Scrolling Monitor Issue

[philip.fuesser]

I have a nieman display arcade monitor:
http://niemandisplays.com/nieman_video_displays_007.htm

I have the new ArcadeVGA 30000 card from Ultimarc:
http://ultimarc.com/avgainf.html

I'm running Win7 32bit.

I've tried using two different computers to see if it was the computer or not but both computers did the same thing.  One did not have the Ultimarc card in it, but both were Win7 32bit.

The monitor displays the pc desktop , but 4 versions of it in a grid, and on top of that the vertical hold is very touch and I cannot get it to stick.    When the PC is booting up and I'm at the BIOS screen, I'm able to get the vertical hold to stick with great effort, but once windows kicks on, the grid (looks like 4 desktops) comes up and the vertical hold goes nuts.

Any suggestions on things I could do to fix this?   This is my first attempt at getting an arcade cabinet together and i've made it pretty far without issues!   I was getting excited haha..

Any help would be appreciated.   I have attached a photo of the screen too.

thank you

Philip Fuesser

[MonMotha]

Check your sync connections and ensure that the PC is running in a mode compatible with the monitor: according to the website, it will do 640x480 at 60Hz but nothing higher.  Windows XP will default to 800x600, and Windows 7 will default to 1024x768 and will also run the "Starting Windows" screen in that resolution.

[philip.fuesser]

I thought the Ultimarc ArcadeVGA card was supposed to fix that?   It does say 640x480 resolution, but maybe the mhz part is higher then 60.  I'll see if I can find out.   

I may try an XP box with the ArcadeVGA 3000 card as well and see if that makes a difference.

Any other thoughts?

[MonMotha]

The ArcadeVGA is supposed to dump everything out at CGA timings unless you tell it otherwise, but I have no idea if it works properly on Windows 7.

[philip.fuesser]

do you think I should try XP as well?

[MonMotha]

XP seems to be what most people use that card with.  You'll want to install the "trisync utility" so you can have progressive 640x480 which will flicker less.

To just get something usable on that monitor, you don't need to do anything special.  Just set Windows to 640x480 at 60Hz.  As that resolution is so low that some Windows dialogs don't fit on the screen, it's hidden by default, but you can find it under the "Advanced" options in the "List All Modes" dialog.

[philip.fuesser]

hmm..  even the BIOS screen flickers pretty bad though and seems to have a double image.    Is that normal?   With a decent amount of effort i can get it to stay still barely but still has a double image a little and isn't aligned correctly.

I'm afraid the issue will remain after installing XP too

What other types of things would cause something like this?

[MonMotha]

Well, given that your monitor (assuming it's what you linked to) should handle BOTH the "standard res" timings that the ArcadeVGA is supposed to use to make things "just work" with a typical fixed frequency arcade monitor AND the VGA timings that the BIOS startup screens (note: NOT the Windows 7 "starting up" screen) would normally use, I don't know what to tell you other than to check your wiring to make sure your sync signals are properly connected.

Also, try a video card OTHER THAN the ArcadeVGA.

If you can adjust the vertical or horizontal hold controls and get a satisfactory but still slightly rolling image, you don't have a sync line hooked up.  If you still have a double or otherwise messed up image, the monitor doesn't support the mode you're feeding it.

[philip.fuesser]

i got it to stop scrolling by reinstalling the drivers for the arcadgevga video adapter

this time i picked "standard arcade monitor"  instead of one of the multifrequency monitor settings in the Tri-Sync utility provided by arcadevga

if i pick one of the multisync settings it freaks out again

sticking with the standard arcade setting seems to work

it scrolls at the dell bios screen, but once windows loads it's fine

Hey I really appreciate your help and your insight

[MonMotha]

Hum, sounds like you do NOT have a multisync (or at least not one that will do VGA), then.  Sounds like it does standard res just fine, though I thought that the ArcadeVGA was supposed to make the BIOS screens and such show up in standard res, too.  Oh well, as long as it's working for you.