Important: To improve video quality in this product we recommend that you set your display to use more than 256 colors. Refer to section 10 of this Read Me for more information.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Care of compact discs
3. System requirements for running the DK Sampler
4. Installing the DK Sampler
5. Installing QuickTime¬ 2.5
6. Performance problems
7. Running the DK Sampler with low memory
8. Sound problems
9. Screen size and color configuration
10. Playing video
11. Printing and copying
12. Error messages
13. Connecting to the Internet
1. Introduction
About Dorling Kindersley
DK Multimedia titles are available wherever CD-ROMs are sold. New titles will be available on a regular basis. For more information, contact us at DK Multimedia, 9 Henrietta Street, London, WC2E 8PS.
You may also visit us on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.dk.com
About this Read Me file
This Read Me file is designed to address most of the problems you may encounter when using the DK Sampler. Please take a look at the table of contents above to see if your particular problem is addressed.
If you are still having problems or need further technical support on any Dorling Kindersley product, please call the Multimedia Helpline with details of the problem, including any error messages that were produced, and the full specification of your Macintosh. If possible, you should be beside your machine when you telephone.
The numbers in London, United Kingdom are:
Telephone: 0171 753 3488
Fax: 0171 753 7575
E-mail: DKMM@dkmm.co.uk
The numbers in New York, USA are:
Telephone: 1-800 DKMM 575
Fax: 212 213 5240
E-mail: DKMM@phantom.com
2. Care of Compact Discs
Contrary to early reports, compact discs (CDs) are very easily damaged if treated carelessly. Such damage has a much greater effect on the digital data of a CD-ROM than on the information of a music CD. A dirty or damaged CD-ROM is quite likely to malfunction. With CD-ROM drives becoming ever faster and more disc-sensitive, this is an increasing problem.
The surface of the disc can quickly gather dirt and is very easily scratched. To protect the data from scratches, fingerprints, dust particles, and smears, do not touch the readout side (unlabeled side) of the disc or place it face down on a hard surface.
Should the CD become dirty, clean it with a soft cloth lightly moistened with CD cleaning fluid or ethyl alcohol, working from the center to the edge. Do not use any type of solvent, such as benzine, lacquer thinner, anti-static agents, or LP record cleaners as they may damage the surface.
Never leave the disc in a place subject to direct sunlight, high temperature, or high humidity. Recommended storage conditions are:
Temperature: 10íC to 50íC (50íF to 122íF)
Humidity: 10% to 80%
3. System requirements for running the DK Sampler
The minimum computer specification required for running the DK Sampler is as follows:
An Apple Macintosh 68LC040 25MHz computer, or above, that supports a 640 x 480 pixel monitor displaying 256 colors, 8Mb RAM (12Mb for System 7.5.3+ and PowerPC), a quad-speed CD-ROM drive, and System 7.0 or later.
The following Macintoshes have processors that fall below the base specification, and therefore are not supported:
Ñ These Macintosh Centris and Quadra Systems: 605 and 610
Ñ These Portable Macintosh Systems: Macintosh Portable, PowerBook100 - 180c, PowerBook Duo 210 - 540c, PowerBook 190/190CS
The DK Sampler also requires a certain amount of free RAM in order to run. You can check the minimum amount of free RAM required by the DK Sampler in the following way:
1. Insert the DK Sampler CD into the CD-ROM drive.
2. Click on the DK Sampler icon to highlight it.
3. From the File menu, select Get Info.
4. Under the memory requirements section, look for the figure in the Minimum Size box. This is the minimum amount of free RAM that the DK Sampler needs in order to run.
4. Installing the DK Sampler
The DK Sampler may be run directly from the CD simply by double-clicking on the DK Sampler icon.
5. Installing QuickTime¬ 2.5
Even if you already have QuickTime¬ installed on your system, you should run the QuickTime¬ Installer provided on the DK Sampler CD-ROM. The Installer automatically detects which, if any, of the system components on your Macintosh require updating.
1. Locate the QuickTime¬ 2.5 Installer folder on the DK Sampler CD-ROM, then double-click to open it.
2. Double-click on the Install QuickTime¬ icon, then follow the instructions that appear on your screen
6. Performance problems
If the DK Sampler runs slowly or sound output is interrupted, try the following suggestions:
Ñ Running the DK Sampler with your Macintosh in Virtual Memory mode may cause sound break-up, particularly on older Macs. In Virtual Memory mode, your Macintosh uses a section of its hard drive to emulate RAM. Although this increases the free RAM available to the DK Sampler, access to that RAM can be slow. For best performance, use the Memory control panel to turn Virtual Memory off and then restart your Macintosh. However, if you are low on memory you may have no choice but to leave Virtual Memory switched on.
Ñ An old or slow CD-ROM drive will impair the program's performance. The only solution to this problem is to upgrade your CD-ROM drive.
Ñ Running the DK Sampler with less than the minimum amount of free RAM can cause problems (see section 3, System Requirements for running the DK Sampler.) You can check to see if there is any free RAM available by opening the About This Macintosh dialog box from the Apple menu in the Finder.
Ñ SCSI termination problems can affect your CD-ROM drive. Your CD-ROM drive must be either internally or externally terminated. Consult your Macintosh documentation for more information on SCSI termination.
Ñ Some performance problems may be caused by low memory conditions. Try reading the following chapter on running the DK Sampler with low memory.
7. Running the DK Sampler with low memory
The DK Sampler requires a minimum amount of free RAM to run. You can check how much free RAM is required by doing the following:
1. Insert the DK Sampler CD into the CD-ROM drive.
2. Click once to highlight the DK Sampler icon.
3. From the File menu, select Get Info.
4. Under the Memory Requirements section, look for the figure in the Minimum Size box. This is the minimum amount of free RAM that the DK Sampler requires in order to run.
You can then check how much free RAM is available by opening the About This Macintosh dialog box from the Apple menu in the Finder. If you do not have enough free RAM to run the DK Sampler, try the following suggestions to free up additional RAM:
Ñ Make sure you have only one application running at a time.
Ñ If you still have less than the minimum amount of free RAM, you can allocate some hard disk space to work as Virtual Memory. You can set your Macintosh to use Virtual Memory by using the Memory control panel, found in the Control Panels folder within your System folder, then restart your Macintosh. However, using Virtual Memory may slow your Macintosh's access time to RAM causing sound and video break-up, so only switch it on if it is really necessary.
Ñ You may be able to reduce the amount of memory used by your system software by removing unused Apple menu items, fonts, extensions, sounds, etc. from your system folder. These items can occupy considerable amounts of memory and their removal may allow the DK Sampler enough RAM to run efficiently. Consult your Macintosh documentation for more information on how to remove these items.
Ñ If your Macintosh is set to more than 256 colors you can reduce the amount of memory that the DK Sampler uses by setting the monitor control panel to 256 colors. To do this, select Control Panels from the Apple menu, and then select Monitors. From the list of settings for your selected monitor you should choose 256 colors.
Ñ The DK Sampler can be set to run in less than the recommended amount of RAM. To do this, first install the program to your hard disk (see section 4, Installing the DK Sampler.) Select the DK Sampler icon and choose Get Info from the File menu in the Finder. You can then use the Get Info dialog box to decrease the amount of minimum and preferred memory set aside for the DK Sampler. Allocating less memory to the program may allow the program to run, but will also affect the program's performance, and may cause the program to crash.
Ñ Do not set the preferred memory size to more than or equal to the amount of free RAM on your system as this may cause problems.
If the DK Sampler crashes, or freezes up, the most likely cause is a problem with the disc. You should try the following solutions:
1) If you are stuck in the product and cannot exit, press OPTION (Alt) + COMMAND (APPLE) + ESC to force the DK Sampler to shut down. Do this only if the application has truly crashed; we do not recommend you try this with other applications.
2) You should try cleaning the disc before trying to run the DK Sampler again.
3) If this does not work, use the Monitors control panel to reduce the amount of colors used by your monitor to 256 colors.
4) If you are still having problems with crashes and freezes, from the Apple menu choose Control Panels, then Memory. In the Memory control panel, make sure that the Modern Memory Manager is set to Off (if this is present on your machine). DO NOT click Use Defaults. Now restart your computer and try to run the DK Sampler again.
8. Sound problems
If the DK Sampler produces no sound at all, check the following points:
Ñ Use the Sound control panel to check that the sound volume level on your machine is turned up.
Ñ If you have external speakers, check that they are on and that their volume control is turned up.
Ñ If you wish to use either the internal or external speakers, make sure that you have not left headphones plugged in.
If the DK Sampler produces interrupted or distorted sound, check the following points:
Ñ If the sound volume level in the Sound control panel is set at maximum volume, it may cause sound to distort. The same problem may occur with external speakers set at maximum volume. Experiment with different volume levels until you find a comfortable sound level.
Ñ Running your Macintosh in Virtual Memory mode may cause sound break-up. In Virtual Memory mode your Macintosh uses a section of its hard drive as RAM. Although this increases the free RAM available to the DK Sampler, access to sounds stored in that RAM can be slow. For best performance, use the Memory control panel to turn Virtual Memory off, and then restart your Macintosh. However, users who are low on memory may have no choice but to leave Virtual Memory switched on.
Ñ The built-in speakers supplied with Macintosh computers vary in quality depending on the age and model of the machine. A poor quality speaker may cause distorted sound, especially at high volume levels.
Ñ The DK Sampler requires the Macintosh to have some spare memory available to generate the sounds. For this reason, do not allocate quite all the available memory to the DK Sampler when you start it up. See section 7, on Running the DK Sampler with low memory for more details on how to set the memory allocation.
9. Screen size and color configuration
The DK Sampler will run on any color monitor with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, or more, and that supports 256 colors or more. The program will work on a grayscale monitor, but is not designed to work in black and white.
The DK Sampler is not designed to run on multiple monitors. If you have such a setup, the program will run on your primary monitor only.
Setting your display to use more than 256 colors will improve the quality of videos in the DK Sampler if your computer is capable of this. Select Control Panels from the Apple Menu, and then select Monitors. From the list of settings for your selected monitor, you should choose Thousands. If performance is adversely affected we suggest that you revert to 256 colors.
10. Playing Video
If the DK Sampler fails to play any video at all, the most likely reason is that the disc is dirty or damaged. You should try cleaning the disc (refer to section 2, Care of Compact Discs). If the DK Sampler still fails to play any video at all, it may be that QuickTime¬ is not installed on your system, or that the wrong version of QuickTime¬ is installed. (QuickTime¬ is normally installed as part of System 7.5 or later, but even if your Macintosh is running System 7.5 or later, there is no guarantee that QuickTime¬ is available - someone may have removed it from your Macintosh system.) If you suspect that QuickTime¬ is not installed see section 5, Installing QuickTime¬ 2.5.
If the videos played in the DK Sampler are slow or jumpy this may be due to Virtual Memory being turned "on" on your Macintosh. Use the Memory control panel to make sure that Virtual Memory is switched off, then restart your Macintosh. Users who are low on memory may have no choice but to leave Virtual Memory switched on.
Networking can also cause a delay in access to video files. If your Macintosh is connected to a network, try disconnecting it by selecting Control Panels, then AppleTalk. From the AppleTalk control panel, choose Options, and set AppleTalk to Inactive. For more information, refer to your Macintosh documentation.
If your Macintosh supports more than 256 colors you can improve the quality of videos in the DK Sampler by setting the monitor control panel to thousands. To do this, select Control Panels from the Apple menu, and then select Monitors. From the list of settings for your selected monitor you should choose Thousands. If performance is adversely affected we suggest that you revert to 256 colors.
11. Printing and copying
Screens in the DK Sampler are stored and displayed as color pictures. They are optimized for screen rather than print reproduction. Screen images can be printed, however, and will be of the same quality as a picture made with a screen-capture function.
Black and white prints will be of poor quality. If you have a laser printer, better quality images will be achieved by using the color/grayscale option.
Both Print and Copy functions may be affected by low memory. Refer to section 7, Running the DK Sampler with low memory.
12. Error Messages
If the error message "Unable to increase the system memory allocation" is displayed whilst running the DK Sampler, or if the error message "The application 'DK Sampler' could not be opened because QuickTimeLib could not be found" is displayed whilst starting the DK Sampler then you should try the following:
Ñ Make sure that QuickTime is installed on your system. If not, double-click on the QuickTime 2.5 Installer icon on the DK Sampler CD.
Ñ If you are a PowerPC user you should check that the QuickTime¬ Powerplug extension is turned on. Do this by selecting Control Panels from the Chooser and then selecting Extensions Manager. Make sure that the QuickTime¬ Powerplug extension is switched on and then restart your Macintosh and try to run the DK Sampler again.
If this does not work, or if you are not a PowerPC user, you should try turning on Virtual Memory from the Memory control panel. Restart your Macintosh and try to run the DK Sampler again.
13. Connecting to the Internet
Please note: If you would normally pay telephone charges to connect to your Internet Service Provider, or for the time that you use the Internet, these charges will continue to apply while you are using the Online feature in this product. You should always ask permission from the person who will pay the bill before you use the Online feature described below.
If you are able to connect to the Internet from your computer, and if you have a Web browser installed, then you can take advantage of a feature of the DK Sampler that lets you register your DK Sampler and access DK Web pages on the Internet. If you do not have Internet access, or a Web browser, then you will NOT be able to make use of these features.
Warning: If you are already connected to the Internet and try to connect again, then a second, concurrent browser session will be started. Each subsequent attempt to connect to the Internet will start a new, concurrent browser session - this is a feature of browsers. Running multiple browsers in this way may cause your computer to run out of memory and may result in your computer crashing. Therefore, we recommend that you run only one browser session at a time.
If your connection is not successful check the following:
Ñ That you can connect to the Internet and use your browser in the normal way. If you cannot do this, then there is a problem with your Internet connection. For example, make sure that your modem is correctly connected and switched on.
Ñ Try starting your Internet connection and Web browser first, and then start up the DK Sampler and try to connect again.
If you select the wrong browser application, or simply decide that you'd rather use a different browser from the one you selected, then you can select a different browser by clicking the Online Setup button.
If your Macintosh is low on memory the DK Sampler program will be closed when your Web browser starts up. If this happens you will need to restart the DK Sampler once you have finished using the Internet.
