diff --git a/hw/display/vga.c b/hw/display/vga.c
index b35d523..78a427c 100644
--- a/hw/display/vga.c
+++ b/hw/display/vga.c
@@ -282,6 +282,42 @@ static void vga_precise_update_retrace_info(VGACommonState *s)
 #endif
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Super budget code to capture the timex data
+ * we configure the timex software to use int 10 mode 12h
+ * which is 640x480x4.
+ *
+ * If windows reads the vertical retrace register, and
+ * gets the answer "1", we then check if the first few
+ * bytes of video ram are zero (indicating the a black screen)
+ * if it is we then dump the first byte of each scan line
+ * to a file.
+ *
+ */
+
+static void
+timex_hook (VGACommonState * s)
+{
+    static FILE *f;
+    unsigned i;
+
+    if (!f)
+        f = fopen ("timex.dat", "w");
+
+    /* If the start of the screen isn't black */
+    for (i = 0; i < 8; ++i)
+        if (s->vram_ptr[i])
+            return;
+
+    fprintf (f, "#\n");
+
+    for (i = 0; i < 480; ++i)
+        fprintf (f, "%d\n", s->vram_ptr[i * 320]);
+
+    fflush (f);
+}
+
 static uint8_t vga_precise_retrace(VGACommonState *s)
 {
     struct vga_precise_retrace *r = &s->retrace_info.precise;
@@ -297,6 +333,7 @@ static uint8_t vga_precise_retrace(VGACommonState *s)
         cur_line = cur_char / r->htotal;
 
         if (cur_line >= r->vstart && cur_line <= r->vend) {
+            timex_hook(s);
             val |= ST01_V_RETRACE | ST01_DISP_ENABLE;
         } else {
             cur_line_char = cur_char % r->htotal;
diff --git a/vl.c b/vl.c
index 6b73934..276baa3 100644
--- a/vl.c
+++ b/vl.c
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 static const char *data_dir[16];
 static int data_dir_idx;
 const char *bios_name = NULL;
-enum vga_retrace_method vga_retrace_method = VGA_RETRACE_DUMB;
+enum vga_retrace_method vga_retrace_method = VGA_RETRACE_PRECISE;
 DisplayType display_type = DT_DEFAULT;
 int request_opengl = -1;
 int display_opengl;