BilLabs BL25C90T Monitor & ArcadeVGA

[TeamTEOR]

I have put my CPU into the cab today for a test on my new BilLabs BL25C90T monitor. I have to put the PC into safe mode in order to get it to load up in the correct resolution, frequency, or color to make it work. Does anyone have any experience with these monitors that can steer me towards the proper setup? Or is it as easy as buying one of the ArcadeVGA cards?

I have tried to call BilLabs on it, they themselves have very limited knowledge on how to get it to work. In fact they could not even tell me the limitations of the monitor. I wish that when you spend good money for these products that they would at least be able to support us. I am going to call Betson as well and see if they know specifics on it.

Thanks in advance,
Tom

[Rickn]

Yes, kind of sad when you call and get no tech support.

Not our monitor, but here is my guess, limited to 31Khz (640X480). You will need to set the display properties to this in the control panel of your PC.

Hope this helps, but by all means, if you wnat more help, feel free to ask.


Rick Nieman
Rick@Niemandisplays.com
www.niemandisplays.com

[ahofle]

Do you mean the BL24C90T?  If so that is a auto multisync according to their site that should accept up to 640x480 fine.  If you are not technically savvy (or don't feel like messing around with video tweaking software), you would probably be best off with an ArcadeVGA card which has all the CGA arcade resolutions built in.  And install the Multisync patch for non-interlaced EGA and VGA resolutions.  Otherwise you can try using a program like Soft15khz to generate those resolutions on an ordinary video card.
 
Please let us know how that monitor turns out.  There haven't been any reviews of it that I've seen and it seems like a great MAME cab monitor candidate.  How much was it (they don't even list the price on their site)?

[TeamTEOR]

Well, when it works it looks very nice. On boot up the BIOS screens and start up all looks very clear. The invoice and sticker on both the box and monitor both say BL25C90T. Yes it does that clicking Autosync jazz, but I am only able to get it to stick in 640x480 8bit mode. When I got it to load up Mame32 it looked nice, but the first game I loaded was Street Fighter II and it Blue-Screened on me. I picked it up at my local Betson office on sale for $369. normally $399.

Ok, I'll place the order for the ArcadeVGA card to make it all easy. I am assuming the Multisync patch is something included on CD with the card. Does that card ship from here in the USA or from overseas? I am trying to gauge when I will be able to get it installed. Since I don't want to update the hardware just yet I'll just order up AGP unless I can find a  good motherboard/CPU/fan/RAM combo at a low price, then I'll order up the PCI-E card.

Thank you all for your responses so far.

[ahofle]

Ultimarc is in the UK, but they are very quick with shipping to the US. 
Read these:
http://ultimarc.com/avgainf.html
and
http://ultimarc.com/avgainst.html

The tri-sync patch can be found here (install only after you install the AVGA drivers):
http://ultimarc.com/AVGA_TriSync.exe

[TeamTEOR]

OK, I'll guess it will be about a week and a half assuming customs does not stop it. Also with DHL shipping it can be tracked. I have no doubt that I have only heard good things about Ultimarc. The wait is a good thing since now I have time to work on the CP with the track ball, and I also have a computer monitor to test with meanwhile.

I appreciate the link and info for that stuff. One thing for sure I would not be able to do all of this without the great help here.

[TeamTEOR]

WOW, the ArcadeVGA card just arrived. Talk About Fast!!!!

I killed all of my original ATI 9600 drivers in safemode, and then allowed it to detect the new card, it pulled all of the drivers from the CD without issue. It has been a very easy install. My problem now is getting things setup so that I can set the refresh rates, and stop the blue screens and rebooting that is going on.

I'll start by getting that Tri-Sync patch, avgainst.html, and the avgaing.html files that Ahofle suggested.

Thanks again,
Tom

[TeamTEOR]

Tri-sync patch installed in safe mode fine, and then it was rebooted. I ended up in Windows 640-480 16bit on reboot, with video on both the computer monitor and the Arcade monitor. I opened up a Mame32, set a game to use use 640x480 mode and to my surprise all I needed to do was adjust the pin cushion and size a little. Now after playing the game for 5 mins with a USB controller the whole system went down, and I have no idea why. With the PC idle I killed the power to it, waited about a min and then started it up. I had no video at all, and I could not tell if the computer was really running, the  hard drives didn't do much...

I disconnected the arcade monitor from the vga card, and then shut the power off to everything. I am hoping that there was just a thermal shutdown that happened, and nothing serious, so I am waiting for it all to cool off.

While it was running I did get to snap a pic or two, but there is a lot of glare due to being right in front of a window and having two over hear florescent lights right above. The picture on the monitor was nice & sharp, the brightness was perfect as well, sorry the pictures do not really show this in all its beauty.







 

[TeamTEOR]

I swapped out my ArcadeVGA card for my ATI Radeon 9600, and still no video. However I did connect my wife's laptop to the computer monitor and that did come up online. At this point I am going to assume that the arcade monitor is fine as well, but that something in the computer tower gave way (Ram, or Motherboard). The Post Code on the board is reading FF, so I am not sure if it completely failed somehow. I'll work on it a little more, I'll disconnect all cards (except video), and drives, see if I can get to a BIOS screen. If not I'll grab a really old pc that is sitting here and put the arcade vga card into it to test. If that is fine then I'll have to scrub the AMD 2000+ system I had for this and have to use my old office PC which is an Intel 2Ghz machine.
Tom

[TeamTEOR]

 
Well, what ever it was that happened, not only did it take out the motherboard, but it also took out the ArcadeVGA card as well. I can not get it to display video in two other working systems that I have here.  However using my Radeon 9600 I can get both the SVGA and the Arcade monitor to display video. I will try to contact them, as this must have been a factory defect of some type.

I've heard nothing but good stuff about Ultimarc, so I have no ill feelings about this, it happens.

[ahofle]

Sounds like your computer's power supply bit the dust.

[TeamTEOR]

Well, I'll try to see if it did, however when I placed the ArcadeVGA card into two other working machines there was no video. Swapping it out to the Radeon 9600 gave me video on both monitors.

There was no magic smoke, loud pops, or bad smells. I have never seen a power supply that would provide power to everything, but not the main board.

It happens, not much we can do about it. At least it is under warranty.


*****Update, using my PC/SPS Tester I (Power Supply Tester) it all checks out fine.
Here is a link to the tester I have on hand: http://www.techsunny.com/Techsunny_Aluminum_Power_Supply/YE-PST-I/partinfo-id-3203296.html

[ahofle]

Sorry to hear about that.  Glad you're under warranty though.

[TeamTEOR]

Well, the ArcadeVGA is the only part under warranty. So I need to order up a new Mother Board now and pray my CPU chip didn't die as well.


******Update
Heard from Ultimarc, I'll be shipping the card to them tomorrow.
They are really great people to deal with so far.
Tom

[essence25]

What a nice way to tell them, you just blew up their card and now you're sending it back. LOL

[TeamTEOR]

Well, it was not my fault. I have no idea what happened. I have been a tech for about 15 years, and never have I had any video card go out on me like this. In fact I don't recall ever really having any video card go out on me. It happens, a cap could have gotten jarred in shipping, and after a few mins of use it just gave out.  The thing that sucks here is trying to find a new replacement board for that AMD 2000+ XP Athalon proc. If I am lucky I can find the same board and not have to worry about messing with SATA RAID drivers and stuff. I need to check my old stock of computers, maybe I have something faster sitting around. It is probably better to just scrap the OS and redo things from scratch anyway.

The card has been shipped back, so for now I will work on my CP and get that all ready to go. I really need to place my order for the control panel top, I forgot to get that done with all of the craziness going on around here for Thanksgiving.

Hope you all had a nice day today.
Tom

[TeamTEOR]

I've been rather idle on things since the holidays have been around. I did get my replacement ArcadeVGA2 card from Ultimark hassle free (thanks guys, you rock, and I'll be back for future stuff). So this card was installed, and so far there have been no major problems.

I do wish that this monitor had digital controls that allowed me to adjust all of the settings such as rotation and trapezoid, however things come pretty close so I can't complain too much. Maybe in the future I'll try out one of the Nieman Video Display Monitors that Larry Rosenthal sells here in AZ. I just need to set up the cash for that first.

I need to double check to see if the Tri-Sync patch is installed as that might help me get the video a bit more straight. There is a switch on the adjustment board, I believe it says 75hz 1v or 3v. I am not too sure of what this does, but one thing for sure, I won't be messing with it with the monitor turned on.  Can anyone jump in here with info on that setting?

Another thing that is going to need to be done is that I am going to have to lay the computer down on the bottom of the arcade machine. I am seeing some flickering due to the power supply of the computer being to close to the bottom of the monitor.