thanks to vlask and his site we have an image of the "Phoenix Enhanced Video BIOS PLUS Version 1.00.00" bios (search for BIOS to highlight the download link)
http://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/component … ologies-p82c435

I will try it 😁

Not sure if you reallay require a new BIOS. I think the interrupt call was done by your card but your monitor was not able to display it.
Just try some other values for the AL register:

http://www.ctyme.com/intr/rb-0069.htm
(Table 00010)
Values for video mode:
text/ text pixel pixel colors disply scrn system
grph resol box resolution pages addr
00h = T 40x25 8x8 320x200 16gray 8 B800 CGA,PCjr,Tandy
= T 40x25 8x14 320x350 16gray 8 B800 EGA
= T 40x25 8x16 320x400 16 8 B800 MCGA
= T 40x25 9x16 360x400 16 8 B800 VGA
01h = T 40x25 8x8 320x200 16 8 B800 CGA,PCjr,Tandy
= T 40x25 8x14 320x350 16 8 B800 EGA
= T 40x25 8x16 320x400 16 8 B800 MCGA
= T 40x25 9x16 360x400 16 8 B800 VGA
02h = T 80x25 8x8 640x200 16gray 4 B800 CGA,PCjr,Tandy
= T 80x25 8x14 640x350 16gray 8 B800 EGA
= T 80x25 8x16 640x400 16 8 B800 MCGA
= T 80x25 9x16 720x400 16 8 B800 VGA
03h = T 80x25 8x8 640x200 16 4 B800 CGA,PCjr,Tandy
= T 80x25 8x14 640x350 16/64 8 B800 EGA
= T 80x25 8x16 640x400 16 8 B800 MCGA
= T 80x25 9x16 720x400 16 8 B800 VGA
= T 80x43 8x8 640x350 16 4 B800 EGA,VGA [17]
= T 80x50 8x8 640x400 16 4 B800 VGA [17]
04h = G 40x25 8x8 320x200 4 . B800 CGA,PCjr,EGA,MCGA,VGA
05h = G 40x25 8x8 320x200 4gray . B800 CGA,PCjr,EGA
= G 40x25 8x8 320x200 4 . B800 MCGA,VGA
06h = G 80x25 8x8 640x200 2 . B800 CGA,PCjr,EGA,MCGA,VGA
= G 80x25 . . mono . B000 HERCULES.COM on HGC [14]
07h = T 80x25 9x14 720x350 mono var B000 MDA,Hercules,EGA
= T 80x25 9x16 720x400 mono . B000 VGA
08h = T 132x25 8x8 1056x200 16 . B800 ATI EGA/VGA Wonder [2]
= T 132x25 8x8 1056x200 mono . B000 ATI EGA/VGA Wonder [2]
= G 20x25 8x8 160x200 16 . . PCjr, Tandy 1000
= G 80x25 8x16 640x400 color . . Tandy 2000
= G 90x43 8x8 720x348 mono . B000 Hercules + MSHERC.COM
= G 90x45 8x8 720x360 mono . B000 Hercules + HERKULES [11]
= G 90x29 8x12 720x348 mono . . Hercules + HERCBIOS [15]
09h = G 40x25 8x8 320x200 16 . . PCjr, Tandy 1000
= G 80x25 8x16 640x400 mono . . Tandy 2000
= G 90x43 8x8 720x348 mono . . Hercules + HERCBIOS [15]
0Ah = G 80x25 8x8 640x200 4 . . PCjr, Tandy 1000
0Bh = reserved (EGA BIOS internal use)
= G 80x25 8x8 640x200 16 . . Tandy 1000 SL/TL [13]
0Ch = reserved (EGA BIOS internal use)
0Dh = G 40x25 8x8 320x200 16 8 A000 EGA,VGA
0Eh = G 80x25 8x8 640x200 16 4 A000 EGA,VGA
0Fh = G 80x25 8x14 640x350 mono 2 A000 EGA,VGA
10h = G 80x25 8x14 640x350 4 2 A000 64k EGA
= G . . 640x350 16 . A000 256k EGA,VGA
11h = G 80x30 8x16 640x480 mono . A000 VGA,MCGA,ATI EGA,ATI VIP
12h = G 80x30 8x16 640x480 16/256K . A000 VGA,ATI VIP
= G 80x30 8x16 640x480 16/64 . A000 ATI EGA Wonder
= G . . 640x480 16 . . UltraVision+256K EGA
13h = G 40x25 8x8 320x200 256/256K . A000 VGA,MCGA,ATI VIP
14h = T 132x25 Nx16 . 16 . B800 XGA, IBM Enhanced VGA [3]
[...]

What happens if you use
MOV AL, DD
? I think nothing will happen as mode DDh does not exist.

You can leave Debug with
q
and continue working with DOS if you have not figured out already.

I will see later if home if I also have some other Chips EGA card and will upload their BIOS.

thanks for all the info, I will try it with the multiscan monitor
I also burned the Enhanced bios and it works fine with the card, I think I'll keep it since it's newer 😀

Little OT but I remembered I still have some cool Chips EGA-cards 😎 But I dont think the BIOS is compatible to yours 😎

AST 3G plus 256 with P82C431 and P82C434A

Heath/Zenith 150-307-3 EGA/VGA with same Chipset:

Never tested them...should get my EGA monitors up again.

I have tried the debug stuff with both EGA cards I have and both switch the DOS resolution to 640x480 mode:

but nothing other than DOS works , if I try to run a text-mode utility like a filemanager the system freezes. Both cards also don't work with the VGA driver of win3.1

What is there to try next? 😕

This shows that yours cards are capable of this VGA mode...therefore it should work.

Hmm I am sure it worked somehow without an extra driver...what selection do you have for the Video driver? Are there other 640x480x16 drivers to try?

I have found this?
http://www.basterfield.com/pc110/w31/w31-1.htm

I am using the plain "VGA" driver that comes with 3.1 - I get a pink (instead of white) boot logo and then nothing, a crash. Also tried the drivers you linked, same behavior.

keropi wrote:

I am using the plain "VGA" driver that comes with 3.1
- I get a pink (instead of white) boot logo and then nothing, a crash. Also tried the drivers you linked, same behavior.

Hi keropi, if you're using Windows 3.1, you can also try VGA (Version 3.0) and VGA with Monochrome display.
VGA Mono uses only two colours (black/white), another mode number (mode 11?) and thus shouldn't cause any palette issues.
It also works with just as little as 64KiB of memory.. Perhaps it's really just MCGA ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-Color_Graphics_Array

Hehe, yes in the Moment I also tried Win 3.1 Setup and also see there are some other 640x460 16 Color options (i.e. XGA). Did you try all of them? But as said, have no EGA at the moment.

I also remember the wrong colors in the start logo with my EGA setup but with Windows itself all was OK.

And..what CPU do you have? Mine was 286.

With a 386 you should try to disable EMM386 and Shadow options. I remember there is also a switch to force to run Windows in real mode (win /?). Maybe worth a try...

nope, nothing worked for me : VGA/VGA 3.0/VGA mono/XGA ...
I am using a 286 machine that is upgraded to 386sx with a kingston module. WIndows do load but the monitor is blank - at least I can exit windows and get the monitor going again.

That's strange. 🙁 I wrote a little something for you in Qbasic. It sets modes 09, 11, 12, draws a circle each time.

I tried that , only SCREEN 9 works when I run it, the rest give an "illegal function call"

We have already proven that VGA mode 12h works on your machine.

I am also keen to get this running. Got my NEC Multisync II up and happy its still running after about 15 years 😀

I tested with a PEGA2

But got this error message

My small Assembler program also ends without switching the mode...therefore this card is not suitable for mode 12h. Will try another one later...

Nice monitor there Predator99!
Your EGA card seems to be lacking the 2nd PARADISE PBI (bus interface?) IC , maybe that's why 12h does not work? I have seen that the "high-end" ATI EGA Wonder cards use an ATI secondary IC instead of the CHIPS P82A436 - maybe that's what gives them extra functionality and what removes it from your card.

Just because VGA also has a 640x480 16 colour mode doesn't mean the super-EGA cards are compatible with it.
For starters, the VGA palette works entirely differently from EGA, so that's never going to work.

Scali wrote:

Just because VGA also has a 640x480 16 colour mode doesn't mean the super-EGA cards are compatible with it.
For starters, the VGA palette works entirely differently from EGA, so that's never going to work.

Frankly speaking...sorry but you do not seem to be familiar with this or never owned such EGA card 😉 Yes, there are many differences, but for this special mode it is the same. The VGA cards are downward compatible to all EGA modes. And the 640x480x16 mode is the same on VGA and (some, not all) EGA cards.

For my PEGA2 it doesent work because according to this table
http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/videomodes.txt

the 640x480x16 mode is 50h not 12h. I already tested with debug.exe and it switches to a 640x480 when selecting mode 50h.

I will first look for another card in my collection. Otherwise I will write a small TSR for my PEGA2 that redirects the INT 10 call mode 12h to mode 50h. I am sure it will work...you will see 😉

Well, I'm not really an EGA user myself either. There's just one machine sitting here right now which posses Super EGA functionality. 🙁
Just heard (or rather read it on Google Books) that some of the later "extended"- EGA cards had some kind of mode 11/12 support.

I assume that's rather software emulation, though. Maybe their EGA BIOSes somehow mimiced the Standard VGA BIOS calls ?
I mean, EGA and VGA did share some similarities. The Windows 1.x EGA driver got modified to run in VGA/VBE and so on..

Anyway, that Phoenix BIOS seems really old. It's from '86/'87. In '87, VGA was really young and there was little software using it.
Perhaps a newer LEGA BIOS, from say '88 onwards, does at least simulate high-level VGA in 640x480 with an substituted 16col. pallet (pseudo VGA "palette"/colour index) ?

EEGA.WPD Extended EGA mode 12 640x480 16 Multisync
This driver supports the 640x480 16 color mode (mode 12h)
available on many enhanced EGA cards. It requires a multisync monitor.
Source: https://www.pcorner.com/list/WP/WPD.ZIP/README2.WPD/

Predator99 wrote:

We have already proven that VGA mode 12h works on your machine.

Uhm, am I missing something ? 😕 That QBasic program should run just fine with any VGA-compatible card.
As far as I know, both QBasic 1.1 and QB 4.5 do utilize the VGA BIOS. Well, at least QB should do (rarely use QBasic).
If there's any interest, I'm also going to attach some binaries compiled with QB/PDS Basic and VBDOS.. ^^

Predator99 wrote:

Frankly speaking...sorry but you do not seem to be familiar with this or never owned such EGA card 😉 Yes, there are many differences, but for this special mode it is the same. The VGA cards are downward compatible to all EGA modes. And the 640x480x16 mode is the same on VGA and (some, not all) EGA cards.

It can't be the same since as I already said, VGA uses different palette registers.
I can set any of the 262144 colours in VGA in a 16 colour mode. EGA doesn't even have those colours, let alone the palette registers to set them.
VGA is downward compatible to EGA, but not the other way around. And that's what we were talking about.
So if you're lucky, you may get the correct pixels on a super-EGA card if you use a VGA-driver, but you can't get the correct colours, because it will set them in a way that is incompatible. So you'll just get the default EGA colours, which may or may not result in a somewhat usable image.

Scali wrote:

It can't be the same since as I already said, VGA uses different palette registers. I can set any of the 262144 colours in VGA i […]
Show full quote

Predator99 wrote:

Frankly speaking...sorry but you do not seem to be familiar with this or never owned such EGA card 😉 Yes, there are many differences, but for this special mode it is the same. The VGA cards are downward compatible to all EGA modes. And the 640x480x16 mode is the same on VGA and (some, not all) EGA cards.

It can't be the same since as I already said, VGA uses different palette registers.
I can set any of the 262144 colours in VGA in a 16 colour mode. EGA doesn't even have those colours, let alone the palette registers to set them.
VGA is downward compatible to EGA, but not the other way around. And that's what we were talking about.
So if you're lucky, you may get the correct pixels on a super-EGA card if you use a VGA-driver, but you can't get the correct colours, because it will set them in a way that is incompatible. So you'll just get the default EGA colours, which may or may not result in a somewhat usable image.

Totally wrong 😉 Mode 12h uses 16 colors out of 64. Thats..yes, EGA.