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SVGA diagnostics software

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First post, by Grzyb

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I'm looking for some program to test various SVGA cards - mostly ISA, VLB, and early PCI ones.
The program must run under pure DOS.
Ideally, I want something like Checkit 3.0, ie. test video memory, and display some test patterns in all the modes. And small enough to fit on a 1.44MB diskette along with DOS boot files.
Checkit is OK for MDA, Hercules, CGA, EGA, VGA, but it doesn't support SVGA - so it only tests 256 KB of RAM.
So, any advice?

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Reply 1 of 6, by Jo22

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On DOS ? Dr. Hardware ?

Windows 3.x/2.x..
Re: Best PCI VGA card for Windows 3.11 performance?
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Reply 2 of 6, by Grzyb

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Jo22 wrote:

On DOS ? Dr. Hardware ?

Looks like just a sysinfo program, I can't see any options to test video RAM integrity, or enter various video modes.

VBETEST (a part of UniVBE) seems OK for testing various video modes, but I can't see it doing any video RAM tests.

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Reply 3 of 6, by beastlike

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there's whatvga.exe, which can be found here: https://github.com/achernya/iap-6.828-website … hardware/vgadoc
and here https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2018/reading … ardware/vgadoc/

The attachment whatvga.png is no longer available

this one is useful because it'll show you what modes you have available, and will let you do drawing tests in each mode.

The attachment whatvga2.png is no longer available

I am not sure if it does video RAM tests, however if you look there's a util called dmpmem.exe which creates 2 files; both have .ROM extension, one is binary, the other is this text:
INT 10h = F000:1300
INT 6Dh = F000:1060
State Table = C000:2E8F
FNT0 = C000:0500
FNT1 = C000:1700
FNT2 = C000:0900
FNT3 = C000:0100
FNT4 = C000:0500
FNT5 = C000:2710
FNT6 = C000:1700
FNT7 = C000:2710
more info on this in whatvga.doc

there's also this one I remember from back in the day, this is the source: http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.php?attach … 39&d=1082326758
this compiles to an executable I have called vesabase.exe which I have used, but can't find anywhere on the internet

The attachment vesabase.png is no longer available

Reply 4 of 6, by Grzyb

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The above don't seem to perform video memory test, and this is the most important feature I'm looking for.
I want something like MemTest86 (comprehensive testing using various patterns), but for video RAM, rather than system RAM.

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Reply 5 of 6, by zyga64

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X-VESA can test all video memory available.

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Reply 6 of 6, by Grzyb

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X-VESA seems interesting indeed, but there's one problem - it uses a non-standard 90x30 text mode for menus, and I've already found one card where that mode fails to work correctly.
So I'm still looking...

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