Some programs display poorly on the IBM 5155's display
Programs running on the IBM 5155 believe that they are running on an early 5160, fitted with a CGA card and colour monitor.
They do not know that what the user is seeing is the CGA card's composite output converted to monochrome.
In some cases, that is not a problem.
Either:
* The program outputs text only.
* The program generates coloured output, perhaps with some graphics, but the output is such that when the 5155's display unit converts the output to monochrome, the displayed video looks okay.
But in some cases, there is a problem - the program's output converted to monochrome, looks bad. In some cases, writing is almost impossible to make out.
Possible solution #1
Some programs have a command line switch for this kind of situation. For example, SpeedStor has a /nocolor switch.
A:\> sstor /nocolor
Possible solution #2
Some software can be configured for the monochrome monitor, and will remember the configuration setting.
CheckIt is an example.
Once CheckIt is configured for a monochrome monitor (via [setup] on its menu bar), the setting is stored and remembered.
Possible solution #3
After booting the computer, run DOS' MODE command, using the 'bw80' switch.
A:\> mode bw80
Optionally, the command could be added to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
From the IBM DOS manual: "switches the active display adapter to the Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter, and sets the display mode to Black and White (disables color) with 80 characters per line."
Programs then (interrogating DOS) will know to create output suitable for a monochrome monitor.