[Info-vax] What video card for a DS10?

[William Webb]

On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 10:00 AM, FredK <fred.nospam at dec.com> wrote:
>
> "Richard B. Gilbert" <rgilbert88 at comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:JcidnQ-wZ7Gb-lPXnZ2dnUVZ_s-dnZ2d at giganews.com...
>>
>> tadamsmar wrote:
>>>
>>> I have some DS10s to maintain.  I think one of them has a bad video
>>> card.  The monitor is getting no input as if it was not plugged into
>>> the connector.  I swapped and checked the monitor, so I know the
>>> problem is not the monitor.
>>>
>>> The system is still up and in use.  When I can (tomorrow perhaps) I
>>> will be able to shut it down and swap the video card as a test.
>>>
>>> I am running VMS 7.3-2.
>>>
>>> What video cards can I use?   Can I buy a new one or do I need a
>>> legacy card?
>>>
>>> Thanks for any help!
>>
>> You need a "supported" card; e.g. one for which VMS has a device driver.
>> If you have lots of spare video cards and lots of time you could try them
>> one after the other and you might find that one works.  You might also get
>> "smoke and flames" if the card happens to be physically compatible but not
>> electrically compatible!
>>
>> I would stick to genuine DEC/HP video cards of the proper model(s).
>>
>> There are standards for video cards but no guarantee that DEC/HP actually
>> complied with those standards!
>
> LOL.  Yeah, sure there are "standards" for video cards... as long as you
> want to operate it in VGA mode.  Get real.  Every real graphics card
> requires a device-specific driver (in Windows-speak a "High Performance
> Video Driver").  These are usually supplied by the vendor, although there
> are Open Source versions for some cards (and usually not all the capabilites
> and performance) for Linux.
>
> Take for example the card generically called the Radeon 7500 - this card has
> about a dozen actual varieties even though they are all called Radeon 7500.
> Each have different initializations, slightly different features, and there
> are even several different core graphics chips.  To support every variety
> would require trying to track the closed or open source versions of the
> vendor/xfree86 drivers.  Heck, AMD/ATI completely rewrote the driver so they
> can use it to support future graphics chips that will use the same core
> 2D/3D.
>
> Now, DEC/HP sold a specific set of versions of this card, which is what the
> drivers were written for and tested against and which we support.  In fact,
> the drivers will actually work on lots of the minor variations (at least in
> V8.3)  - including the Radeon 7000 which doesn't have the 3D TCL hardware.
> It would be impractical, and not make business sense for us to chase and try
> to support every possible variation of these cards ever made.
>
> As to plugging in and getting flames... these card are STANDARD PCI cards.
> Unless you have a hack saw, they will only plug into option slots that are
> compatible.
>
> The Radeon 7500 is EOL from all sources including HP.  You might be able to
> get them from various resellers including Island.  You can purchase the
> Radeon 7000 from HP as the AH391A for Integrity servers - this card should
> work in a DS10 without a problem as well.
>
>
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Hello, Fred.

Haven't heard from or about you in a long time.

Tell your wife I said hello as well.

I trust all is well.

WWWebb