Need a bit more information - what is the computer?

It looks like the system is trying to call both the simple (text) display adaptor, as well as the VGA at the same time. Does your BIOS have switches or is it entirely software - if it has switches, give then a few clicks to make sure they haven't somehow settled with both sides active. (take a photo of the config first in case you forget).

Something is definitely corrupted though, whether the bios or data-in-transit can't be ascertained.

Photos of the pc innards?

what motherboard, processor, how much RAM, which video card, etc.

Was actually curious as to identifying this thing while we're at it, I suspect it was originally a Frankenstein build before I got it, as there's some impressive solder work on the board. As for photos of the internals, I've done the best I can but disassembly of this case is... Well I was going to sum it up with a witty remark but then I remembered there's rules about keeping it civil, so let's just say I'm not going to disassemble this thing at midnight. 😜

I could not identify the bios chip, I suspect it may be hidden under the power supply. I've attached all the photos I could get clear enough without exceeding the upload limit, and I couldn't see any switches.
As far as cpu goes, I'm pretty sure it's an on board Intel 8088, but the ram is a mystery. I was hoping that bios could tell me how much it has installed, as there are no identifying marks at all on the Simms. There is no graphics card, only onboard vga. I installed the speakers, cdrom, soundcard and compact flash adaptor.

As I implied, information about this thing is extremely limited. The only thing I can tell you for certain is that it has a sticker on the base that claims it to be an alcatel 8551.

Oh and according to post preview, the fourth photo is upside down, I don't know how that happened as its right way up on my phone.

Technomancer21 wrote:

As far as cpu goes, I'm pretty sure it's an on board Intel 8088, but the ram is a mystery. I was hoping that bios could tell me how much it has installed, as there are no identifying marks at all on the Simms. There is no graphics card, only onboard vga.

In your pictures there are chips marked 386SX-25, so it'll be a 386SX running at 25MHz.

With regards to the garbled video output, I had a similar thing with an ISA graphics card and it was suggested here on VOGONS that faulty Video RAM could be to blame. That sounds like a logical cause and if you're lucky you might have socketed video RAM chips that you could try replacing. But getting an ISA Graphics Card may be the easier option overall, assuming this motherboard doesn't act weird and force the onboard graphics as default regardless.

I had considered an ISA graphics card, but the limiting factor there is where I can get one in Australia without having to sell the soul of my first born. I swear the prices on places like ebay are almost as bad as current day graphics cards. I also have no idea what model of card to shoot for, the main goal is to have something capable of basic gaming. I think the most intensive game I have for it is toonstruck, if anyone can suggest a model, that would be an epic place to start.

I'll have a hunt around the next time I have it open to see if the chips are socketed. But then again I have hardly any idea which chips are what. Google fu, don't let me down!

Technomancer21 wrote:

I had considered an ISA graphics card, but the limiting factor there is where I can get one in Australia without having to sell the soul of my first born. I swear the prices on places like ebay are almost as bad as current day graphics cards. I also have no idea what model of card to shoot for, the main goal is to have something capable of basic gaming. I think the most intensive game I have for it is toonstruck, if anyone can suggest a model, that would be an epic place to start.

I'll have a hunt around the next time I have it open to see if the chips are socketed. But then again I have hardly any idea which chips are what. Google fu, don't let me down!

Spotting memory chips should be easy - look for a couple of identical chips. ISA cards typically have some kind of 44256 chips and hopefully you M/B too. These are very standard looking 20-pin chips, usually having something like -7 in their markings (ns speed rating, very common 70ns in this case).

Going for an ISA card may be easier, though. I think I like Cirrus Logic ISA cards the most but Trident 8900D is fine too, these are all pretty common by ISA standards so shouldn't cost that much.

I can't quite remember the context but I remember being warned against trident cards for compatibility reasons. Are you sure they would be good? If so then that helps me tremendously.

By the twelve! I hope you don't mean this card:

I was hoping to avoid selling the soul of my first born...

If I asked one tenth of it for such a card I'd feel awful for being a ripoff.

I don't know the 8900D-R chip btw. Vanilla 8900D is nice and fast while 8900C(L) or 9000 tends to be slower or even dog slow.

Only thing I can say against it that all my Tridents from the ISA era show a striped pattern on my LCD. Cirrus Logic cards don't and they're equally fast under DOS.

When the question of compatibility problems come up I must always mention Tseng ET4000 and 6000 cards. They do have huge problems with scrolling games.

I see. Then I have a fair amount of research to do then. So the cirrus logic cards run pretty well do they? What about these citygate cards I see for dirt cheap on ebay?
I'm not sure I like the sounds of a striped pattern so I think cirrus might be the way to go.
As for the tseng et4000, I've actually been told that is the best one I could get. Are you saying that it's a really bad idea for games like the apogee classics? I'm looking to run Duke nuke 1/2, crystal caves series, bio menace series, commander keen, word/math rescue series, and maybe toonstruck at a push. Pretty much all of those are side scrollers.

Technomancer21 wrote:

I see. Then I have a fair amount of research to do then. So the cirrus logic cards run pretty well do they? What about these citygate cards I see for dirt cheap on ebay?
I'm not sure I like the sounds of a striped pattern so I think cirrus might be the way to go.
As for the tseng et4000, I've actually been told that is the best one I could get. Are you saying that it's a really bad idea for games like the apogee classics? I'm looking to run Duke nuke 1/2, crystal caves series, bio menace series, commander keen, word/math rescue series, and maybe toonstruck at a push. Pretty much all of those are side scrollers.

I do remember that et4000 and commander keen 4-6 didn't mix well. It's flawless with my CL-GD54xx ones, though.

But I'm sorry I have no knowledge about those citygate cards 🙁

Seems like everyone on ebay is out to make a serious buck on anything vintage these days. I hope to hell the cheap one in this list won't have any major issues. As it's all I can really go for at the moment.

$8 seems a good price. Fingers crossed.

I had hoped to get a 1mb card but I guess I can do that when I'm a bit richer. The $8 card will at least help identify if its able to use a video card in the first place without any bios settings changed.
If I have to make any bios changes, Then I am pretty much screwed without fixing the onboard graphics first, as reading through the text characters is bloody hard.

For anyone following this still, I recently solved this issue at last, it turned out to be a faulty video ram chip. Since identifying the issue, I've managed to get it running 2D games, though it's far from finished. Many thanks to everyone who offered suggestions here 😁