On Sat, 16 Feb 2002, Martin McCormick wrote: > Anyway, the serial port method of access does work as > advertised and I am pleased as punch. The automatic switch to > serial upon removal of the video card did not work on this > particular system. The system simply booted the same way as > before only it had no display output at all. > The automatic activation of the first serial port when a monitor is not connected is a very old way of doing things. Regretably, most folks these days have forgotten how standard this once was, or how useful it could still be. Too bad. Some years ago I purchased an old DEC Alpha workstation at auction. It was rather fun attaching my Braille Lite to the first serial port and have braille and speech access to the bios. But, alas, most computing professionals today don't seem to know about such things--nor designers think them valuable.