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Display adapter for IBM 5155 Portable "Luggable"

ibmapc

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I have a IBM 5155 Portable that I have owned since new. It still has the original CGA Video card which drives the internal amber mono monitor. I'm interested in putting something a little nicer in it but don't want to loose the use of the internal monitor. The only option I can find is the ATI EGA wonder which has a connectector for the internal monitor which I believe is composite. Trouble is, I'm having trouble finding one for a reasonable price. Are there any other options, or does anyone know of a source for these at a reasonable price? Also the only version of the card that I can find info on is the EGA Wonder ver. 2.3, so I don't know if the other versions will work with the internal monitor. Also, was wondering what the max resolution would be on he 5155 internal monitor. Would it be able to go as high as 640 x 350? That would be a vast improvement over 640 x 200. Any info would be greatly appreciated!!
P.S. I'm new here and I think this forum looks really cool. Thanks in advance for any advice that can pe provided!!

Greg
 
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Even if you find an EGA/VGA video adaptor with internal CGA connector, you'd need to check whether the adaptor could support EGA/VGA on the external connector at the same time as CGA on the internal.
My understanding is that the internal monitor is CGA and the highest resolution of any mode is 640×200.
 
I have a IBM 5155 Portable that I have owned since new. It still has the original CGA Video card which drives the internal amber mono monitor. I'm interested in putting something a little nicer in it but don't want to loose the use of the internal monitor. The only option I can find is the ATI EGA wonder which has a connectector for the internal monitor which I believe is composite. Trouble is, I'm having trouble finding one for a reasonable price. Are there any other options, or does anyone know of a source for these at a reasonable price? Also the only version of the card that I can find info on is the EGA Wonder ver. 2.3, so I don't know if the other versions will work with the internal monitor...

I discussed a few adapters that work on this thread...
 
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... I'm having trouble finding one for a reasonable price. Are there any other options, or does anyone know of a source for these at a reasonable price?
<snip>
What's a reasonable price (or an unreasonable one, for that matter)?
 
The ATI Small Wonder has the internal connector for the 5155's built-in monitor, and it provides Plantronics-compatible 16-color graphics at 320x200 and 640x200 (although those extra colors aren't of much use on a monochrome monitor!). It also does emulation of MDA/Hercules monochrome video on a CGA display by using interlacing, although when I tried it on a monochrome composite monitor, the result was barely legible (whereas it looks fine on an RGB color monitor).

I suppose there are some EGA cards which provide a composite output for the CGA-compatible modes, but to display anything higher than 640x200, it'd need to do interlacing, which I haven't heard of any EGA card supporting.

Of course you could just install a standard VGA card and then use a common "VGA to TV" converter box to provide a composite output for the 5155's monitor.
 
use a common "VGA to TV" converter box to provide a composite output for the 5155's monitor.

FYI those cost between $80 and $300 - the $80 ones only doing 640x480->1280x1024 or so, NOT 320x240!!!!!! i.e., DOS, BIOS, and DOS games will not convert on many of these boxes, there's a minimum!
 
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