Subject: Re: need Xconfig for Gateway 2000 From: Greg Wettstein <NU013809@NDSUVM1.BITNET> Date: Wednesday, 28 Oct 1992 09:42:21 CST
> Please help!!!
>
> I cannot get X to use the 1024x768 or 800x600 modes! The 1024x768
> mode is pushed left and folded over. The 800x600 mode is out of sync.
> I tried all combinations from the vga database and also tried
> calculating my own numbers from the method of a recent posting - all
> to no avail. The 640x480 runs fine with the VESA numbers from the vga
> database.
>
> I have a Gateway 2000 with a Diamond Speedstar Plus (1MB memory) and a
> (new) CrystalScan 1024 NI monitor. The clocks are set as:
>
> 25 28 65 72 79 59 50 64
>
> I was able to confirm these numbers with CLOCK.EXE.
>
> The CrystalScan runs non-interlaced with 1024x768@(60Hz Vert., 48KHz
> Hort.) and 800x600@(72Hz Vert., 48KHz Hort.).
>
> Could some kind person share their setup?
>
> Thanks in advance!
I sent mail privately to this person but I may as well re-iterate this
group wide for those that did not see my post over the weekend.
Everyone who recently purchased a Gateway 2K with a Diamond SpeedStar
PLUS card will probably be bitten by this problem. Actually everyone
who has bought a late model SpeedStar card will also be bitten. It
appears from our research that Diamond moved to their proprietary VCO
dot-clock generator technology with Revision 5 of their cards. The
cards should report their BIOS version anytime the computer is rebooted.
The upshot of this is that X will only work in 640x480 mode with a
25Mhz dot-clock from a cold-start. There are ways to get an additional
high-resolution mode but as of right now users of these boards will only
have two resolutions available. E-mail me at my address in the .sig if
you need suggestions for working around this problem.
The problem can also be diagnosed by commenting out the Clocks line in
your Xconfig file. If the server does not find a Clocks entry it will
print out the list of clocks that it does find. To determine if your
SpeedStar PLUS card has this problem, comment out the Clocks line and
start the server with the following command: startx 2>/tmp/x.err
Exit from your X server (it will be a crapshoot depending on your
modeDB entries wether or not you get a readable display) and look at the
x.err file. In that file you will find a Clocks line with the values
that Xfree thought it found on your video card. If your SpeedStar PLUS
card is using the VCO based clock generators you will see a line that
looks something like this:
25 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 14 0 0 0 0 0 0
These are the only two default clocks that will be available. These
are provided so that the card can do the industry standard 640x480
resolutions.
Do NOT trust the output of the CLOCK.EXE program under DOS. Its values
appear to be absolute nonsense (other than 25 and 28MHZ). The algorithms
used in this program do not appear to be adequate with these new
generation cards.
I have contacted and opened discussions with Gateway 2K over this issue.
Since our research group buys a fair number of computers from them there
is a chance we might get some resolution, don't hold your breath.
To their credit they gave me David Bates phone number at Diamond. I have
left two days worth of voice-mail messages to him but have received no
replies. I then contacted Gateway but was forced to leave voice-mail
for them as well....... :-(
I have a solution for Diamond which should be a win-win for both Diamond
and the Xfree community but I need someone to listen to it. Maybe there
will be progress today. If anyone needs assistance or some known modeDB
settings for the CrystalScan/Diamond combinations feel free to contact
me.
As always,
Dr. G.W. Wettstein
Oncology Research Division Computing Facility
Fargo Clinic / MeritCare
UUCP: uunet!plains!wind!greg
INTERNET: greg%wind.uucp@plains.nodak.edu
Phone: 7001-234-2833
`The truest mark of a man's wisdom is his ability to listen to other
men expound their wisdom.'