The Sinclair QL Forum

No QL modes? Mine has the resolutions and "display colours".

MenuConfig_INF can save your settings so the next time a new SMSQ/E binary comes along you can just say "update the exe with my settings". It's not required, just convenience.

mk79 wrote: MenuConfig_INF can save your settings so the next time a new SMSQ/E binary comes along you can just say "update the exe with my settings". It's not required, just convenience.

Gotcha. I have at least sorted the mouse out now! DOS was fine with the USB mouse, but the QXL wasn't. As I didn't have a mouse PS/2 port I am now using a PS/2 mouse with adapter to 9pin D, and that works in Dos, QXL and of course Windows 98. Perfect.

mk79 wrote:No QL modes? Mine has the resolutions and "display colours".

For Display Colours I just get either QL or High Colour 16 bit. For Display size I have 0. QL, 1.VGA, 2. SVGA and 3. XVGA.

All seem quite slow and if I chose QL for colours I don't get the fancy icons at all. Is there a middle way?

Oh and your boot file has a few machine types listed and then displays the machine type.... it doesn't have type '28' for the QXL card, so you should change that for the many the QXL users out there

Hi,

I have had many QXL Cards, with the standard Miracle Systems 68EC040 CPU running at 2Mhz and the QXLII running at 25Mhz.

I also fitted a 68RC040 to the QXLII, which gave it an internal CPU based FPU.

I only have used the SMSQ or SMSQ/E QXL application from DOS, not Windows.

Never really used the High Colour version of SMS/E for the QXL, it always seemed too slow.

I have a QXLII running on a K6-2 500Mhz PC, 768 Mb Ram, SMSQ/E only running OK in DOS or Windows 95... But do not need Windows.

I did have an idea of a 68060 CPU board for the QXLII, but this has been on hold for a while.

Chr$ wrote:All seem quite slow and if I chose QL for colours I don't get the fancy icons at all. Is there a middle way?

No, I developed the 8-bit mode driver well after the time that the QXL was already dead. QPC is better in every single way, so there was really not much of a point.

Oh and your boot file has a few machine types listed and then displays the machine type.... it doesn't have type '28' for the QXL card, so you should change that for the many the QXL users out there

Good one

Cheers

Derek_Stewart wrote:Hi,
Never really used the High Colour version of SMS/E for the QXL, it always seemed too slow.

Yes, certainly seems that way. I suppose I could easily create 2 exe versions configured for different colours/screens and use the same qxl.win for both.

My host PC is a Celeron 1.2Ghz CPU with (as of today) 512Mb Ram, which I think is probably about as high spec as you can get for a PC with an ISA slot! I always start the QXL from DOS 6.22. I find I can also start it from Windows 98 but it seems to play around with the screen resolution and you don't seem to be able to get back in to Windows with ctrl+scroll - it locks up on the Re-starting Windows screen, so it's a bit messy. In fact even from DOS when I try to go back to DOS I sometimes just get a screen with some coloured dots at the top that stretch down whenever you press anything (but from there ctrl+alt+delete works to restart the PC).

It's all just a bit of an experiment and I'm pleased to have found a QXL card at all, purely by chance and from someone within Germany (it's the QXLII with the 25Mhz CPU).

mk79 wrote:No, I developed the 8-bit mode driver well after the time that the QXL was already dead. QPC is better in every single way, so there was really not much of a point.

Wait, the QXL is dead???

I did want to try QPC2 on the same PC from Win98 but it doesn't let me. It chucks up this:
Could it be that QPC2 cannot run on Win9X systems that have a QXL card installed?

Well, that just means that the generated installer is not Win98 compatible. This version of QPC2 should actually still be Win98 compatible, at least the code is, though it’s possible that compiler I used for the later versions is not, I‘m not sure. You
could try installing it on another PC and just copy the files over if you want to try it Installation is not really needed.

BTW, DISP_MODE switches between the colour modes you don‘t need differently configured smsqe.exe files.

Thanks to Marcel, Tobias and Derek for the assistance here.

One last QXL thing on my mind: My BBQL prints through SER1 and has an original QL printer attached to it. It's a German QL so has a decent 9 pin D connector (same type that will directly fit COM2 of host PC). Looking at the QXL manual text file I read that the QXL only 'sees' COM1 and COM2 and that the SER2 is disabled by default to allow mouse use through there. My mouse is in COM1 so I was hoping to plug the printer into COM2. Can I use the mouse in COM1 and print from COM2, and is the pinout the same? If so, how to I configure that? I get a bit lost on serial ports (and a lot of other stuff).

Oh, and Marcel, I copied the QPC2 files over from the 'install' directory on Win10 to somewhere on Win98 and it gives the exact same errors. Not the end of the world though, just saying.

TIt's a German QL so has a decent 9 pin D connector (same type that will directly fit COM2 of host PC).

It will fit, but the pinout is different.

Can I use the mouse in COM1 and print from COM2, and is the pinout the same?

German QL serial port has similar pinout as Sinclair ZX Interface 1.
You cannot connect devices with this pinout directly to the PC!

If so, how to I configure that?

Make a converter.

Can I use the mouse in COM1 and print from COM2

Why not simply use the SMSQ/E as it comes pre-confugured., i.e. mouse in COM2 and printer in COM1 (SER1_)?
Otherwise You must change configuration.