if the card uses a Tseng ET4000 Chipset.. can i just use the basic tseng drivers from vogonsdrivers.com?

You should be able to. Trying will not fry the card.

the card was reviewed by PC magazine in 1991
https://books.google.ca/books?id=6UNWdidjDmIC … 0vga732&f=false

in the artical it says that the drivers were offered via a BBS system.. too bad its probably not up still 😉

just found this page:
http://www.helpdoc-online.com/SCDMS01EN1A83P3 … ted-Drivers.htm

and it says:

SYMPTOMS […]
Show full quote

SYMPTOMS

If you are using the P.C. Logic video adapter card VGA700 or VGA732, the card may not work correctly with Microsoft Windows or Windows for Workgroups.

CAUSE

This problem is caused by an out-of-date video card driver.

RESOLUTION

To correct this problem, obtain the updated drivers for these video adapter cards from the P.C. Logic bulletin board service (BBS). Download the WIN31.EXE file.

MORE INFORMATION

Both the VGA700 and VGA732 video adapter cards are based on the Tseng Laboratories ET4000 VGA chip. P.C. Logic suggests using the Tseng ET3000 or ET4000 display driver until you can receive the updated VGA700 and VGA732 drivers. The products included here are manufactured by P.C. Logic, a vendor independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability.

so this is again another instance where ive seen that it says that the drivers are really needed for this card.. but good news that it suggests using the et4000 driver in its place, because my chances of finding this without someone stepping forward with a driver disk are kind of slim i think.

I hope you have seen this:

http://web.archive.org/web/19961230194919/htt … r/download.html

please re-check!.

*VGA700

Windows 3.x Tseng Labs ET4000 driver (et4000.exe, 558Kb)
http://web.archive.org/web/19961230195759/htt … /ftp/et4000.exe

Maybe it comes complete with dos driver / utility as well.

wow thanks i thought i checked all the links
it seems that page is only 1/2 archived aswell. interupted 50% of the way ..
the download works?

i was just reading this page:
http://www.pcorner.com/list/WINDOWS/SVGA.ZIP/README.TXT/
which claims to support accelleration for windows 3.1 but of course none of the oem utilities that were discussed in the other articles.

also, i was looking at the backup of tseng.com from 1997
http://web.archive.org/web/19970124020609/htt … /www.tseng.com/

http://web.archive.org/web/19970604125910/htt … ames/oemlst.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/19961031074259/htt … r/custinfo.html
http://web.archive.org/web/19961031074421/htt … er/cardvid.html

VGA700 ET4000 16 256/512/1MB 1.03 Y Ver 2.3 Y VGA700A ET4000 16 256/512/1MB 2.00 Y Ver 2.3 Y VGA701 ET4000 16 1MB 2.00 Phillips […]
Show full quote

VGA700 ET4000 16 256/512/1MB 1.03 Y Ver 2.3 Y
VGA700A ET4000 16 256/512/1MB 2.00 Y Ver 2.3 Y
VGA701 ET4000 16 1MB 2.00 Phillips Y Ver 2.3 Y
VGA732 ET4000 16 1MB 1.01 Y Ver 2.3 Y
VGA732A ET4000 16 1MB 2.00 Y Ver 2.3 Y
VGA742 ET4000 16 1MB 2.00 Y Ver 2.3 Y
VGA765 ET4000 16 1MB 2.00 Y Ver 2.3 Y

my card is hte VGA732A type .. i see now from looking at this page that there was 2 diff revisions..
the difference being.. nothing really? other then bios version?
im not sure what "Y Ver 2.3" under the win3.1 column means unless its referring to a driver version?
if so its the same as whats listed under the VGA700 (& VGA700A) on the chart.. so i guess im ok with using the vga700 driver?

this page lists the package of files i think i need: http://www.video-drivers.com/drivers/59/59550.htm
but i cant get the file to download...

http://web.archive.org/web/19970604125910/htt … mes/softlst.htm
maybe im ok with whats listed here..

i tried the above driver that was pointed out by Robin4 "et4000.exe" - the graphics in windows 3.1 are very slow... like i can see each individual button and element draw themselves in when opening a control panel from the main window... like 50% or more slower then my 486 with a VLB Cirrus Logic card... (which is instant)
i think the 386DX40 should be faster then this..?? maybe the cardinal VGA732 is just a poor performing card for windows 3.1
or maybe the driver isnt the right match?? the flying windows screensaver is also brutally slow... perhaps i should just use it as a dos card - i playe da few simple games and it seems fast in dos... is this the usual type of performance with the Tseng Et4000 chips? good dos performance? bad windows performance?

the review article mentioned a 32K TSR that copies the cards bios to memory to improve the speed significantly..
does anyone else have experience with using a similar technique with any other graphic cards (loading VBIOS to RAM via TSR?)

ok i finally got the .zip file to download from this stupid driverguide site...
ill attach it here just for safe keeping

The directory disk1 and disk2 are the original graphics driver disks version 6.00 for the Cardinal VGA700 Graphics adapter. […]
Show full quote

The directory disk1 and disk2 are
the original graphics driver disks version 6.00
for the Cardinal VGA700 Graphics adapter.

Directory win3.1 is the original windows 3.1
driver for the Cardinal VGA700 date 6-24-92

this is for the vga700 so if anyone has the proper vga732 disk that would be amazing

What resolution are you trying to use for Windows?
Try lowering the color depht to 256 colors and see if it runs better.

Cardinal 700 now mirrored on my FTP.

No idea as to where the 732 drivers may be though. Seems like they are just generic drivers anyway. As for the TSR, that's probably the VESA driver, TLIVESA. There is also a FASTBIOS file for Config.SYS which is supposed to improve some functions on 286/386 systems. Get those here ftp://dxzeff.com/Drivers/Graphics%20Cards/VES … ET4000/VESA.ZIP

Sorry the folder is a mess, I just dragged these from an archive and probably won't have cleaned it up by the time you see it. Still, I pointed right to a ZIP containing those files. I don't know what, if any, effect these files might have, but you can try them.

alexanrs wrote:

What resolution are you trying to use for Windows?
Try lowering the color depht to 256 colors and see if it runs better.

i tried 1024x768 at first but my LCD said it didnt support the mode..
so im using 800x600..
ive tried a bunch of different color depths and its still slow.

maybe i should test it in my 486 box to see if the 386dx40 cpy isnt to blame for the slowness im seeing?
maybe i dont have turbo set on or something? but its only slow inside windows 3.1

maybeits because i really dont have the right drivers.. and the vga700 drivers arent a good fit for it?
the article mentioned that the vga732 was a "lite" "affordable" version of the vga700.. but the pic above
does show "700" on the vga732 box.. (unless its a mistake?)

anyway i thought the card would be faster then this..
given that it was tested with "20 of the best" svga cards of 1991

To get 60 Hz instead of the default 43 Hz in 1024x768 you need to run vmode.com.

Also do you have any bench values, e.g. from pcpbench to judge if your card is slow or not?
Have you checked against results from Phils Ultimate VGA Benchmark: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lvF9n … wpNU/edit#gid=0
There are 386DX-40 machines with TSENG ET4000 that achieve 15.7 fps in 3DBench2.

hey there Elianda;)
in DOS it seems quick...
its only in Windows that it seems slow.
i have not done any benchmarks no. im not familiar with what programs one would use to do that.
thanks for the benchmark info. wow someone did alot of work there! jesus.. 600 different benchmarks

Since the card is from 1991 I guess it's an ET4000AX and not an ET4000/W32? The ET4000AX is a very fast ISA VGA chip, but it doesn't have any GUI acceleration features so there are better chips for Windows. The CPU would literally have to draw every pixel.
Even with acceleration on both cards a 486 with a VLB card would be faster.

Forget about the video BIOS TSR (the VESA TSR might be useful, but that one is supposed to take only 3k of RAM). Video BIOS performance is not as important as you may think, maybe for DOS programs using character output, but not program needing some kind of performance will be pushing pixels with BIOS calls.
The TSR would achieve the same thing as the "video BIOS shadow" option in the BIOS setup. (Not if all 386 systems have this, but it's easy enough to check.)

ive played just a few dos games with it so far to check it out, (some games were already on the 200mb hdd that i got the computer with!)
arkanoid, paperboy, bubble bobble, a tetris game called sitris,
it seems to be really fast for dos..
i guess i will just forget about using this computer + video card with windows apps at all.
problem solved;)

i havent even checked the bios on this system yet! 😀

I'd try 640x480 with 256 colors. The ISA bus doesn't have a lot of bandwidth, so the lower the resolution and color depht the better. Accelerated cards fare better, as they do not really have to push everything through the bus.
You could also try the VGA driver (though you'd be stuck at 640x480 with 16 colors - but its better than not being able to use Windows at all).

it works fine... but its just really slow..
like for example going into control panel to open up the screen where u set up the screensaver options
i can see the box draw itself then the text then each button.. slow enough to see them all draw in seperately
wheras on my 486 with CL gfx. the box just appears with text + buttons already htere instantly..
its usable but slow. i was hoping it would improve alot by getting the proper driver.

i havent tried 640x480 yet.

wow i just saw in this video (1min into the video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkCs3fR_iYw&l … OO3FBp8&index=8
that cardinal actually made their own PC's branded with their logo
and advertised on this show "The computer chronicles" in 1991

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkCs3fR_iYw&t=26m37s
heres a direct link to the ad in the video

i guess i could use any of these drivers?
http://driverzone.com/drivers/tseng/