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Q65701: CV May Come Up Only in Monochrome with 8514/A Display Adapter

Article: Q65701
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 3.00 3.10
Operating System(s): MS-DOS
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | appnote SV0337.ARC B_QuickBas | mspl13_basic
Last Modified: 16-OCT-1990

Real-mode CodeView (CV) may display only in monochrome (black and
white) mode on some systems with an 8514 or color VGA monitor attached
to an 8514/A display adapter. On these systems, the installation of an
8514/A video card causes the BIOS video functions to return an
incorrect value indicating that a monochrome VGA monitor is attached,
rather than a color monitor.

This same BIOS information contributes to the way in which these
versions of CodeView (and various other programs) detect the type of
video adapter present; thus, CodeView may incorrectly determine that
it is running on a monochrome system and may display the screen only
in black and white.

Workaround
----------

As a workaround, an application note titled "8514/A Monochrome to
Color Patch" is available from Microsoft Product Support Services by
calling (206) 637-7096. This application note contains a program,
which may be run before CodeView is invoked and which will configure
the BIOS information correctly for CodeView to come up in color.
The program is also available in the Software/Data Library by querying
on SV0337, the Q number of the article, or S12719. SV0337 was archived
using the PKware file-conversion utility.

This monochrome video problem is specific to DOS, and therefore, does
not occur with protected-mode CodeView (CVP) under OS/2. However, the
problem may appear if real-mode CodeView is run in the DOS
compatibility box under OS/2. In addition, the problem may occur with
other software, such as Microsoft QuickBASIC.

With CodeView, another symptom of this problem is that the program
output screen (which can be accessed by pressing F4) will usually
appear as dark blue characters on a black background. This screen is
essentially unreadable and remains this way even after CodeView is
terminated. Typing MODE CO80 at the DOS prompt after exiting CV should
restore the system to the default colors.

Microsoft intends to change the video detection routine in future
software releases in order to circumvent this problem. Although the
problem is not specifically caused by CodeView, a more sophisticated
video detection routine will determine what video adapter and monitor
are present without relying on the possibly inaccurate BIOS data.

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