Problems Galore with ADD2 "video cards"

August 11, 2005 4:15 PM

Have any of you gotten an ADD2 Card "video card" working with a real driver? I sure haven't. I've only been able to get it to display anything in DOS, the BIOS, the boot process, and Windows with the drivers removed. I need your help, as I've got 60+ brand new PCs with the suckers.

I've got 60+ PCs with these cards in them. Mostly the BTX version (on an Intel 945 chipset, with a few ATX versions in other PCs (on Intel 915 chipsets).

The way these cards are supposed to work is that the card gets the digital video signal through the PCI-X slot from the onboard video on the motherboard, and puts it out through DVI. But that doesn't happen if you have the drivers installed.

It works only in DOS, and in Windows only after deleting the drivers. The boxes shipped from Gateway without working drivers. The latest drivers Intel has for download don't work either. Although they 'work' when you delete the drivers in windows, the refresh rate drops to an unacceptable 3 Hz.

Nothing different happens when I change the video options in the BIOS.

Do any of you know of a way to get these to work? Do you know of any good generic drivers they might work with?

posted by blasdelf to computers & internet (2 comments total)

Ironically, the only working implementation I've been able to find of these ADD2 cards has been in the OSX86 Developer Transition Kit.

Picture

I'll have to see if I can get this working leak of OSX86 running on them. They're actually quite a bit fater than the developer Macs too (Dual Core Pentium D Processors). Now that's irony.
posted by blasdelf at 1:32 AM on August 12, 2005

For google and history, here's the low-down on DVI ADD2 cards:

The Intel driver will only work if the connected display supports DDC/CI, which normally is used in high-end CRTs so that color management software can adjust all the display's settings on it's own.

In this case, it is required for any signal to come out of the DVI port at all once the driver is loaded. Most DVI flat panels do not have DDC/CI built in. I know for sure that the aluminum Apple Cinema Displays have DDC/CI, and a seemingly random swath of other displays have it built in. It's not guaranteed that an expensive display will have it, nor is it guaranteed that a cheap display will not.

It's just bizarre.
posted by blasdelf at 4:09 PM on August 27, 2005