G'day Arnie,
> Unfortunately, none of the replies even mentioned a way to operate a
> scanner from DOS. I wonder, would a SCSI scanner hooked to a SCSI card
> work from DOS? I would hate to have to buy another scanner, but if
> that's what it takes....
Errr...um...er...it depends on which version of SCSI they're using. If it's
an older scanner then it's probably using SCSI-1 (the original). This is
supported by newer cards (which I think are using SCSI-3 nowadays). But I
think that you would still need the DOS driver for the scanner.
> I had a VGA card from an XT, which did fit into
> one of the 6 short slots, but couldn't get it to do anything.
Probably because its BIOS is conflicting with the built-in video BIOS.
If you are facing the front of the machine with the cover off, the
built-in video is part of that wierd backplane-style vertical board on
the extreme left side of the case. At the moment my specimen is in the
back shed and it's pouring rain outside, so I'm not going to describe
in detail ;-)
If you're lucky you may find some switches/jumpers on there to disable
the video part. Alternatively, your machine may have the standard IBM-XT
switches on the motherboard (a group of 8 DIP switches). If so, then
switches 5 & 6 control the video:
5 6
no display on on
MDA/Herc off off
CGA 40x25 off on
CGA 80x25 on off
EGA/VGA on on
If you set this to EGA/VGA you might kill the built-in video and allow
your new card to function. Of course, having mutated the insides of the
computer there's no guarantee that AT&T kept this part "standard" either.
A lot of those older VGA cards can also be set to EGA or CGA or even Herc
monochrome. There will be a block of 4 or 6 DIP switches on the card
itself; plus a jumper (color/mono) near the video sockets.
The DIP switch standard is:
1 2 3 4
Herc off off on on
CGA on off off off
EGA off on on on
VGA on on on on
Old Trident cards follow this scheme, but old Oak Tech and Video7 cards
don't. Plug in a VGA/SVGA monitor and experiment...
> What are the chances of
> finding an 8-bit internal modem that would work adequately?
Internal 14.4k or 28.8k modems were often sold as 8-bit cards here. These
contain the equivalent of a high speed serial port, but some of them are
fixed on COM3 or COM4. Which can cause problems if your computer doesn't
have a COM1 _and_ a COM2 installed. There are DOS utilities to redefine
your serial ports if this is a problem.
Personally I prefer external modems because it's easier to tell why
your online session has died (is it your software, or a connect problem,
or...); and it's simpler to kill an anomalous session.
> Hope I haven't broken any rules, unwritten or otherwise, with this long
> acknowledgement.
I liked it... ;-)))))
cheers,
Fraser Farrell
http://www.dove.net.au/~fraserf/
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