Fitting a ViewFinder Graphics Card
to a RISC PC

Click on an image to enlarge
A most essential upgrade to any RISC-PC or A7000, a ViewFinder Graphics Card.
The ViewFinder utilises a modern AGP graphics card, in this case an ATI RADEON 9200SE 128Mb with Duel Head Capacity and TV out.
A view of the "output" side of the podule. Strangely the "primary" VGA output is via the small lenght of ribbon cable. The secondary output is via the "D" connector after fitting the little adaptor shown in the above image. The TV out, is the round connector to the right.
A view of the "Podule" with the graphics card removed. Minor quibble, no instructions for fitting are supplied!, they are in electronic form onboard "this" podule and accessed from the desktop. Im glad RISC OS hardware is so easy to install ie just plug it in and it works!!
A front view of the ATI card.
Rear view of the ATI card.
I have located a vacant podule slot, removed the blanking plate, installed the card and secured it in place. These cards use DMA, so make sure it is located on one of the two lower slots (easy on a single slice machine, but on a duel slice make sure its down low for best performance).
Rear view of the installation. I have fitted the card to the second slot as it will not fit the lower, due to the card fouling part of the case (internal). Not a real problem, the case could be modified if needed. Also the only other card I will be fitting in the future is a faster IDE card.
A view of the machine up and running at 1024x768. The card will go upto 1600 if required.

NOTE to potential ViewFinder users.
I found that I had difficulty in making the Viewfinder boot up in my desired screen
resolution ie 1024x768. It kept defaulting to 800x600. This can be cured by setting
the resolution in the predesk file. It will also set the resolution of you disable Viewfinder
and use the standard VGA output.

So, in your !Boot.Choices.Users.Single.Boot.Predesk edit the Wimpmode file, you will
need to Unprotect it first.
Change the line: WimpMode X1280 Y1024 C256 (or whatever it reads)
to;
If "ViewFinder$Enable>"="1" Then WimpMode V X1024 Y768 C32K F80 Else WimpMode X1024 Y768 C256

Basically this mean's, If ViewFinder is Enabled it will display 1024x768 in 32 Thousand Colours at 80 Hz
and if it detects that it is Disabled it will display 1024x768 in 256 Colours out the standard VGA output.

These figures can be edited to suite you own personal favourite resolution.

SAVE the newly edited Wimpmode file. Re_PROTECT it! otherwise it can get overwritten,
then Re-Boot and enjoy a superb display.


Home