DOS graphics mode

[WizDawg]

I am running Microsoft XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2. I am coding a program in assembly to be used over the serial port, with simple graphics. The program operates in 320x200 graphics mode. The program works perfectly at the computer in the lab which uses windows XP. When I try to run it on my home computer, also using windows XP, all I see is a blank screen (fullscreen). The program is frozen from this point on. The only way to exit is to press the windows button and come back to the desktop to close it with "end task". Again, it works on the lab computers, not mine, with the same OS. What could be causing my graphics to not show up?

[WizDawg]

that was my brother posting that question.

i just wanted to add i had the same problem. a class i took last year used these .exe files, that ran in dos. there were like a graphic animated study guide for a electronics class i took. there ran fine on the lab computers. they ran fine on my roommates computers. but not on my laptop. i remember asking my teacher about the problem. he had no idea. and he is the one teaching A+, net+, ccna, ...ect. classes. so i figured he would. but no luck.

FYI: my brother and i both have the same dell inspiron 8200 laptops. and we both had the problem on those 8200 laptops.

i do still have a few of these .exe study guide files. just curious i tried one today and same old thing. screen goes black, freezes. you then have to exit like my brother posted above. if anyone would like to check out one of these .exe files i could email it to you. i dunno if it would help or not to figure out this problem.

help us out,
thanks,
brian

[DragonNOA1]

This might be better in the programming forum if you get no responses here. Good luck.

[glc]

that was my brother posting that question.

http://forum.pcmech.com/rules.php

Account Accountability A user account is to be used by one person and one person only. And we do NOT mean "one person at a time". If we find out that a user account is being used by more than one person, the account will be terminated.

Have your brother register his own account, please. This is your only warning.

[GaryRouth]

. . . seems to me that your graphics card drivers would have to be awfully backward compatible. It might be rather hit-and-miss - for the Standard VGA driver doesn't seem like it would help for 320x200.

. . . if your electronics programs are old enough to run from DOS, they might well run from just the floppy itself. If so, you can boot an XP computer into DOS by creating a DOS floppy bootdisk [right-click on your floppy disk in Explorer, select Format, then select "Create an MS-DOS startup disk". Boot with that, then insert your electronics program floppy & run it from the floppy drive.
. . . Gary


....late edit: can I guess that the displays in the computer labs were CRT monitors? I imagine Dell didn't figure to need backward compatible drivers for the LCD monitors on their laptops - changing resolutions on laptops is more problematic (in terms of a quality image). To check which resolutions a graphics driver supports, explore the "Advanced" tab in Control Panel/Display/Settings...one of the options will list all the supported resolutions and their refresh rates.

[WizDawg]

some stuff i found out. if i boot from a bootable floppy, i CAN run the program from dos. i do get some crazy amount of horizontal lines, about 3 inches long that run fromt he top to the bottom of the screen.. and they kinda scroll up and down

i tryed running it from the prompt while in windows and it doesnt work

i was curious if it would run in safe mode, but it does NOT

[WizDawg]

Originally Posted by GaryRouth ....late edit: can I guess that the displays in the computer labs were CRT monitors? I imagine Dell didn't figure to need backward compatible drivers for the LCD monitors on their laptops - changing resolutions on laptops is more problematic (in terms of a quality image). To check which resolutions a graphics driver supports, explore the "Advanced" tab in Control Panel/Display/Settings...one of the options will list all the supported resolutions and their refresh rates.

i have tryed every possible resolution. the native resolution of my laptop screen is 1600x1200, and i have tryed every setting down to 800x600(i may have those numbers backwards, cant remember) but i didnt not try changing the refresh rates. i also attached an external lcd(a monitor that i had ran the program on with no problem) and it still locked up with just a black screen

[RJ]

Is that the only DOS program that causes trouble ? Or does no DOS program run fine ?
Anyway, as I said in your other thread, I'd use DirectDraw rather than DOS to ensure compatibility, as DOS isn't existent in Windows 2K and XP, it's just emulated, and sometimes it just doesn't work (for whatever reason).

RJ

[WizDawg]

Any text based programs work fine. I've tried playing other DOS programs with graphics and all of those give me the blank screen.

[GaryRouth]

Just for laughs, you could try fiddling with the Compatibility settings for a while. Maybe luck into a modified Win95 setting that might actually display something other than a blank screen. (while running in the DosBox)

In DOS itself, you could try different memory manager settings and such, to see if that helps the video settle down any.

In the first XP book I read (back when XP first came out - seems like it had Norton in the title), I remember the author recommending to folks who wanted to still be able to play their DOS games that they make a separate partition for just DOS when first setting up the machine. That way they could play the games from a "true" DOS environment [rather a dual-boot DOS/XP machine]. Because it is a bit tough to get them to run in XP.
. . . Gary