Trident 3DImage985 User manual

i
3DImàge985
AGP
High Performance 3D/2D
GUI/Video Accelerator
User’s Guide

i
NOTICE
The information in this document is subject to change in order to improve
reliability, design, or function without prior notice and does not represent a
commitment on the part of the company. In no event will the company be
liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages
arising out of the use or the inability to use the product or documentation,
even if advised of the possibility of such damages. No part of this manual
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the
prior written permission of the company.
October 1997, Rev A
LIMITED WARRANTY
This product is warranted against defects in materials and workmanship
for a period of one year from the date of purchase. During the warranty
period, product determined by us to be defective in form or function will be
repaired or, at our option, replaced at no charge. This warranty does not
apply if the product has been damaged by accident, abuse, misuse, or as a
result of service or modification other than by the company.
This warranty is in lieu of any other warranty expressed or implied. In no
event shall the company be held liable for incidental or consequential
damages, such as lost revenue or lost business opportunities arising from
the purchase of this product.

ii
TRADEMARK ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Trident Microsystems, Inc. 1997. All rights reserved.
Trident Microsystems, Inc. 3DImàge985™User’s Guide
Trident Microsystems, Inc. assumes no responsibility for the use of any circuit other than circuits embodied in an
Trident Microsystems, Inc. product. No other circuit patent licenses are implied.
AutoCAD and Autoshade are trademarks of Autodesk, Inc.
IBM is a registered trademark and PS/2 and OS/2 are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp.
Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, and Microsoft Word are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp.
Pentium is a trademark of Intel Corp.
RAMDAC is a trademark of Brooktree Corporation.
3DImàge985 and TVGA are registered trademarks of Trident Microsystems, Inc.
VESA is a trademark of Video Electronics Standards Association.
All other product names or trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Copyright protection claimed includes all forms and matters of copyrightable material and information now
allowed by statutory or judicial law or hereinaffer granted, including without limitation, material generated from
the software programs which are displayed on the screen such as icons, screen display looks, etc. Reproduction
or disassembly of embedded computer programs or algorithms prohibited.

iii
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................3
1.1 COMPATIBILITY ......................................................................... 3
1.2 CHECK LIST............................................................................... 3
1.3 FEATURES.................................................................................. 4
1.3.1 Resolution and Color Selection ......................................... 4
1.3.2 3D and 2D GUI Accelerator.............................................. 5
1.3.3 VESA DPMS and VESA DDC2B supported ....................... 5
1.3.4 Software MPEG Video Playback ....................................... 5
1.3.5 Virtual Screen ................................................................... 5
1.3.6 DCI and DirectDraw Supported ........................................ 6
1.3.7 Live Video Capture............................................................ 6
1.3.8 TV Out (Optional).............................................................. 6
2. ADAPTER INSTALLATION ........................................................7
2.1 ADAPTER LAYOUT ..................................................................... 7
2.2 INSTALLATION PROCEDURES....................................................... 8
2.3 CONNECTING THE DISPLAY AND OPTIONAL TV ........................... 9
3. UTILITIES AND DRIVERS INSTALLATION.......................... 10
3.1 MICROSOFT WINDOWS............................................................. 10
3.1.1 Microsoft Windows 95 Driver Installation from CD......... 10
3.1.2 Microsoft Windows 95 Driver Installation from Diskette .10
3.1.3 Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Driver Installation................. 16
3.1.4 Microsoft Windows 3.1x Driver Installation..................... 17
3.2 LIVE VIDEO CAPTURE DRIVER .................................................. 23
3.3 OS/2 DRIVER INSTALLATION.................................................... 33
3.3.1 Displaying or Changing Screen Resolution ..................... 33
3.3.2 Screen Resolution Configuration Procedure.................... 35
3.4 DOS UTILITIES........................................................................ 37
3.5 OPTIONAL TV OUT.................................................................. 41
4. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)........................... 43
5. TROUBLESHOOTING............................................................... 47
6. APPENDIX A: VIDEO MODE TABLE...................................... 48
7. APPENDIX B: PINOUT AND SYNC FREQUENCIES.............. 53

iv
7.1 ANALOG COLOR DISPLAY PINOUTS........................................... 53
7.2 CONVERSION TABLE: PIN ADAPTERS ....................................... 54
7.3 ANALOG VIDEO SIGNALS.......................................................... 54
8. APPENDIX C: FCC COMPLIANCE STATEMENT ................ 55
8.1 FCC WARNING........................................................................ 55

1
Expert Installation
The information contained in the Expert Installation section is only for
“Expert”who have had prior experience in installation of a display card
and its drivers. Please skip this entire section and read through the rest of
this user’s guide if installation of a display card and its drivers is not
familiar to you.
If your display card came with a “Display Driver CD”, please follow the
information contained in the README file located in the root directory of
the Display Driver CD for driver installation information.
If your display card came with a set of Display Driver and Utility diskettes,
please follow the information stated below for quick driver installation
information.
Windows 95 Display Driver Installation
1. ENSURE that MS Windows 95 is up and running properly.
2. INSERT the Drivers & Utilities Diskette # 2 into your floppy
drive A.
3. POSITION the mouse cursor in the wall paper area of your
Windows 95 desktop and then press the right mouse button.
4. SELECT the "Properties" selection bar.
5. SELECT the "Settings" page inside of Display Properties
windows.
6. SELECT either the “Change Display Type”or the “Advanced
Properties”selection bar, and then SELECT the “Change”
button next to Adapter Type.
7. On the “Select Device”page, SELECT the “Have Disk”button.
8. SELECT the “Browse”button to browse the directory
“A:\WIN95”of your diskette drive.
9. SELECT “OK”to start installing the driver files from the
diskette drive.
10. SELECT “OK”button to close the “SELECT DEVICE”
window.
11. CLOSE the Display Properties window and Windows 95 will
prompt you to restart Windows 95.
12. Windows 95 will be using the Trident accelerated driver once
it’s re-started.

2
Windows NT 4.0 Display Driver Installation
1. SELECT the "Display" icon in control panel and then SELECT
the "Settings" page.
2. SELECT "Display Type..." button in the "Settings" page.
3. SELECT "Change..." button from the Adapter type section.
4. SELECT "Have Disk..." button from the Change Display page.
5. Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 will prompt you for the correct path
where the Trident drivers are located. ENTER the path
"A:\NT40" after you have inserted the Drivers & Utilities
Diskette # 3 into your floppy drive A.
6. If the driver "Trident Video Accelerator" is listed under the
Display list, SELECT the "OK" button to continue.
7. Once the driver files are copied, RESTART Microsoft Windows
NT 4.0 for the changes to take effect.
8. SELECT the desired color palette (the number of colors),
desktop area (resolution), and refresh frequency in the settings
page of Display Properties and then SELECT the "Test" button
in the same page to determine whether your selection works
properly. SELECT "Apply" to active the selected mode.

3
1. Introduction
Thank you for purchasing this 3DImàge985 3D/2D Graphical User
Interface (GUI) accelerator adapter that supports 133MHz AGP with
sidebands and pipelining. This adapter works with Accelerated Graphics
Port (AGP) bus of your system to bring you high resolution, true color
capability, high performance, and compatibility with most software and
hardware.
1.1 Compatibility
þThis 3D/2D Graphical User Interface (GUI) accelerator adapter is
IBM VGA compatible on BIOS, register, and hardware. This adapter
works only with a Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) bus slot.
1.2 Check List
The package you have purchased should contain the following:
þTrident 3DImàge985 AGP 3D/2D GUI Accelerator Adapter Card
þ3D Games sampler CD
þOne Windows 3.x Driver Diskette
þOne Driver Diskette with Windows 95 driver.
þOne Driver Diskette with Windows NT 3.5/4.0 driver
þOne Driver Diskette with DOS applications driver
þOne Live-Video Capture AVI Driver Diskette (Optional)
þOne Display Drivers and Utilities CD (Optional and replaces the
above five diskettes)
þOne Software MPEG Player Diskette (Optional)
þOne OS/2 Warp Driver Diskette (Optional)
þS-Video television output cable (Optional)
þ3DImàge985 User's Guide
If any of these items are missing or damaged, contact your dealer.
Important: Keep all packaging materials that accompany your adapter in
the event you need to return the product.

4
1.3 Features
þSupports up to 133MHz AGP with sidebands and pipelining.
þSupports PCI 2.1 specification including 66MHz operations.
þSupports extensive high-performance 3D functionality.
þAccelerates the most frequently used 2D GUI/video operations
þSupports up to 1600x1200x64k Hi-colors mode using 4MB of
SGRAM on board. Supports up to 1024x768x64k Hi-colors mode
using 2MB of video memory.
þSupports VESA Display Power management Signaling (DPMS) and
VESA DDC 2b standards available on most of the VGA, SVGA and
multisync monitor.
þSoftware MPEG playback or live video capture capable.
þOptional connection to NTSC or PAL standard television through a
standard composite video jack or S-video jack.
þSupports the standard IBM Feature Connector (FC) and Video Module
Interface (VMI) Host Connector for sending graphics data to an add-
on video controller
þContains drivers for the most popular operating systems and software
available today
1.3.1 RESOLUTION AND COLOR SELECTION
þSupports up to 1024x768 in 16, 256, 32K, 64K and 16M colors non-
interlaced
þSupports 1280x1024 in 16, 256, 32K and 64K colors non-interlaced
þSupports 1600x1200 in 16, 256, 32K and 64K colors non-interlaced
þ80 column text modes in 30, 43 and 60 rows
þ132 column text modes in 25, 30, 43 and 60 rows

5
1.3.2 3D AND 2D GUI ACCELERATOR
Accelerates the most frequently used 2D functions in today’s graphics-
intensive environments plus complete 3D GUI acceleration:
þComplete 3D primitive support
þTexture mapping
þGouraud Shading for smooth shading
þAlpha blending for transparency effects
þFog
þZ-buffering at 16/32 bit-per-pixel
þPage flipping for double and triple buffering for smooth animation
effects
1.3.3 VESA DPMS AND VESA DDC2B SUPPORTED
Supports VESA Display Power management Signaling (DPMS) which
decreases energy consumption when used with a monitor that meets the
VESA standards for power management. Supports VESA DDC 2b
standards for automatically selecting the correct display setup on a monitor
that meets the VESA DDC standard.
1.3.4 SOFTWARE MPEG VIDEO PLAYBACK
Full-motion software MPEG video playback through 3DImàge985’s fast
video accelerator is available with the installation of a software MPEG
player.
1.3.5 VIRTUAL SCREEN
The Virtual Screen features takes advantage of un-used display memory by
expanding the display area into the off-screen area; this feature allows the
user to make effective use of a display screen larger than the standard
640x480, 800x600 or 1024x768 resolutions.

6
1.3.6 DCI AND DIRECTDRAW SUPPORTED
Supports DCI for Windows 3.1x and DirectDraw for Windows 95 for
enhancement of display quality and playback performance during software
MPEG video playback. Both DCI for Windows 3.1x and DirectDraw for
Windows 95 are memory manger for video memory. Using such memory
manager for video manger, a program can manipulate video memory with
ease, taking full advantage of the blitting and color decompressing
capabilities of 3DImàge985’s video hardware.
1.3.7 LIVE VIDEO CAPTURE
Live video capture is the process of accepting video data from an outside
source and writing it to the frame buffer from where it can be displayed or
stored. This process is supported by 3DImàge985 through the Feature
Connector and the Video Module Interface(VMI) Host Connector.
1.3.8 TV OUT (OPTIONAL)
The 3DImàge985 is capable of displaying all standard and some extended
VGA video modes on an NTSC or PAL TV. Resolutions up to 720x480
can be displayed on NTSC TV’s; resolutions up to 800x600 can be
displayed on PAL TV’s. Extra features are built-in to reduce line
flickering and to vertically scale the image for TV display.

7
2. Adapter Installation
2.1 Adapter Layout
Composite
TV Out
S-video
TV Out
VGA
Out
CON4
CON5
VGA
BIOS
U9
U4
U3
Feature
Connector
VMI
Connector
256Kx32
SGRAM
256Kx32
SGRAM
3DIm
àg
e9850
256x32
SGRAM
256x32
SGRAM
Figure 2-1. 3DImàge985 AGP card with Output to TV

8
2.2 Installation Procedures
To install the adapter into your system, follow these steps:
1. Turn OFF all power to your system, including any peripherals
(printer, external drives, modem, etc.).
2. Disconnect the power cord and the monitor cable from the back of
the computer.
3. Unfasten the cover mounting screws on your system and remove
the system cover. Refer to your system user manual for
instructions and to determine the location of the mounting screws.
4. Remove any graphics adapter that already exists on your
motherboard. Start by removing the screw that holds the adapter
retaining bracket in place (keep this screw, you will need it later).
Then, gently pull straight up on the adapter card itself, and
remove it from the motherboard.
5. If appropriate, you can use the expansion slot left vacant by the
existing graphics adapter you just removed. Otherwise, select an
appropriate AGP bus expansion slot for the new adapter. Refer to
your computer system manual for the location of the AGP bus
expansion slots. Remove the retaining screw that holds the slot
cover in place. Slide the slot cover out and put the screw aside
(you will need it to secure the adapter).
If you just removed an existing graphics adapter and are not going
to use that expansion slot, you can install the slot cover you just
removed from the unused expansion slot to cover the open hole.
6. Install the adapter. To install the adapter in the selected
expansion slot, carefully line up the gold-fingered edge connector
on the adapter directly above the expansion slot connector on the
motherboard. Then press the adapter into place, completely,
using only as much pressure as is safely necessary. DO NOT USE
excessive force. Use the (remaining) screw you removed to secure
the adapter retaining bracket in place.
7. Replace the computer cover. Secure the cover with the mounting
screws you removed in Step 3.
You have now completed the installation of your new graphics adapter on
your system. Before you use the system, however, please refer to the
following sections, “Connecting the Display”.

9
2.3 Connecting the Display and Optional TV
Fan Power Keyboard
Speaker Output Jack
(Sound Card) Composite
TV Connector S-Video TV Connector
VGA
Connector
S-Video Input
(optional)
Composite
Video Input
(optional)
Audio
Input
(optional)
Color
Monitor
Television Set
3
3
1
2
Back of Computer
1. The adapter offers a standard VGA 15-pin analog connector. When
you connect your monitor to the adapter, be sure you have the right
cable and cable connector. Fixed-frequency analog monitors come
equipped with a 15-pin connector. Variable frequency analog or
analog/digital monitors may require a 9-to-15 pin cable connector.
2. If your system is equipped with a sound board, you can also connect a
Y-cable for speaker (single male mini stereo phono jack to double
male RCA jack) from the Speaker-Out jack of the sound board to the
Audio-In jack on your television set.
3. For optional TV connection, please check the back of your TV or VCR
for the presence of a S-Video connector. If such a connector is present,
you will need a S-Video cable to connect S-Video TV-Out on the
adapter to S-Video In on the TV or VCR. If such a connector is not
available, a RCA video cable is needed to connect Composite TV-Out
on the adapter to Composite Video In on the TV or VCR. S-Video
connection is recommended since it provides a higher quality display.

10
3. Utilities and Drivers Installation
3.1 Microsoft Windows
3.1.1 MICROSOFT WINDOWS 95 DRIVER INSTALLATION FROM CD
1. ENSURE that MS Windows 95 is up and running properly
using the Trident SVGA driver that it has detected.
2. Insert the Trident Display Driver CD into your CD-ROM
drive.
3. SELECT your CD-ROM drive or TYPE in X:\SETUP (X is
the letter of your CD-ROM drive) under Start…Run of the
task bar for the Trident Display Driver CD Setup menu.
4. SELECT the "Installation" selection bar to install Windows
95 Display Driver.
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to finish Trident display
driver installation.
6. Restart Windows 95 to complete installation.
3.1.2 MICROSOFT WINDOWS 95DRIVER INSTALLATION FROM DISKETTE
1. ENSURE that MS Windows 95 is up and running properly
using the Trident SVGA driver that it has detected.
2. OPEN the “My Computer”program group and SELECT the
“Control Panel”icon as shown in Figure 3-1.
Figure 3-1.

11
3. SELECT the “Display”icon and then SELECT the “Settings”
page (refer to Figure 3-2).
Figure 3-2.

12
4. SELECT either the “Change Display Type”or the “Advanced
Properties”selection bar, and then SELECT the “Change”
button next to Adapter Type (refer to Figure 3-3).
Figure 3-3.
5. On the “Select Device”page, SELECT the “Have Disk”
button to install the Trident display driver from Disk 2 of the
Drivers and Utilities diskette (refer to Figure 3-4).
Figure 3-4.

13
6. After the “Have Disk”button is selected, an “Install From
Disk”window will appear. SELECT the “Browse”button to
browse the directory “X:\WIN95”of your diskette drive where
X: stands for the drive letter of your diskette drive in your
system (refer to Figure 3-5).
Figure 3-5.
7. Once in this directory, the file TRIDENT.INF will appear
under file name list. SELECT “OK”to return to the “Install
From Disk”window (see Figure 3-6). Under the statement
“Copy manufacturer’s files from”, the line X:\WIN95 should
appear. SELECT “OK”to start installing the driver files from
the diskette drive.
Figure 3-6.

14
8. After the files have been copied from the diskette drive to the
hard drive, a “Select device”window will appear as shown in
Figure 3-7. Under Models, the line “Trident Imàge 985
(AGP v21xx)”will now be listed.
Figure 3-7.

15
9. SELECT the “OK”button to close the “Select Device”
window and to select the “Color Palette”, “Desktop Area”,
and “Refresh Rate”of your choice under the Trident
accelerated driver (refer to Figure 3-8).
Figure 3-8.
Once the desired color palette (the number of colors), desktop area
(resolution) and refresh rate have been chosen, the Windows 95
system will be re-started using the Trident accelerated driver.