From sac75191@saclink1.csus.eduMon May 20 18:42:35 1996
Date: Mon, 20 May 96 01:18:35 GMT
From: Brian Smither <sac75191@saclink1.csus.edu>
To: gigagon@anime.net
Subject: Re: Dip settings for Trident 8900C plz

>If you have a Trident 8900C vga caqrd, can you be of help and check any 
>documentation that went with it? I can't seem to get the card to work, and I 
>know the card does work for sure, since the motherboard does not beep back 
>with a defective video card.
>
>On the rear of the 8900C there are a series of 6 dip settings. What do these 
>do? And do the jumpers inside the card on the board have any value at all as 
>well?
>
>I'd really like a reply, there is 512k on this card, and I'd hate to think 
>it's defunct.
>
>email:gigagon@anime.net

I have a 8900B card and basically have the same situation as you.  The only 
difference is that I've installed 1Meg.  I also have two sockets near the RAM 
chips labeled JP1 and JP2.  Reverse engineering the card reveals these to 
remap the address lines somehow.  I've installed single wire jumpers as 
appropriate.

When I first fired up the card (with 1Meg), I got all even numbered display 
positions corrupted, all odd good.  After the jumpers, I get all good 
characters but they are the wrong ones doubled.  For example:

DDXXyy--KK  HHjjSS  should read    [DR-DOS]C:\>

Obviously I haven't figured the jumper packs correctly.  Funny thing is 
though... graphics mode works perfectly, that is, Windows displays just fine. 
It's just text mode that is screwy.

As for the pin jumpers, here is the best I've found:
  J2: lower edge, near middle of the card - 8/16 bit BIOS (1-2 connects ground 
to a signal pin, 2-3 connects +5v).
  J1: lower edge, right side of the card - connects IRQ2 (top-middle) to a 
signal pin, (middle-bottom) is unknown.
  J3: upper right of the card - unknown.
  DIP switches: unknown but when cycling through them, the monitor came up in 
various colors (green, amber, 16 color, 256 color).

Here is a reply from:

From: lzimbler@albany.net (Larry Zimbler)
To: Brian Smither <Brian.Smither@sacpcug.org>
Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 11:47:27 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Documentation for TVGA8900 video card

who operates a computer parts store on the internet...

"We have a manual for a TVGA8900D    1MB  ISA
Your jumper description seems diffrent.  You may need to contact the place
where you purchased the card to find out who manufactured it.  If we can
help e-mail back to and we can ship the book out. "

If you get any more information, please consider sending a copy my way.  
Thanks.
