VGA Video Graphics IO

Video Displays@ Video IO@ Display IO@

With an Ensonic #D Banshee 4001045701 REV A card installed, my computer freezes up and my games crash after several minutes when loaded, and after the computer has been on for a few hours. What's happening?

This is possibly a sign of excessive heat build-up inside your computer case. Please check that you have adequate computer case ventilation. A properly functioning Creative Labs 3D Blaster Banshee does not require additional cooling measures when run at default clock settings. However, some systems have marginal case cooling and may benefit from addition of an auxiliary case-cooling fan. If you believe your system is adequately cooled, and you are operating the Banshee at default clocking, but freeze ups persist, contact our technical support team for further evaluation and remedies.

IBM's official method of recognizing their original EGA graphics card was to look for the string "IBM, Inc." (or something like that) at a certain address in the card's ROM. 3rd party EGA cards simply put "Not a product of " in front of it - satisfying the protocol, without committing a copyright violation.

See also:

• "Real-time 3D Graphics for microcomputers" By Marcus Newton, Byte Magazine September 1984 pg 251 (8086 assembly language code for the IBM PC)
• Figure 8: C-language code for implementing a complete BitBlt operation. of "Raster Operations" Byte magazine November 1985.
• "The uPD7281 Processor, a non-vonNeumann chip designed for high-speed parallel processing of images" by Tom Jefferys, Byte Magazine, November 1985