I have an old 386 that runs a very efficient DOS program that answers thousands of phone calls every week. You don't see a DOS command line on screen, a voicemail program runs on top of DOS and has its own screens of charactors, no color, just black and white. The monitor went out. I bought a used monitor and the seller said you don't have to bring the machine down, just plug in the monitor on the video card on the back of the machine and turn the monitor on. I did so, but see colored stripes across the screen with the voicemail program charactors there against it. And I can't change the screen by entering certain keystrokes from the keyboard. Can somebody please help, this machine is vital to my little business and I don't know anyone who knows much about DOS. Thanks in advance.

What kind of monitor does it use? CGA, EGA, or VGA?

The monitor that went out after three or four years of being on 24/7 was a CTX 14", model CUP-5468A. Nowhere on that monitor does it say whether it's CGA, EGA, or VGA. The first used monitor I got to replace it was VGA, according to the used monitor label on it. When that gave the color stripes problem, I called that day and the used computer store said come back and swap it out for another monitor. If that monitor still has the color stripes problem, then it's probably my video card they said. I did go back and swap it out for another monitor, this one said it was SVGA on the sticker. It also has the color stripes problem. Thanks for your assistance.

Isa video cards are not hard to find. Check the salvation army, thrift stores or computer surplus stores in your area. I saw one at the thrift store last week for $1.00. No big deal, there easy to find.

Your old CTX monitor (I have one just like it on an old machine) is a standard SVGA monitor, so almost any SVGA monitor should work. Often, when unplugging the monitor and plugging one back in, can cause problems with the monitor and video card setup. They must be initialized again. The only way to do this is to power off both the monitor and the system, then reboot and restart the whole system.

Hey Jack G, I did what you said re power off monitor and system. Now nothing on the screen! So I took the SVGA monitor from this machine and swapped it out with the replacement monitor from the DOS machine. The monitor is now working fine on this machine, but the monitor that was working fine on this machine is now just sitting blank on my DOS machine. Got any ideas, if that DOS machine isn't functioning by 6:00 AM tomorrow morning, My little business is out of business! Anyone on line now with an answer or wanting to help, Please call me, Don Erickson, collect at 314-781-8888 ASAP. I do have a 5 or 6 year old machine with a simple video card in it, I could pull it and stick it in the DOS Machine, would that at least put the DOS prompt on the monitor I know is a good monitor??? Thanks for any help anyone can provide immediately.

Princess nailed it.

sounds like a video card problem --try a replacement

The machine may not be vital to your business, but some of the hardware and software are clearly vital -- for example the harddrive can run dos on virtually any machine --I have Dos running in P4 and AMD 1800.

Think about cloning the harddrive and upgrading.

For the record, a SVGA monitor can display output from a VGA card.

A VGA monitor MAY not display output from a SVGA card.

You say you have a 386. The timeline suggests the video card in your PC could be VGA or SVGA.

What other hardware (that is critical for your voicemail software) is in this old PC? That may have to be moved, also.

The problem that arises now is that all your old hardware may be ISA, where (brand) new PC Motherboards may come with only one ISA slot.

If you cannot obtain a replacement videocard, I suggest this approach. I assume the hard disk that is installed in the 386 is IDE (or EIDE). If so, I'd find myself an old Pentium 1, 486, whatever - all you need is a PC with a processor, memory, video card, and slots for the hardware for your VoiceMail program. Take the hard disk out of the 386, and put it in the *new* machine. Be sure to remove the hard disk that is in it, and enter the CMOS and tell it to AUTO detect the primary master hard disk. Then check to make sure that all the hardware (that you moved over) has settings whch are correct (as this is a different PC, the IRQs and such may need to be changed). It should be a simple operation.

Let us know how everything turns out.

-Doug