From: marcov@stack.nl   
      
   On 2005-04-19, Ulrich Diez  wrote:   
      
   >> Note that this does not work on all computers. Especially the new ones   
   >> where old DOS biossing is often neglected.   
   >> It will also not work in protected mode.   
   >   
   > I know that reading from the BIOS data area directly does not   
   > work from within protected mode as in protected-mode   
   > memory-paging is used instead of direct segment:offset-addressing.   
      
   > But what's about computers where "old DOS biossing is often   
   > neglected" ? What does this mean? (If a machine neglects "old   
   > DOS biossing" - is it possible at all to boot it up (e.g. via bootdisk)   
   > with some real-mode MS-DOS ?)   
      
   She meant that a lot of videocards of the Windows era have faulty VESA2   
   bioses, don't update the bios data area or even have wrong plain INT 10h   
   calls. And she is right.   
      
   If you require VGA, the best way to my knowledge is simply calling the int   
   with the VGA info record. It is the way that delivers the most reliable   
   info.   
      
   Personally, I had problems with several cards that didn't update the   
   number of lines to the bios data area correctly, even in win95-98 days,   
   and solved it by switching to the INT call.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)