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Compaq Deskpro 286 Video Help

collector

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Feb 21, 2004
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I just acquired a compaq deskpro 286. It seems to work fine but my ibm 5153 monitor will not display correctly on this computer. Do I need the original compaq amber cga mono monitor or can I use another monitor or even another video card.
 
Whats the monitor showing? Jumbled text, misplaced graphics, or even no video at all? If you have another monitor or graphics card, try them out.
 
Well, the first thing to determine is what kind of video card you have in the computer. Is it a CGA card? If it is not you will need to get a monitor that matches the card (e.g. mono, EGA, what not).

If it is CGA the 5153 should work. If it doesn't do you have another CGA card you can pop in there? Or alternatively can you test the CGA monitor and know it is good w/ another system?

You can put in any 8 or 16bit video card in there as long as you pair it up with the correct monitor.
 
I know this computer works as I saw it displayed when I purchased the computer online. It is showing jumbled text. I tried a video card from an ibm xt I have and with a 5153 monitor. Seemed to work better but still not very good. Text/screen is basically unreadable. Like the framerate is off.
 
I know this computer works as I saw it displayed when I purchased the computer online. It is showing jumbled text. I tried a video card from an ibm xt I have and with a 5153 monitor. Seemed to work better but still not very good. Text/screen is basically unreadable. Like the framerate is off.

Sorry but that mean nothing. The computer may work it may not work but you need to do some testing to figuer out what is going on. The first thing to is make sure you have a CGA card in the computer. Once you can tell us what type of card you have we can go from there.
 
It is a CGA card. It is a Compaq card but I also tried the same type card from my IBM XT computer that I know is good as I tested it with this same monitor.
 
It is a CGA card. It is a Compaq card but I also tried the same type card from my IBM XT computer that I know is good as I tested it with this same monitor.

Okay. Well if your card is good and your monitor is good then you shouldn't be having any issues. So obviously one is not good. If you try the 5153 w/ the video card from the XT in the XT machine does everything look good?
 
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Okay definitely looks CGA.

1. Is this the card in the Compaq or the XT?
2. If it is the one in the Compaq then does this card work perfectly with the 5153 if it is installed in your XT?
3. Does your XT CGA card and the 5153 work perfectly when you run them through the XT?
 
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the ibm monitor with the ibm card works great. I know it is not the monitor and it is not the card.

Okay then the Compaq card is bad. You can double check it by installing the IBM CGA card in the Compaq and see if it works fine w/ the 5153. If it does then the problem is the Compaq CGA card.
 
that is the first thing I though of. The picture seemed to be better with the xt card and 5153 in the compaq but it was still unreadable. I will try the compaq card in the xt. If all else fails, is there another combination of card/monitor I can try? Maybe a 15 pin card?
 
that is the first thing I though of. The picture seemed to be better with the xt card and 5153 in the compaq but it was still unreadable. I will try the compaq card in the xt. If all else fails, is there another combination of card/monitor I can try? Maybe a 15 pin card?

Did you try a different slot for the video card? It could be that, that particular slot in the Compaq is bad. Also you can try a std. vga card with a vga monitor in the compaq as well. If you use a 16 bit video card make sure to install it in a 16 bit slot in the Compaq.
 
Well, I tried all kinds of different combination and nothing worked. The image is there it just scrolls by quickly. I would like to use a vga monitor but I thought the compaq 286 slots were only isa. Can I get a vga card for that computer?
 
Well, I tried all kinds of different combination and nothing worked. The image is there it just scrolls by quickly. I would like to use a vga monitor but I thought the compaq 286 slots were only isa. Can I get a vga card for that computer?

For a very long time all VGA and SVGA cards were ISA cards. Then came hte VLB, EISAs, PCI VGA/SVGA cards. You have to use an older VGA card not one of the newer PCI iterations. You can probably find one for purchase cheap on ebay or on WTB here on the forums.
 
Okay then the Compaq card is bad. You can double check it by installing the IBM CGA card in the Compaq and see if it works fine w/ the 5153. If it does then the problem is the Compaq CGA card.

Compaq CGA cards (in combination with a Compaq motherboard BIOS) support a high-resolution 350-line version of the 80x25 video mode. A 5153 won't be able to display this.

The CTRL+ALT+< key combination on the Compaq should switch to the normal 200-line version. On the 8086 Deskpro, it's possible to select this at boot time by turning on the motherboard DIP switch SW6. I don't know whether the 286 version does this with DIP switches or with a BIOS setup program.
 
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