Does anyone have the BIOS image for an S3 Trio3D (86c365) PCI card which fixes the black level bug? I'm interested in using it to "patch" the BIOS on my S3 card rather than rely on software to correct the issue. Thanks!
Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.
I have a similar PCI card by Hercules, but unfortunately I don't have the tools to extract the BIOS yet.
These S3 cards are fairly cheap and easy to souce (at least the AGP versions), so it might be easier to pickup another one and test by swapping the BIOS chip.
I take it your Hercules PCI card doesn't have the black level bug? Perhaps one day you'll buy a progammer? They come in so handy I cannot imagine not having one. They can also test SRAM and program microcontrollers, among other tasks.
I think I'll sit back and wait for someone to post the BIOS in the years to come.
Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.
^^ Are you using an LCD? I don't see this issue with black levels (I use a CRT with extensive adjustments available).
Hmm, I should get around to picking one of those programmers - I just haven't needed one yet. I had plans to mess around with Modbin, too. Any recommendations for these programmers?
I only have experience with the Wellon VP-390. E-mail support has been pretty good about adding support for additional devices.
I do not have any CRT monitors left. They are too heavy and consume too much of the table top. I threw them all out years ago. That is one piece of vintage computer equipment that I will never be attached to. Instead, I use only beige LCD's.
Does your Hercules PCI card exhibit the black level bug when using an LCD?
Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.
When my CRTs bite the dust, I'll be moving on as well.
I haven't tested the Hercules with an LCD yet. But I'll try later and report back.
wrote:I have a similar PCI card by Hercules, but unfortunately I don't have the tools to extract the BIOS yet.
These S3 cards are fairly cheap and easy to souce (at least the AGP versions), so it might be easier to pickup another one and test by swapping the BIOS chip.
Doesn't NSSI have an option to save the Graphic card's BIOS as well?
wrote:wrote:I have a similar PCI card by Hercules, but unfortunately I don't have the tools to extract the BIOS yet.
These S3 cards are fairly cheap and easy to souce (at least the AGP versions), so it might be easier to pickup another one and test by swapping the BIOS chip.
Doesn't NSSI have an option to save the Graphic card's BIOS as well?
Good catch. Yeah, just checked that out. It saves the current video BIOS as a .VBI file. Would that be usable in programming the BIOS chip?
wrote:Does your Hercules PCI card exhibit the black level bug when using an LCD?
FYI, I just tried it on an old 15" Dell LCD, and it looks fine to me considering the screen used. My goto testing is loading the setup screen in Tyrian2000 (where you configure the sound options), and I look for the chequered blue grid behind the planets to be easily visible. Any black issues usually stand out there.
OK, so can NSSI write these images back to the VGA BIOS?
Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.
I didn't see that option in NSSI.
Can you send me the image file and I will see if my programmer can open it?
Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.
wrote:Can you send me the image file and I will see if my programmer can open it?
I've enclosed Trio3D.VBI from NSSI in a .RAR file:
Let us know how you get on.
