Deskpro - Video Problems with 95

Hello,

On an old Compaq Deskpro 166MHz (EN series? The words 'big, ugly, fat' describe it, hopefully that helps you know what it is) with Windows 95, the monitor randomly flashes.

The monitor will go black, then show the screen again quickly. It happens at completely random periods, and it does it in the BIOS aswell as Windows.

It is a VERY OLD s3 trio video card (only 1mb.. sheesh), and I'm not sure whether the video card is functioning properly or if its clapping out.

If it HAS clapped out, can I replace the motherboard with one from an identical Deskpro and will it work?
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Oh yes, I have tried it with different monitors, so the monitor obviously is not an issue.

 

Hi quackbal...

As long as it is the same model and uses the same driver I can not see why it won't. We got some older DeskPro EN PII 400's at work and I have swapped Video cards for troubleshooting reasons and had no problems with the swap.

Never seen an S3 Trio video card before...All the S3 Trio's I ever worked on were onboard chips. They were also the 1 MB chip. Used to get lots of Helpdesk calls asking why when they change their resolution to 1024 x 768 they only get 256 colors...hehehehe.

 

It does sound like your video card is dying, sounds like it is bad enough to stop the computer from booting in the near future.
The motherboard swap with the exact one should work if the video is indeed onboard. The alternative is to disable the video in the BIOS and install a PCI video card.

 

Exactly the same issue here, have to run in 800x600... 256 colours at 1024x768, oh well, monitor is only 14 inch so thats perfect.

Problem was fixed. The second I downloaded the video drivers and went into *gasp* 16-bit colour at 800x600, all was fine.

Problem still occurs in the "BIOS" which runs in 16 colour I think (a form of Win3.1 interface)

Sorry, WAS refering to the onboard chip S3.