22

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Hello again, so I went through my VGA cards, as promised.. All I found was an older OTI-037, though. Maybe it still works with the new OTI-076 ?
I don't know. Anyway, it has a normal character set (?). And more importantly, a colourful rainbow effect during post. 😉

oti_rainbow.png
Filename
oti_rainbow.png
File size
8.51 KiB
Views
3361 views
File comment
colours..
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception
i486_inside wrote:

I took the 1.04 bios from vga museum and trimmed the zeros off the end with a hex editor, to make it exactly 32k, here it is if you want to try it.

Thanks a lot! I was already worried finding a solution was all up to me.. 😅

Attachments

  • oti_037c.png
    Filename
    oti_037c.png
    File size
    762.32 KiB
    Views
    3361 views
    File comment
    OTI-037C, can do 800x600 in Win 3.1
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • oti_char.png
    Filename
    oti_char.png
    File size
    309.07 KiB
    Views
    3361 views
    File comment
    256 characters test (CheckIt!)
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • Filename
    oti037c.zip
    File size
    35.51 KiB
    Downloads
    79 downloads
    File comment
    VGA BIOS Dv2.15-35, 1990
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 10 of 26, by i486_inside

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Jo22 wrote:

Hello again, so I went through my VGA cards, as promised.. All I found was an older OTI-037, though. Maybe it still works with the new OTI-076 ?

I have serious doubts that it would, since the oti037 is a completely different chip, the oti067 has a much larger square shaped QFP as the main chipset, and from what I can tell the oti057,oti067, and oti077 all use the same bios but the 037 uses a completely different bios.

Reply 11 of 26, by Jo22

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Ah, I see. I didn't knew that, sorry. I'm probably more used to the Paradise chips, where the big ol' PVGA1A
was software-wise (drivers, video modes, etc.) still somewhat similar to the later WD90C00..C31. 😅

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 12 of 26, by Jo22

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Jo22 wrote:

Ah, I see. I didn't knew that, sorry. I'm probably more used to the Paradise chips, where the big ol' PVGA1A
was software-wise (drivers, video modes, etc.) still somewhat similar to the later WD90C00..C31. 😅

Edit: Is the Wikipedia article correct ? It says OTI037C is an 8-bit VGA, that is often only able to do standard VGA modes.
My is a 16bit model and can do SVGA just fine (Windows 3.1 in 800x600).

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 13 of 26, by i486_inside

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VGA Museum shows that there are both 16 and 8 bit versions of the card, the wiki article says "most" only support up to 640x480, it probably depends on what external DAC the manufacturer uses.

Reply 14 of 26, by Jo22

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i486_inside wrote:

[..]the wiki article says "most" only support up to 640x480,

It also describes the 037 as a "VGA card". Not a word is said about SVGA compatibility. 😵

i486_inside wrote:

[..] it probably depends on what external DAC the manufacturer uses.

I think it depends on the oscillators of the RAMDAC also.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 15 of 26, by i486_inside

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I found a data sheet for the chipset, it looks like the card required higher clocked 100ns ram to run higher resolutions, so may be a lot of the boards used cheaper 120ns ram, and they are limited to 640x480.

datasheet: http://datasheet.datasheetarchive.com/origina … ans-0038210.pdf

Reply 16 of 26, by Jo22

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Hey, thank you very much! 😁

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 17 of 26, by keropi

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I wonder if the older 037 cards are better with EGA/CGA stuff. Tbh I wouldn't use the 067 for VGA , it's slow and I imagine the 037 will be worse in that aspect. Now I need to find a 037 card to test 🤣

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

Reply 18 of 26, by scorp

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keropi wrote on 2017-07-01, 18:04:

Any help/tips will be greatly appreciated, thanks!!! 😊

Hi keropi, apparently I got one similar card as yours couple of days ago. Do you still need the BIOS?

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Reply 19 of 26, by keropi

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scorp wrote on 2020-08-17, 17:32:
keropi wrote on 2017-07-01, 18:04:

Any help/tips will be greatly appreciated, thanks!!! 😊

Hi keropi, apparently I got one similar card as yours couple of days ago. Do you still need the BIOS?

sure - as long as it's not a localized one!
thanks!

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