Problems Using Diamond Viper VLB Video Adapter

• Microsoft Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

After you install Windows 95 on a computer with a Diamond Viper VLB video card and the Diamond Windows 3.1 video drivers, you may experience one or more of the following problems:

• 16-color VGA is the only resolution listed.
• You can use only one setting. For example, you can use only the 640 x 480 x 256 setting.
• When you restart Windows 95 you receive an error messages stating that the display adapter is not configured properly.

CAUSE

Windows 95 does not detect the Diamond Viper VLB video card (with the Weitek P9000 chip set), so it installs the standard VGA adapter driver.

RESOLUTION

There are Diamond-supplied Beta 32-bit video drivers on the Windows 95 CD-ROM in the Drivers\Display\Diamond folder. Please note that these are Beta drivers, and may not function correctly with all hardware. If you have the floppy disk version of Windows 95, you can obtain these drivers from Diamond directly. For information about obtaining these drivers from Diamond, please see the Viper.txt file.

To resolve this problem, follow these steps:

1. Click the Start button, point to Settings, then click Control Panel.

2. Double-click the System icon.

3. Click the Device Manager tab.

4. Double-click Display Adapters, click Standard Display Adapter (VGA), then click the Remove button.

   NOTE: Do not restart your computer when you are prompted to do so.

5. Double-click the Add New Hardware icon in Control Panel.

6. Click Next, click the No button to select it, and then click Next.

7. Click Display Adapters in the Hardware Types list, and then click Next.

8. Click Have Disk, select the Drivers\Display\Diamond folder on the Windows 95 CD-ROM, and then install the appropriate Diamond Viper driver for your video adapter.

9. Shut down and restart your computer.

   NOTE: You still need a Viper.ini file (created by Vprmode.exe) stored in the C:\Viper folder or another location referenced by the "Set ViperPath=" statement in the Autoexec.bat file. After installing these beta drivers, you cannot use the Windows 3.1 Diamond Install tool in Control Panel. It will cause a general protection fault.

MORE INFORMATION

After you remove the standard VGA adapter from Device Manager, you must use the Add New Hardware tool in Control Panel to add a new video adapter if you replace the Diamond Viper card.

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