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

[Jim Leonard]

On Mon, Feb 21, 2005 at 04:05:19PM +0000, Jules Richardson wrote:
> I wondered if there was some standard for the BIOS detecting card types
> (write to this port, expect this value back kind of thing) that meant I
> might be able to bodge something with a few LS logic chips, but maybe
> not. 

See my previous post re: "time is money" rule.  I can't see the
value of spending hours (if not days) working up a one-shot custom
solution when a $1 ISA VGA card will do the trick.  The power
consumption of the additional card is negligible.  Modern video
cards draw a crapload of power (some require additional molex
connections!) but old ISA VGA cards don't draw enough to be
concerned about.  Heat is also not an issue; the 486 and hard drives
will generate ten times more heat than an ISA VGA card.
-- 
Jim Leonard         http://www.oldskool.org/        Email: trixter at oldskool.org
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