VGA hardware survey (V9XSURV) — build d746481
This is not the driver. If you have a supported S3 card, you want the v0.3 driver release instead.
V9XSURV.EXE is a real-mode DOS tool for owners of cards Velocity9x does not support. It collects what writing a chipset backend requires: PCI identifiers and full configuration space, the video BIOS, the VBE mode list, your monitor's EDID, and the raw VGA register file. Run it, send back the report, and the card becomes something that can actually be worked on.
It is versioned separately from the driver on purpose — the tool moves at its own pace and is not tied to a driver version.
Running it
Boot to real DOS for the best result — in Windows 98: Start → Shut Down → Restart in MS-DOS mode, or boot a DOS floppy. Then:
V9XSURV
Answer the one question it asks, and send back the file it names at the end — normally C:\V9XSURV.INI. A DOS box inside Windows also works and still produces a useful report; it just cannot see as much.
Useful switches:
| Switch | Effect |
|---|---|
/rom |
also dump the complete video BIOS image — several times larger, but the best way to identify an unusual card. Please use it if asked. |
/tier2 / /notier2 |
answer the question up front instead of being prompted |
/out:A:\V9XSURV.INI |
write the report elsewhere, e.g. a floppy on a machine with no spare disk |
/? |
list the options |
What it touches
It reads. It does not change your video mode, install anything, or leave anything behind on the card. The only file it creates is the report.
The one exception is the opt-in vendor probe it asks about partway through: it writes the documented unlock keys for your chipset family, reads the registers behind them, and restores the originals. That is where video memory size, clock settings and aperture layout come from, so say yes if you can. It is dispatched on PCI vendor ID, so an unfamiliar card is never poked speculatively — currently S3 (5333) and Cirrus Logic (1013); every other vendor gets a section explaining why there is no probe. If Windows is running, the tool will recommend declining — take its advice. Declining is fine either way: the main report is closed on disk before the question is asked, so you lose only that section.
If the machine stops responding, power-cycle it — nothing the survey does survives a reboot. Then re-run with /notier2 and send that report along with a note saying which card is fitted. Knowing which card wedged the vendor probe is itself useful.
Privacy
The report is plain text — open it in any editor and read it before you send it. It holds hardware identifiers and register values only: no filenames, no machine serial numbers, no personal information. The one identifier belonging to a physical object is your monitor's EDID, which carries the monitor's model and its factory serial number. Delete the [EDID] section if you would rather not share it; everything else still parses.
Verifying the download
SHA256 A531DF920F0F23BD7A6AB0F6E3DA8E29D2594957D3495C43E8A559EE7347BF05 V9XSURV.EXE
Built from d746481 with Open Watcom via scripts/build-vga-survey.ps1, from tools/diag/vga_survey_dos.c. The build fails if the PCI write functions (B10Bh/B10Ch/B10Dh), VBE set-mode (4F02h) or the VBE OEM extension (4F14h) ever appear in the source, so the query-only guarantee is enforced at build time rather than by review.
The report format, safety tiers and per-vendor probe support are specified in docs/specifications/vga-survey.md. Reports are decoded host-side by scripts/parse-vga-survey.ps1.