how to kludge a 486 PC into thinking it has a video card?

[Randy McLaughlin]

From: "Scott Stevens" <chenmel at earthlink.net>
Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2005 9:54 PM
<snip>
> Actually, these days, a 'Hercules Graphics card' is becoming a 'scarce
> vintage item.'  The junk cards everybody has too many of are ISA VGA
> cards.  The monitor to plug into said 'Hercules Graphic card' has also
> become quite rare.  Most of that early stuff is long-ago recycled.  The
> 'junk' these days is 486 to Pentium II based.
>
> I have an original IBM-AT that I still haven't ever powered up, because
> it has all original IBM innards, including the IBM EGA card.  I know how
> to jumper the card to work with a 'TTL monochrome' monitor (EGA
> monochrome is a highly usable mode, with high resolution 1 bit
> graphics), but have neither a Mono or an EGA monitor to check it out.
> I've been holding off on 'corrupting' it by putting in a clone ISA VGA
> card.
>
> We're awash in a sea of castoff VGA monitors these days.  I watch for a
> TTL mono monitor at every auction and sale I go to, and haven't found
> one since acquiring the IBM-AT.
>
> -Scott

As long as you have a monitor that can handle the EGA frequency it should be 
no great effort to use a VGA monitor on an EGA card.


Randy