Radius PrecisionColor Pro 24XP ROM upgrade

[TylerEss]

I have a Radius PrecisionColor Pro 24XP NuBus video card. It won't do any resolution bigger than 832x624 at any color depth, even though it can do 832x624 @ 24BPP.

I suspected that this limitation was just cooked into the ROM, and swapping in the ROM from one of the other cards would allow larger resolutions (at reduced color depths). My interest is in 1024x768, as that's the native resolution of the tiny, sharp little LCD I want to use with my IIci.

JT confirmed that he had tried this swap:

I swapped in my PrecisionColor 24X ROM and it came up at 1024 x 768 @ 24 bit the first time I tried it, but I didn't take a screen shot.
Tried it in 1152 x 8XX and it wigged out when I tried it at 24 bit. It'll only do 4bit color or grayscale at 21" resolution.

No it wigs out when I try over that level for 19" and I can't figure out why.

Anybody around with the tools and supplies to burn flash ROMs? It's socketted on the card, so it should just be a matter of reading in a source ROM and writing a copy onto a blank one.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I'm glad you're rounding up help on the ROM hacking hardware front. A simple copy of the ROM is probably not what's necessary to get your card to do the higher resolutions at a lower bit-counts that you're after. It might be that simple, but we don't encourage the flashing of VidCard EEPROMs here and specifically prohibit the posting of links to Hacked Apple ROM SIMM files.

I'm not sure where we stand on tweaking the Declaration ROMs of 19 year old Video Cards made by a company that's about 16 years in the grave, but we'll work that out in the War Room.

Short version as I understand it:

Theoretical discussions about any kind of hardware, firmware or software hacking is encouraged here, playing with Paleolithic'puters is what we're all about. However the nitty-gritty of the physical ROM hacking procedure and linkage to stock ROM files is specifically prohibited by the rules. We've prohibited linkage to Apple's ROM files for emulation purposes from the very beginnings of the 68kMLA.

 

[tt]

Tyler, I might be able to help. I have a SIMM programmer (by dougg3) that can flash 4 socketed 32 pin PLCC's at one time. I believe it can flash just one chip at a time as well. I want to do something similar with flashing a DayStar Turbo 040 ROM chip with the latest firmware. The firmware was a free upgrade while DayStar was still in business, so I don't see it being an issue, just a matter of finding a copy of the ROM. If you want to discuss such things in a more open environment, I would suggest registering at http://mac68k.info and posting a topic there.

 

[TylerEss]

Thanks for setting the record straight, Trash80toHP_Mini; I'm embarrassed that I hadn't refreshed myself on the forum rules after being gone so long.

Also, I just found your post about this same ROM spelunking project over in the Hacks forum. It looks like you've gotten some interesting results already, so there's not much advancing the state of the art in this without a ROM programmer and some declROM resource editing skills.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Not to worry about it, I've done silly things, as well as more serious ones, against the rules as well . . . and been hauled onto the mat for it. We all make mistakes, yours was just a little boo-boo.

I'm waiting for an email so I can log on and chew the fat about this stuff over there right now.

It's good to have a skunkworks behind the main plant. But as the main plant, we need to keep the 68kMLA above reproach. We've got a lot of history and institutional knowledge on the books here in the forums and the WIKI, that can't be risked.

 

[landonf]

I'm waiting for an email so I can log on and chew the fat about this stuff over there right now.

Hey Mr. TR. It looked like your e-mail was typo'd, so I just corrected it. I believe that if you log in you should be able to re-request the confirmation e-mail (I can't see an easy way to manually override the confirmation requirement from the UI).

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

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