Grzyb wrote on 2020-10-31, 08:38:

Not me, I don't have those cards. Hopefully Baoran can do it. Anyway, whoever posts such dumps: please state which RAMDAC the ca […]
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maxtherabbit wrote on 2020-10-31, 03:45:

Would you be able to share dumps of the alternate DAC BIOSes?

Not me, I don't have those cards.
Hopefully Baoran can do it.
Anyway, whoever posts such dumps: please state which RAMDAC the card was shipped with.

All of my card have SS2410 chip. It will probably take 2 months at least until I get the programmer from China so it will take a while.

Do these cards need some kind of driver to be able to use vesa modes?

Small update:

These are the 3 speedstar cards that I currently have:

Bottom left one in the picture is the one that does not work and it used to have those bios chips that are now in bottom right one and those bios chips that are not on a card are the ones that used to be in bottom right one. I assume I can't put the chips that used to be in bottom right card into the top card because it has different ramdac chip?

Main thing I wanted to give an update with is that the bottom right one works fine with the bios chips that I took from the broken card so at least it wasn't the bios chips that were broken on that card. At least switching bios chips between these 2 cards seem to have worked fine. I am still waiting for the programmer from China that I ordered from ebay.

Baoran wrote on 2020-11-10, 22:39:

Do these cards need some kind of driver to be able to use vesa modes?

I don't know about all BIOS versions, but yes, I had such a card with no VESA BIOS Extensions in the ROM.
There's TLIVESA.COM from Tseng Labs, or UniVBE.

Baoran wrote on 2020-11-11, 00:58:

I assume I can't put the chips that used to be in bottom right card into the top card because it has different ramdac chip?

Probably not, but feel free to experiment.
There's some chance the BIOS includes support for various RAMDACs, and auto-detects them at run-time.
If not, I expect the following symptoms:
- modes up to 256 colors working fine
- can enter the 24-bpp mode, but with some garbage on the screen
- 15-bpp modes may display garbage, but may also work OK, if that SS2410 chip happens to be compatible with Sierra

Grzyb wrote on 2020-11-11, 03:23:

Baoran wrote on 2020-11-10, 22:39:

Do these cards need some kind of driver to be able to use vesa modes?

I don't know about all BIOS versions, but yes, I had such a card with no VESA BIOS Extensions in the ROM.
There's TLIVESA.COM from Tseng Labs, or UniVBE.

I was just reading a manual for the card at http://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu/item/ … 741b56c7a515a7b and the manual talks about enabling vesa bios extensions using utility vmode.com using command "vmode vesa". Any idea if that speedstar24 utility disk is available to be downloaded from somewhere?

Baoran wrote on 2020-11-11, 04:07:

Any idea if that speedstar24 utility disk is available to be downloaded from somewhere?

Diamond SpeedStar 24 drivers & utilities

Grzyb wrote on 2020-11-11, 04:20:

Baoran wrote on 2020-11-11, 04:07:

Any idea if that speedstar24 utility disk is available to be downloaded from somewhere?

Diamond SpeedStar 24 drivers & utilities

Thanks. That helped a lot.

When I get the programmer would Winbond W27E257-12 chips be good replacements for the bios chips? I don't have much experience in this stuff so it will be interesting to learn.

Baoran wrote on 2020-11-11, 05:23:

When I get the programmer would Winbond W27E257-12 chips be good replacements for the bios chips? I don't have much experience in this stuff so it will be interesting to learn.

Yep they drop right in

I was thinking of pulling the plcc ramdac chip from the broken card to possibly test if the chip works. Anyone knows a good way to pull the chip out without causing damage if you don't have specific plcc puller tool for it?

I just use a small eyeglass screwdriver and work the corners slowly

Could someone post the 6.01 and 5.01 bios of the Diamond Speedstat 24? The bios are saved in a pair of 27C256 EPROMs

thanks

Hello:

Need the BIOS version 5.01 of the Diamond Speedstar 24 (ET4000 based), because I have such a card but the EPROMs are faulty!

thanks

gfernval wrote on 2020-11-16, 23:27:

Hello:

Need the BIOS version 5.01 of the Diamond Speedstar 24 (ET4000 based), because I have such a card but the EPROMs are faulty!

thanks

I think you need to tell which ramdac your card has that if someone posts that they know if they have the same one.

I've posted this here somwhere before but I might as well again.

my card has a Samsung 18bit(?) 8bit DAC
some people here have said it's a 8bit DAC but the datasheet says: 256x18 LUT, 3x6bit D/A

imi wrote on 2020-11-17, 02:11:

my card has a Samsung 18bit(?) DAC
some people here have said it's a 8bit DAC but the datasheet says: 256x18 LUT, 3x6bit D/A

KDA0476 is 8-bpp, out of 18-bit palette
ie. standard VGA

care to elaborate, what am I missing in the datasheet, what is the KDA0478 then?
maybe I have a wrong understanding of how color DACs work.

imi wrote on 2020-11-17, 03:28:

what is the KDA0478 then?

KDA0478 is also 8-bpp, but from 24-bit palette

Anyway, both KDA0476 and KDA0478 take 8 bits of pixel data at the input, ie. 256 colors
but the pixel data doesn't describe the color directly - there's no R, G, B values there
RGB values are kept in the RAMDAC's palette RAM - 256 x (6-bit R + 6-bit G + 6-bit B) for KDA0476, or 256 x (8-bit R + 8-bit G + 8-bit B) for KDA0478
the pixel data selects which of the palette RAM entry is to be send to the DACs, and the DACs convert the 3 x 6-bit or 3 x 8-bit to analog RGB values

So, there can be 262144 or 16777216 colors, but not simultaneously.

Baoran wrote on 2020-11-17, 01:07:

gfernval wrote on 2020-11-16, 23:27:

Hello:

Need the BIOS version 5.01 of the Diamond Speedstar 24 (ET4000 based), because I have such a card but the EPROMs are faulty!

thanks

I think you need to tell which ramdac your card has that if someone posts that they know if they have the same one.

No one has yet proven that different DACs use different ROM code

maxtherabbit wrote on 2020-11-17, 05:13:

Baoran wrote on 2020-11-17, 01:07:

gfernval wrote on 2020-11-16, 23:27:

Hello:

Need the BIOS version 5.01 of the Diamond Speedstar 24 (ET4000 based), because I have such a card but the EPROMs are faulty!

thanks

I think you need to tell which ramdac your card has that if someone posts that they know if they have the same one.

No one has yet proven that different DACs use different ROM code

True, but I thought it is better to be safe than sorry. Also if someone has cards with diffent ramdacs they can choose the one that has the same ramdac just in case.

By the way I just received the package with the programmer today so if it works and is not too hard to use I might be able to get something out of my bios chips soon.