8 bit screenmodes not always working

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mpiva
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8 bit screenmodes not always working

Post by mpiva »

I'm having troubles with my 8 bit screenmodes on my Sam460ex and Radeon HD 4650. I have absolutely no problems with my 16 bit and 32 bit screenmodes but my 8 bits screens usually come up corrupted. Strangely, occasionally my 8 bit screens will look perfectly fine but, more often than not, they're corrupted. I even have the corrupted display issue during the Early Startup Menu. Here are some screen captures:

Screenmodes Pref's Test Screen:
Screenmode_800x600x8.png
Screenmode test
(104.54 KiB) Downloaded 2626 times
Picasso96Mode Test Screen:
Picasso96Mode_800x600x8.png
Picasso96Mode
(6.29 KiB) Downloaded 2626 times
mpiva
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Re: 8 bit screenmodes not always working

Post by mpiva »

:( It's been over a week, with over 60 views, and not a SINGLE reply. No one's able to help me with this problem? I was really hoping I'd get a little more support from a Support Forum. :cry:
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Slayer
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Re: 8 bit screenmodes not always working

Post by Slayer »

Perhaps not many people have a 460ex and/or bother using 8 bit screens and/or feel motivated to test this issue when other issues are more important to a bigger picture.

I'll ask a typical trouble shooting question however, have you tried a different monitor? a different cable? a different frequency? Just things like that, you could find a fix through experimentation :D
~Yes I am a Kiwi, No, I did not appear as an extra in 'Lord of the Rings'~
1x AmigaOne X5000 2.0GHz 2gM RadeonR9280X AOS4.x
3x AmigaOne X1000 1.8GHz 2gM RadeonHD7970 AOS4.x
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ChrisH
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Re: 8 bit screenmodes not always working

Post by ChrisH »

Looks like a (Radeon) graphics driver bug to me. Probably not many people have tested 8-bit screenmodes... but I am sure it is very important for those who *do* need 8-bit screenmodes. There are a few programs which won't work on 16-bit (or higher) screenmodes.
mpiva
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Re: 8 bit screenmodes not always working

Post by mpiva »

Slayer wrote:I'll ask a typical trouble shooting question however, have you tried a different monitor? a different cable? a different frequency? Just things like that, you could find a fix through experimentation :D
Perhaps I could spend many hours swapping monitors, cables, testing the Radeon in a PC, tweaking ever possible Picasso96 settings, buying a second Sam460ex, etc, etc. :roll:

Or maybe I could post a message on an AmigaOS4.x for SAM Series Support Forum to see if this is a known problem. Even if it's not a known problem, perhaps other users could spend a few minutes to test their systems and let me know if it's just me. If it's a bug in the drivers then why should I waste all that time and effort trying to fix something that I can't fix?

The point is, is it really that hard for a few of you to post a message saying, "Sorry, I have no troubles on my system, must be something about your set-up." or "Hmm, never noticed before but it's happening to me too, must be a bug in the drivers." That little tidbit of knowledge would be REALLY helpful BEFORE deciding whether it's worth the effort of testing every possible component and setting in my system. However, no response is not helpful at all.
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tonyw
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Re: 8 bit screenmodes not always working

Post by tonyw »

@mpiva:

Please be patient. It may take a while before someone has the time (and inclination) to start pulling his own system to bits just to check whether he can duplicate your problem.

Which driver are you using? You are using a PCI-e video card, but are you using the original beta RadeonHD driver or the latest driver from Hans? Do you have a different card you can try?

I've just spent an hour and a half going through all my four NG systems, testing all available 8-bit modes on A1-XE, Sam 440ep, Sam 440ep-Flex and Sam 460ex with three different monitors, the on-board SM502 and my own RV73 4650 card. None of them shows any problem like yours.

The only problem I found on the 460 was that my LG 1360x768 monitor doesn't seem to like switching to some modes that are in its list (eg 720x400). Even then, it's fine if I power it down, power down the 460ex and power them both up again. Apart from that I can't see a problem.

It may be that your video card just doesn't like 8-bit modes.
cheers
tony
mpiva
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Re: 8 bit screenmodes not always working

Post by mpiva »

tonyw wrote: Which driver are you using? You are using a PCI-e video card, but are you using the original beta RadeonHD driver or the latest driver from Hans? Do you have a different card you can try?
I'm using the original beta driver. Unfortunately I don't have a different card to try.
I've just spent an hour and a half going through all my four NG systems, testing all available 8-bit modes on A1-XE, Sam 440ep, Sam 440ep-Flex and Sam 460ex with three different monitors, the on-board SM502 and my own RV73 4650 card. None of them shows any problem like yours.
WOW! Thanks for the effort checking all that. However, I don't think checking every available 8-bit mode was necessary. I get the exact same graphic corruption regardless of the 8-bit mode used. The odd times the screens do display properly, it works for ALL 8-bit modes and will continue to work until I reboot or turn off my system.

I'm using a fairly standard 19inch CRT monitor connected by a VGA cable. I doubt it's an issue with the monitor or the cable considering the text and buttons don't seem corrupted at all, or am I mistaken in that assumption? I've also used the same monitor and cable with my A4000T/CybervisionPPC and a PC running WindowsXP and have never had any issues with it.
It may be that your video card just doesn't like 8-bit modes.
I'm really hoping that is not the case as I don't want to have to send it back to AmigaKit and ask for a replacement.
Spectre660
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Re: 8 bit screenmodes not always working

Post by Spectre660 »

Is it possible for you to boot from the OS 4.1 CD into workbench and try an 8 bit mode ?
Sam460ex : Radeon Rx550 Single slot Video Card : SIL3112 SATA card
mpiva
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Re: 8 bit screenmodes not always working

Post by mpiva »

Spectre660 wrote:Is it possible for you to boot from the OS 4.1 CD into workbench and try an 8 bit mode ?
Good suggestion. Tried it, but unfortunately it didn't work. I thought you might have been onto something since, the first time I tired it, it did work. I got some error message about Picasso96 not being able to create screen modes for RV730 (don't know if that's normal or not) but I continued on and everything looked good. Checked Prefs/ScreenMode and all that was there was 6 listings of "P96-0:FakeNative:640 x 480" (all 6 listings were 8bit) and one "BOOTVGA:Productivity" (8bit as well). All tested and displayed correctly.

Unfortunately, upon a system reset, (still booting from CD) the corruption came back. I immediately knew it wasn't working as the console window displaying the above mentioned error message was corrupted. I was able to continue on as before and got to Workbench. Same listings appeared in Prefs/ScreenMode but this time the test displayed them all as corrupted. Here's a screenshot of my Workbench after booting from CD:
BootCD Workbench
BootCD Workbench
Workbench_640x480x8.png (88.15 KiB) Viewed 9606 times
Spectre660
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Re: 8 bit screenmodes not always working

Post by Spectre660 »

Looks like a problem with your Video Card then. Although you can never be 100 % sure unless you have another one to try.

I once had problems with a new Radeon 9250 on my Sam-Flex which turned out to be a problem with my power supply.
The card was a replacement for one that had gone bad so I was desperate not to send it back so checked every component carefully.

But you never know. Some people have problems that no one else has. I spent about 3 hours today trying to get my Sam Flex working.
This is the second time I have had this problem but no one else seems to have had one like this yet . Imagine machine boots but all USB ports and on board sound chip and not working. could only access the machine via NC.
Sam460ex : Radeon Rx550 Single slot Video Card : SIL3112 SATA card
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