Using VESA video graphics with products from

If you try to run any of our SVGA "P11" programs and you get Error Code #7721, it usually means that you don't have a VESA video driver. In some cases error codes #7000 up to #7099 may also be removed by installing a VESA video driver.

There are basically four solutions which are described below:
• First: Use the original video card manufacturers' VESA software. It probably came on an accompanying disk when you bought the card.
• Second: Contact the VESA organization's own web site for more information. The web address is given below.
• Third: Buy a new SVGA video card! Preferably one that supports VESA in hardware.
• Fourth: Use the software driver we supply, called UNIVESA, or one like it.

Use the original video card manufacturers' VESA software

If they did not supply a driver on diskette with the card, they may have a BBS or support area on AOL or Compuserve, or on the Internet, where you can download their software.

Contacting VESA (Video Electronics Standards Assocation)

Buy a new SVGA video card!

Use the software driver called UNIVESA

On most products we ship, and in our online software download area, we include a copy of UNIVESA, which is a copyrighted, freely distributed software program that emulates VESA. This driver, and how to install it, is described below.

Download this program now!

UNIVESA is a TSR (Terminate, Stay Resident) program. This means that to remove it after you have installed it, you need to reboot the computer. UNIVESA only takes a couple of thousand bytes (K) so it's usually not necessary to remove it at all, and it checks to see if it is already installed before it installs itself and won't reinstall.

So, that's the downside of UNIVESA--you can't uninstall it except by rebooting. Usually, it's not any problem. The advantage is that is has been reported to be one of the fastest drivers around, better indeed that most manufacturer's own drivers! And it seems to be well written, though since it's not something we wrote, we can't promise anything. Please use it at your own risk.

To install UNIVESA, first you need to find it, and then unzip it. It is located on the original installation disks on most of our software products, and in the download areas of our support forums on AOL, Compuserve, and on the Internet. On our CD-ROMs it is located in the directory UNIVESA. The file is called UVESA32.ZIP. (There may be a UVESA34.ZIP available somewhere, but we haven't found it and are unsure. We supply UVESA32.ZIP at this time.)

To unzip UNIVESA, use PKUNZIP or some other unzipping tool. Three files will be created, UNIVESA.EXE, UNIVESA.DOC, and COPYRIGH.

Here is the command you can use to unzip UVESA32.ZIP:
PKUNZIP.EXE UVESA32.ZIP C:\P11
This example would put it on the C: drive in a directory called P11. You can place it in any directory.

Next, you will need to read the documentation and copyright notice for UNIVESA since these are important to its proper use.

To add UNIVESA to our programs so that it is loaded (if not already loaded) when you run our programs, you need to add a command to one of our batch files. I will use ALL ABOUT PUMPS as an example of how to do that. (Note: ALL ABOUT PUMPS is no longer available in this format. Itt is now a FLASH MX-based program. (2003).)

You can add the following command:
C:\P11\UNIVESA.EXE
to any P11 batch file by simply editing the batch file. If the file is on a CD-ROM, however it cannot be saved to disk since they are "Read Only". In that case, simply create a two-line "batch file". The first line runs UNIVESA and the second line calls the batch file on the CD-ROM. For example, for the ALL ABOUT PUMPS CD on the D: drive, the batch file might have these two commands:
C:\P11\UNIVESA.EXE
D:\P11\RUN.BAT %1

Notice the %1 parameter in the second command. This is used to pass the option you choose to the RUN.BAT batch file. For example, if the two-line batch file you create is called TUTORIAL.BAT and is in the C:\P11 directory, then if you type
C:\P11\TUTORIAL PUMPS
it would pass the parameter PUMPS in variable %1 to the RUN.BAT batch file on the CD-ROM. Not all our batch files need parameters, and actually some can accept more than one. Just to be on the safe side, you could also code the second line as:
D:\P11\RUN.BAT %1 %2 %3

You can create the batch file or edit one of ours with the DOS program EDIT or some other ASCII text editor. (EDIT is the Microsoft text editor that replaced the EDLIN program that used to be supplied with DOS. In Windows, you can use NOTEPAD.)
EDIT RUN.BAT
Then insert a new line with the command. Be sure to have it load BEFORE the P11 application is run! It can be the first command in the batch file if you like.

Please contact us if you need more assistance.

F.A.Q.'s.