luckybob wrote:

ibm thinkpads have ALWAYS been the nicest laptops. Does yours have the add-on video card?

No mxm just integrated onto the board like most, ATI firegl v5200. Gaming on that ips panel is amazing, already modded the machine for better temps. 😎

😊 😊 😊

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Everyone is raving about the VGA output of Matrox cards so I grabbed a few. The first one arrived today.

I had hopes that I would get a signal under DOS from both ports, but of course, only one works 😒

Would have made capturing easier / better.

Does anyone know a VGA card that has cloned image output (One can be DVI + dongle) under DOS? Or can the BIOS on this card be changed so it does clone mode all the time?

Not even sure what I bought here:

If have disambled three computers.. 2 where ATs, one was an ATX.. Seller didnt know anything about those computers.The ATX wasnt what i wanted, because i was only looking for AT cases. (but now iam just happy about the ASUS CUBX motherboard.) The front mounting where broken on the AT style cases.. But its only the screw holes on the downside..
Need to glue that to solve the problems.. But got really nice stuff out it..

Asus P/I P55TP4XE ver 2.4 socket 7 motherboard.
Intel pentium 75 with bent pins, (already straighneted them)
Intel pentium 133 processor
Socket 7 coolers

Ive got a weird socket 5 motherboard, i guess its an OEM (maybe compaq) Iam going toss that away (desolder the components, and toss the PCB)
Quatum fireball SE Harddisk *dont know the size jet)
A bunch of flat cables.
AT PSU.
Intel Socket 370 Pentium III 800Mhz.
Asus CUBX S370 motherboard with I/O shield.

ATI MACH 64 PCI
CD-ROM MOD. CDA 268-031 (i guess they thought it was ide, but its an propriatary one. from JUL 1995. Aztech one. (2x speed)
CD-ROM SAMSUNG CD-MASTER 8E MOD. SCR-830 (8X Speed) (i thought it would be propriatary too)
Lite-on MOD. LTN-526D 52X max IDE

WD Caviar 153AA 15.3GB IDE
16-BIT RTL NIC, ETHER, BNC
NVIDIA VANTA PCI graphic adapter.
3COM 10/100 NIC PCI Etherlink 3c905B-txNM
WD Caviar 21200 1280MB AT-IDE

16MB 4x4MB Simm PIN30
Some FPM 72PIN simms.
Tseng labs ET4000/w32 PCI
ELSA Victory Erazor 4 RIVA 128 PCI

Got a microphone which goes into one of two microphone inputs of my mixer. The plan is that I can talk while also capturing sound and music from the other mixer inputs 😀

We will see how it goes soon...

Got another USB floppy emulator for my second test bench:

And a internal card reader for my capture PC. Takes CF cards as well and I have this one in two other PCs and it works very well.

Some Panasonic caps for an upcoming re-capping project!

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Everyone is raving about the VGA output of Matrox cards so I grabbed a few. The first one arrived today.

I had hopes that I would get a signal under DOS from both ports, but of course, only one works

Heh, talk about bittersweet luck. You've basically ended up with a fairly rare card that's completely useless for what you want to do with it. 🤣

What you have there is one of those not-quite-standard G400 "Flex 3D" cards that came as part of the RT2000 video editing system. One major difference that card has from a 'normal' G400 is that it does not actually support two monitors. When used as part of the RT2000, the second output is hooked to a breakout cable that goes to the video I/O box. And judging by how the cable is wired up (I have an RT2000, btw), the port apparently doesn't even use a standard VGA pinout.

I believe a standard G400/G450 will give you mirrored output in DOS though. So you're on the right track... you just happened to catch the wrong train.

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

Everyone is raving about the VGA output of Matrox cards so I grabbed a few. The first one arrived today.

I had hopes that I would get a signal under DOS from both ports, but of course, only one works

Heh, talk about bittersweet luck. You've basically ended up with a fairly rare card that's completely useless for what you want to do with it. 🤣

How is that rare? It looks like the OEM version of the Matrox G400. Its not even a MAX. They're always on ebay.

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

So you're on the right track... you just happened to catch the wrong train.

Thank you 😀 Any tips what to look out for? This one better?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/AGP-GRAFIKKARTE-Ma … 827332c9&_uhb=1

And here is a splitter cable. What card would this go with?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/MATROX-15941-00-SP … 47c3ed8d&_uhb=1

Being frustrated with the quality of what passes for a plain, basic ATX case these days, I snagged this NOS case from EBay for a few bucks over the cost of shipping.

'Cause I'm a sucker for a case with a game port in the front panel. Some eMachines had that, and it was quite convenient.

Uh, wait... What?

Oh no you DIDN'T.... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

You did. Not a single one of those ports goes to a header. It's all routed to the back panel.

Arrrgh. Well, it's a nice sturdy case, anyhow, but this Cthulhu-cable is a monstrosity.... Ahem, I mean, "Unique Rare Authentic Retro Vintage Memorabilia" ... whatever. Routing the front panel to the back panel is such a wuss-out.

How is that rare? It looks like the OEM version of the Matrox G400. Its not even a MAX. They're always on ebay.

It looks like the OEM version of the G400. But it's not. It's the sticker on the back that gives it away. The standard G400 has a rather cryptic looking model number along the top of the FCC sticker, whereas this one says "Matrox" and nothing else. Plus there's the fact that the second VGA port doesn't work... that's a pretty good indicator.

That does bring up another point though... while it may be an uncommon variant, it's not particularly valuable or useful on its own, and it is really, really damn similar to an OEM G400. It's entirely possible that the differences are all in firmware/software, rather than any hardware changes. If you're feeling adventurous, you might try flashing it with an OEM G400 (or even G400 MAX) BIOS and see if you gain use of the second VGA port. As long as you make sure to save a copy of the original BIOS in case it doesn't work, I don't imagine that it would hurt anything to try it.

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

If you're feeling adventurous, you might try flashing it with an OEM G400 (or even G400 MAX) BIOS and see if you gain use of the second VGA port. As long as you make sure to save a copy of the original BIOS in case it doesn't work, I don't imagine that it would hurt anything to try it.

Oh I always feel adventurous 😀 This is what I do...

Worst case I can use another card to flash it back.

Could you please point me in the direction for BIOS and flashing utility?

Found this on the Matrox FAQ

The display card bundled with Matrox RT2000 is the Millennium Flex 3D Edition. It is based on the award-winning G400 accelerator found on the Millennium G400 and Millennium G400 MAX cards. It has 32 MB of SGRAM and a 300-MHz Ramdac. This unique version of the card has been optimized for video applications and for Flex 3D. Please note that the RT2000 codec card will not work with other AGP versions of the G400 display card, only with the Flex 3D Edition.

Some info on TH: http://www.thg.ru/video/20001229/print.html

Could you please point me in the direction for BIOS and flashing utility?

Pointing you in the general direction is about the best I can do, I'm afraid. I've never had to flash a Matrox card before. They do have downloads available, and I'm guessing the file you want is "setup_g258_2.exe". It seems to be a package containing BIOSes for multiple cards, including the G400, along with a flashing utility. I have no idea whether that package covers all the variants of the G400, nor do I know whether the utility will allow cross-flashing between different models.

Oh man that's a treasure chest!

Emergency rescue disk, enabling TV Out under DOS. I like Matrox. It's all very well documented. Might get some more cards and play around with them 😀

Thanks!

The THG page doesn't show it, but I finally managed to find mine, so in case you were curious, here is a picture of the weird breakout cable the RT2000 uses. The two connectors I'm holding are on the end of the cable that plugs into the back of the computer, and the other end just has one female 26-pin connector that plugs into the breakout box. But you can see what I meant when I said it doesn't seem to use a standard VGA pinout.

Thanks for taking the time to explain all of this!

hmm... somethings not right here...

What I paid for:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem … &view=all&tid=0

What I got:

yes I know my address is visible, I don't care, and yes, it was shipped in newspaper.

"You get what is in the photo.

I only ship to the U.S.

Thank You

It works."

Suspect....😜

open up a case and leave him a negative, most likely he was hoping to get some crazy $$$ for the hdd and sent you another in it's place
It's only 1$ + shipping but it's the principle of things. He is a fraudulent seller and nothing more.